PÄ“teris Vasks

Peteris Vasks ( born April 16, 1946 in Aizpute, Latvia) is a Latvian composer.

Life

Peteris Vasks was born the son of a pastor. He studied at the Academy of Music in Riga, first violin, then to 1970 bass with Vytautas Sereika at the Lithuanian Academy of Music in Vilnius. From 1973 to 1978 he studied at the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga composition with Valentin Utkin.

Vasks was 1963-1974 ensemble member of various symphony and chamber orchestras, for example, from 1966 to 1969 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lithuania, 1969-1970 the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and from 1971 to 1974 the Latvian Radio and Television Orchestra. He was appointed " Main Composer" of the Stockholm festival for new music in 1996 and the Herder Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation excellent.

For his compositions, he received so far three times the " Latvian Great Music Award ", 1993 for " Litene ", 1998, the Violin Concerto, " Distant Light " and 2000 for his second symphony. Since 1994 Vasks is an honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. From the 1771 by King Gustav III. founded in Stockholm Royal Swedish Academy of Music, he was inducted in 2001.

The living as a freelance composer in Riga Vasks is today considered the most famous composers of the states of the former Soviet Union. With his music he wants his country, his people, who had extreme suffering under the Soviet regime, give voice - therefore expressive, direct, unaffected is aware of his musical art.

Works

Discography (selection)

  • Cantabile per archi / Embassy / Musica Dolorosa / Symphony "voices" ( WERGO, 1993)
  • Baltic Organ Music ( BIS Records, 1996) with Hans -Ola Ericsson, among others
  • Wergo Collection Vol 2 ( WERGO, 1997) with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra ( Line: Paul Megi ) and others
  • Music of Peteris Vasks (1997) with the Flanders Fiamminghi Orchestra ( Line: Rudolf Werthen )
  • Dolorosa (ECM, 1997) with Dennis Russell Davies
  • Distant Light / Voices ( Teldec, 1999) with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica
  • String Quartets 1, 2, 3 ( Conifer, 1999) with the Miami String Quartet
  • 4 String Quartet ( Nonesuch Records, 2003) with the Kronos Quartet
  • Ensemble Sortisatio ( Querstand, 2004) with the ensemble Sortisatio
  • Violin Konzerto "Distant Light" / Musica Dolorosa / Viatore ( BIS Records, 2005) with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra ( Line: Katarina Anreasson )
  • Message ( RCA Red Seal, 2005)
  • Symphony No.. 3 / Cello Concerto ( Ondine 2006) with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra ( Line: Storgårds )
  • Pater Noster ( Ondine, 2007)
  • Viatore ( WERGO, 2008)
  • Chamber Music (MDG, 2008) with the Trio Parnassus, among other things
  • Works with cello ( Haenssler, 2008) with David Gerin gas and other
  • Cantus ad pacem ( WERGO, 2008)
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