VASKS Lonely Angel (Vientuļais
eņģelis) (version for piano trio). Episodi
e canto perpetuo. Plainscapes (Līdzenuma ainavas)
(version for piano trio)
Trio Palladio
ONDINE 1343-2 (62:05)
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New classical music releases reviewed in detail by Gavin Dixon
Friday, 28 February 2020
VASKS Lonely Angel Trio Palladio
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Like most of the composers loosely grouped into the “Eastern
Minimalist” school, Pēteris Vasks
regularly makes arrangements of his works for different ensembles. This disc
presents three piano trios, but only the second, Episodi e canto perpetuo
(1985), was originally written for these forces. The opening Lonely Angel (this
version 2019) was originally the fifth movement of Vasks’s Fifth String
Quartet, composed in 1999 for the Kronos Quartet, while Plainscapes (2011) was
originally for violin, cello, and choir, that version written in 2002 and
premiered by Gidon Kremer. But the sound of solo violin and cello is a common
factor linking each of these works in their various versions, “my beloved
strings” as Vasks describes them in justification for the original scoring of
Plainscapes.
Lonely Angel and Plainscapes are both classic Vasks,
slow-moving, contemplative scores, the individual lines based on repeating
phrases, but the music always retaining a sense of mystery through the
harmonies, tonally ambiguous and often resting on mild but sustained
dissonance. The music also has a sense of direction and evolution that
distinguishes it from the more static scores of Arvo Pärt, yet the direction
itself remains nebulous and intangible. Vasks talks in mystical terms about
Lonely Angel, dedicated to his own guardian angel, and also inspired by a
painting by Hugo Simberg, The Wounded Angel. Plainscapes is inspired by nature,
specifically the Zemgale plain region of Southern Latvia. The original version
culminates with the choir imitating birdsong, an effect that Vasks has reworked
into a spectacular, though still atmospheric, piano solo. The work apparently
has a sectional structure of interconnected sub-movements, but the aural
experience is of gradually evolving continuity.
Episodi e canto perpetuo is an early work, and a fascinating
window onto the early development of Vasks’s style. The piece was written in
response to Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, and even without hearing
it, a connection seems obvious between the serene slow-moving string solos of
Messiaen’s score and similar textures in Vasks’s mature music. Episodi seems
like a transitional stage between the two. Like Messiaen’s quartet, it is
structured in eight movements. A quiet and meditative mood prevails, but the
serenity of the string solos is emphasized through contrast to a series of
oppressive climaxes, where heavy, dissonant textures are hammered out by all of
the instruments, and sustained too long for comfort.
Not an easy listening disc, then, and even the quieter works
have an expressive intensity that focuses the listener’s attention. The
performances are excellent. Trio Palladio is an all-Latvian ensemble, made up
of pianist Reinis Zariņš; Eva Bindere, concertmaster of Kremerata Baltica; and
Kristīne Blaumane, principal cello on the London Philharmonic. The players are
pictured with Vasks in the liner, which also states that the arrangement of
Lonely Angel was made specifically for the album. The sheer virtuosity of the
string playing is an asset in all three works. The recorded sound is warm and
involving, an ECM-style sound picture, ideal for this music.
This review appears in Fanfare magazine issue 43:5.
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