Jānis Ivanovs

Janis Ivanovs, one of the most important representatives of the 20th century Baltic school of composers, is widely regarded as one of Latvia's most successful creative artists. He is primarily remembered as a master of orchestral and especially symphonic genres and wrote a total of 21 symphonies. Ivanovs undertook preliminary studies in Riga before entering the Latvian State Conservatory, from which he graduated in composition in 1931. His principal composition tutor was Vitols, though Ivanovs chose to remain at the Conservatory to train in conducting under Schneevoigt for a further two years. His first symphonies and other orchestral works were written in the years just after this. Ivanovs' early works included many references to the traditional scale constructs of Latvian folk music and drew heavily upon the local music of his native province of Latgale. He secured his first professional appointment within Latvian Radio's music service in 1931 and became artistic director of the State Radio Committee in 1945, holding the post until 1963. Ivanovs' Symphony No. 4 "Atlantida" of 1941 signaled the arrival of a new monumentalist conception of the form, previously unknown in Latvian music. As an academic musician, he joined the State Conservatory's faculty in 1944, becoming a tutor of composition. His Symphony No. 5 chronicled the experiences of the war years, but it was later withdrawn after receiving the censure of the communist party's decree against formalism in music. However, the composer's Symphony No. 6 "Latgales" (1949) received the U.S.S.R. State Prize in 1950. Ivanovs earned the title of professor at the Conservatory in 1955, and he continued to teach until 1983. He also served as president of the Committee of the Soviet Latvian Composers' Union from 1950 to 1951. The symphonies of Ivanovs' middle period show an increasing preoccupation with abstract and philosophical concepts, their musical language evolving constantly toward more complex harmony and employing polytonal and linear techniques. He returned to more concrete and public expressions with his Symphonia humana of 1969, his Symphony No. 13, which was dedicated to Lenin. His final works revealed an unexpected leaning toward chamber-like sonorities, showing a lyric sympathy almost entirely unknown in his earlier and more overtly rhetorical compositions for orchestra. Similarly, Ivanovs' chamber works, though few in number, also reveal a strength of purpose and formal unity not always evident in the symphonies for which he is best remembered.
© Michael Jameson /TiVo