Vasks: Piano Works

Album review

The love for the Latvian landscape is audible in the piano works of Latvia’s greatest living composer, Pēteris Vasks (born 1946), especially in his Seasons, the composer’s most frequently performed piano work. For this album pianist Reinis Zariņš has brought two other piano works alongside The Seasons as first recordings: Vasks’ early piano work Zyklus ("Cycle") from the 1970s, and a new piano work, Cuckoo’s Voice. Spring Elegy, written by the composer for Reinis Zariņš.

"During the pandemic, Pēteris started composing a new piece for this album. I had no clue how far he was with it, when the news came that he had caught Covid. This was before the advent of vaccines, so there was some real anguish and many heartfelt prayers. But Pēteris kept composing the work throughout his illness. (...) The new work is now poignantly called Cuckoo’s Voice. Spring Elegy, and I dearly treasure the memory of Pēteris showing me the fruit of his labour for the very first time on his home piano. (...) There’s hardly a soul who knows Cycle; not only because it reveals a certain rebelliousness that we do not find in his later oeuvre; but because it completes a beautiful arc of Pēteris Vasks’ life.

His first, his last (to date), and his most monumental music for the piano. It’s all here" (Reinis Zariņš).
© Ondine