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P-eteris Vasks

Plainscapes

Latvian Radio ChoirSigvards K,lava

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PĒTERIS VASKS (b. 1946)

1 The Tomtit’s Message (Zīles ziņa, 1981/2004) 9’34 for mixed choir

Silent Songs (Klusās dziesmas, 1979/1992) 10’58 for mixed choir2 I. Nosāpi pārsāpi 3’383 II. Dusi dusi 1’364 III. Trīs meži 3’085 IV. Paldies tev vēlā saule 2’35

6 Our Mother’s Names (Mūsu māšu vārdi, 1977/2003) 12’32 for mixed choir

7 The Sad Mother (Skumjā māte, 1980/91) 3’35 for female choir

8 Summer (Vasara, 1978) 4’22 for female choir

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9 Plainscapes (Līdzenuma ainavas, 2002) 16’41 for mixed choir (vocalise), violin and cello SANDIS ŠTEINBERGS, violin GUNA ĀBOLTIŅA, cello

10 Small, Warm Holiday (Mazi, silti svētki, 1988) 1’27 for female choir

11 Birth (Piedzimšana, 2008) 12’17 for mixed choir and percussion

JĀNIS KOKINS, percussion

Latvian Radio Choir SIGVARDS KĻAVA, conductor

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‘Every one of my compositions tells about the country which I love the most in the world – Latvia.’Interview with composer Pēteris Vasksby Ināra Jakubone

Ināra Jakubone: ‘Plainscapes’ is the second album of your choral music which is being released by Ondine and has been recorded by the Latvian Radio Choir. What are the main differences?

Pēteris Vasks: The first release, ‘Pater noster,’ was a recording of spiritual music – three compositions with Latin texts. This new recording has what I would call secular music, and nearly all of the compositions are based on texts by Latvian poets. The only exception, The Sad Mother, is the translation of a work by Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957), and it is also sung in Latvian.

I.J.: Choral music has very powerful traditions in Latvia. Do you think that you are preserving traditions in this genre, or are you seeking out new paths?

P.V.: There was a time when I felt that traditions must be forgotten, fences must be torn down, and many aspects of choral music can be changed. During one period of my life, in other words, I blew up or broke apart traditions. And yet this disc features compositions which could be considered traditional – simple four-part songs.

I.J.: Another aspect of Latvian musical tradition is that choral music has always been the focus of our very best composers, and they have considered choral music to be as important as symphonic or chamber music. That is first of all because choral music and singing in choirs have played a special role in the consolidation and establishment of the nation.

P.V.: That’s true. Choir singing in Latvia, Estonia and, to a lesser extent, Lithuania has been a process which has helped to bring the nation together under the spirit of freedom. Its functions have reached

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beyond pure music. Elsewhere in the world, choral music is a bit marginalised, while in our country instrumental music is something of a stepchild. I also think that Latvia has some of the world’s most outstanding choirs. This means that choral music is the genre through which the soul of our nation speaks at a very high professional level. Brilliant and interesting choral music, both a cappella and vocal-symphonic works, appear in Latvia today. I think that choral music, given its various manifestations, is the leading musical genre in Latvia at this time.

I.J.: Our classical composers used the poems of our best poets for their songs. The texts that you use are also fantastic.

P.V.: When I compose choral music, it is important, interesting and unusual to see how closely I come together with the poet’s masterpiece, for which I am trying to create a comparable sound. This is a meeting between the poet and the composer. Composers are often forced to revise their musical thinking because of the internal logic and message of the poem as such.

There was a time when I very much wanted to compose music for choirs, but no one really wanted to sing those songs. That was during the Soviet occupation, and there may have been two reasons for that. First of all, innovations in choral music were not popular at that time. People felt that I had moved too far away from traditions, and so my music could not be performed. I suppose that I was a bit ahead of my time. Second, I was an uncomfortable composer for the regime – a man with an unacceptable biography. There was only one choir which sang many of my songs without any fear – the Dzintars Women’s Choir. This unique and outstanding amateur choir was established by the conductor Ausma Derkēvica. That is why at that time I wrote so much music for women’s choirs, both very complicated songs and simple ones. The Tomtit’s Message was initially composed for a women’s choir. The version for mixed choir heard on this recording was composed far later than the original. I wanted the message from the past to be alive today as well.

I.J.: You have said that in the past, under conditions of ideological censorship, you really felt free only in the genre of instrumental music. Wasn’t it typical that our poets, too, were often forced to use the language of Aesop by expressing their ideas in a hidden way?

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P.V.: You’re right. Every free word in poetry at that time was locked up in the tightest prison cells, and poets could only use similes and subtexts to express their messages. We were constantly being told back then that culture and civilisation arrived in Latvia only in tandem with the Red Army and that we had no culture and civilisation before that. That’s why the texts which I wanted to turn into sounds often represented an attempt to look at those aspects of our wealth of culture which had been preserved in folklore.

Of course, the power and depth of great poetry is that you can interpret it in various different ways. The power of poetry is particularly interesting in the case of Knuts Skujenieks, and his poems inspired Silent Songs. He was the only poet who was sent to the Gulag for seven years just because of the fact that he was an honest Latvian poet. No one could read his poems and claim that they were in direct opposition to the Soviet regime, but that happened anyway.

Poets were our greatest tribunes of freedom during the Soviet occupation, and they were also our greatest politicians. Too much had been taken away from us. We had no domestic or foreign policies of our own. We had no economists, no businesspeople. We did have poets, however, and like other creative people, they tried to preserve our dreams and our faith. They urged us to survive, to preserve tangible and intangible values, and to stay in place. They argued that our nation must not be destroyed. Poetry was published in vast print runs back then, and many people learned poems by heart.

The Tomtit’s Message, too, is based on the work of an outstanding poet – Uldis Bērziņš. His fate during the Soviet occupation was awful. It took a long time before he could publish his first collection of poetry, and when it was finally published, that was really a sensational event.

I have sometimes said that The Tomtit’s Message is a small fragment of an unwritten epic about Latvia and the destiny of our nation. There is very little text, but its density delighted and inspired me. The titmouse is a bearer of messages in Latvian folklore, and it brings the message that your brother has to go off to war. Latvians won the independence of their country only at the end of World War I. Prior to that, Latvians were just cannon fodder for alien powers. That is another sad story. War is war, and our brother will not come home from the war. This seemingly simple story inspired a wide variety of choral

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colours and allowed me to raise a specific episode to the level of a symbol. It is always important to me to make sure that even a symbol speaks to you in an emotional and direct way. Now The Tomtit’s Message is available for a mixed choir. It is a fairly complicated piece, but good amateur choirs can handle it. The composition has been rather fortunate in that it is performed by many different choirs, and not just in Latvia. I very much enjoy the fact that choirs all around the world are happy to sing songs in their original languages.

Silent Songs, in turn, is a series of small and quiet songs which, however, do not lack small episodes of culmination. The first song was a little birthday gift for the conductor Ausma Derkēvica. When a few other small songs emerged, I came to the understanding that it could be a cycle. The cycle is still open; I may still compose other songs, and it is not the case that all of the songs in the cycle must be sung all at once. Most of the songs have a simple texture and soft dynamics. I believe the intimate texts offer particular charm and atmosphere to the songs.

I.J.: Is it not the case that these texts are also tragic in a sense? I even felt the presence of the boundary between life and death to a certain extent.

P.V.: Each person will interpret the texts differently. Even if the basic atmosphere is sad, hope and love stay with us until our final breath. The songs are not completely hopeless. Composers must never compose hopeless music. Each sad and tragic song must include a ray of light. The Silent Songs are lit up by the light of a late evening.

The disc also contains a few other ‘small’ songs. The Sad Mother is a sad lullaby which a mother sings to her child at bedtime. Still, it ends in the key of C major.

Summer allows us to feel the ripening of fruit. I loved listening to the recording of the song. It is a small group of female singers from the Latvian Radio Choir, but the song really came to life beautifully, thanks to their professional voices.

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Then there is the song Small, Warm Holiday which contains the words ‘a bit of Latvia has been cleaned up again, I am not ashamed that the heavens are looking down at us’.

I.J.: That is the only song in which the name of Latvia appears.

P.V.: Latvia is always in my heart, even if I do not name it specifically. I am a Latvian composer, and every one of my compositions tells about the country which I love the most in the world – Latvia. I compose music about all of us who live here. There is sadness, but there is also sometimes joy. I think that is the duty of the composer.

Say what you will, but the existence of our nation in the place where our ancestors once settled has always been on the boundary of survival in the sense of ‘to be or not to be’. During wars, nearly all of us are killed, alien powers wish to destroy us. Latvians, therefore, get an instinct from their mother’s milk which says that we must survive, we must remain in place as a nation and preserve our individuality. Māris Čaklais speaks to this in his very dramatic poem ‘The Names of Our Mothers’.

I.J.: Can you explain why the poet calls the mothers by the names of birds – Žube, Irbe, Cielava (chaffinch, partridge, wagtail)? Are those echoes from the maternal cult that is typical in Baltic mythology? After all, we have the Mother of the Earth, the Mother of the Forest, the Mother of the Sea, the Mother of the Wind ...

P.V.: Why not give the name of a bird to our most beloved children? It think that’s very lovely and natural, and I’m sad that people don’t do that anymore. The text speaks to the survival instinct of the people, but that instinct has been so marvellously intertwined with the presence of nature. We survived the difficult centuries of rule by foreign regimes specifically because our nation has always had a special relationship with nature. I do not feel comfortable in a big city, that is not my world. My true life as a Latvian in Latvia is enjoyed when I am alongside a small river or lake, or the Baltic Sea. I enjoy a meadow which is lovely with its colours and aromas. I love the forest. In folk songs, trees can be our fathers, mothers or brothers. Even if we have lost much of that, the fact is that the emotions still remain deep within us. I can admit that I could not even live without nature. That is why I have often chosen texts in which nature is present.

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I.J.: Māris Čaklais has written: ‘Earth gave me its body, the Sun gave me its soul.’ We find not just the material, but also the spiritual dimension specifically in nature. Čaklais wrote that the tops of trees should not be broken so that birds have a place to roost. Surely that symbolises the vertical nature of spirituality.

P.V.: Of course. That is what I want to speak about in each of my compositions, and it is what I seek in every composition.

I composed music for Inese Zandere’s poem Birth for the ‘Sun Songs’ project of conductor Māris Sirmais’s Kamēr Youth Choir. He asked more than ten composers from all around the world, from every continent, to write about the sun. The sun which brings us together, the sun which is the reason why we are here, the sun which is a symbol of life itself.

This is the only time in my career as a composer when the text emerged only after I told the poet about my vision as to what I would like to say about the sun with the composition. We are northerners, and when we think about our northern sun, we understand that there is much, much too little of it! That is exactly why we love the sun so much, however. Perhaps only the Finns love it more. I wanted the story about the sun to include human and emotional elements which speak to life itself. I wanted to represent the attitude toward the sun of people who live here, without any lack of dramatics therein. A very long, very cold and dark winter existed long, long ago, when there were no central heating systems or anything of the sort, but we had to survive that winter nonetheless. You are frozen, but you are still alive, and you are breathing. After each winter, there comes a spring, another spring, and our survival instinct and yearning for the sun will bring us through all difficulties and problems, generation after generation after generation.

We need enormous and transcendental strength to survive. That is why the aspect of the ritual seemed important to me; I thought it was interesting to conjure up something that was a bit shamanistic via the use of gran cassa. Once again, this has to do with the folklore that is so very, very deep inside us, even though we are perhaps not even aware of it.

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I.J. I agree that it is still deep inside us, but I doubt whether many people would be able to stylise folklore in as wonderful and absolutely original a way as Inese Zandere did. Motifs of folklore also appear in your music, thanks to the poetry of Uldis Bērziņš, Māris Čaklais and Knuts Skujenieks. In musical terms, is it important for you to be close to folk songs?

P.V.: Our folk songs are diatonic, of course. In Birth we hear a motif that is very close to recitative-like folk songs. Inese consistently upholds the stylistics of folklore throughout her poem, but I eventually distance myself from it. That is because the miracle of the sun’s birth caused me to break out of the framework of folklore as such. My other ballad-like compositions also have more in the way of chromatics and expanded form – something that is not typical of our folk songs. My choral music has only a bit of an echo from our folklore. Perhaps I could have used it to a greater degree? Of course, back then that was a direction in which Pauls Dambis and Veljo Tormis went.

An atypical composition in a certain sense is Plainscapes. It is for choir without text, violin and cello. Gidon Kremer asked me to compose the piece for a special concert programme in which the choir performed with him and cellist Marta Sudraba.

The source of inspiration was our motherland, Latvia – the landscapes of Zemgale, where the lowlands are endless. You can see the horizon from any place at all. The lowlands are endlessly diverse, and they are beautiful at any time of year, both during the day and at night. The composition is an extended meditation in which the choir sings a vocalise-elegy three times – seemingly the same thing, but a bit different each time. While this could have resounded in silence and eternity, everything changes, because it turns out that the three segments were just preludes to the miracle of the rebirth of nature. The sun rises and the birds sing in delight, but it would be even better if the audience were to get the sense that this is a view of the landscape from a very different dimension.

I.J.: In conclusion, what do you most enjoy in terms of your partnership with the Latvian Radio Choir?

P.V.: When I work with composers and interpreters, the most important experience occurs when I suddenly see how much an outstanding, knowledgeable and music-loving interpreter can provide with

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his or her personal musical perceptions and experience, thus serving the specific composition. In this regard, conductor Sigvards Kļava is a great master. He starts with very small miniatures for women’s choirs and ends with major ballads, but he creates and maintains emotional tension and temperature so that the music speaks to you and you do not remain apathetic. The music enriches you in spiritual and emotional terms. Sigvards is like all of the world’s great musicians. He contributes something. It is my score, but Sigvards contributes logically justified ideas which I can only accept. At first, there was the poet’s text, then the composer composed the music, but it is Sigvards and his choir who bring the song alive.

Translation: Kārlis Streips

12Pēteris Vasks and Sigvards Kļava

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‘Most people today no longer possess beliefs, love and ideals. The spiritual dimension has been lost. My intention is to provide food for the soul and this is what I preach in my works.’ – Pēteris Vasks was born in Aizpute (Latvia) in 1946 as the son of a Baptist pastor. He initially studied the double bass and, between 1961 and 1974, performed as a member of various ensembles, including the Lithuanian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Latvian Radio and Television Orchestra. From 1973 to 1978, Vasks studied composition with Valentin Utkin at the Latvian State Conservatory in Riga.

Choral music forms a central part of Vasks’s oeuvre. His compositions use archaic folklore elements from Latvian traditional music and place them in a dynamic and challenging relationship with a contemporary musical language. Vasks’s works are often given programmatic titles based on natural processes. Frequent reference is also made to the composer’s personal biography and the history of suffering of the Latvian people.

Pēteris Vasks was named Composer in Residence at numerous European festivals throughout the years. In 1996, he was appointed as Main Composer at the Stockholm New Music Festival. The same year, he was awarded the Herder Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the Baltic Assembly Prize. Vasks received the Latvian Great Music Award on three occasions: for Litene in 1993, Distant Light in 1998, and the Second Symphony in 2000. Vasks was made an honorary member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences in 1994 and a member of the Royal Swedish Music Academy in Stockholm in 2001. In 2002, the composer became an honorary senator of the Latvian Cultural Academy in Riga. In 2005, he received the Cannes Classical Award in the category CD of the Year for recordings of his violin concerto Distant Light and the Second Symphony.

The Latvian Radio Choir is a full-time professional chamber choir founded in 1940. Chief Conductor Sigvards Kļava and Conductor Kaspars Putniņš have led the choir since 1992. The ensemble’s repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to the present day, with a primary focus on exploring the capabilities of the human voice and seeking to extend its limits. A major part of the repertoire is dedicated to contemporary music and composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The choir is also open to creative experiments and often participates in dramatic performances and multimedia projects. The ensemble regularly commissions works from leading Latvian composers such as Pēteris Vasks and Ēriks Ešenvalds. In addition to its frequent engagements with the Latvian Radio, the choir has made

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numerous internationally acclaimed CDs, including a series of a dozen albums in association with Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier. Recently, the choir has collaborated with such outstanding artists and ensembles as Stephen Layton, Tõnu Kaljuste, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Concerto Copenhagen, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The choir frequently performs at festivals, for example, the Montpellier Radio Festival in France, the Austrian Klangspuren Festival, the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm, the International Choir Biennale in Haarlem, The Venice Biennale, the Ultima festival in Oslo and Tenso Days, as well as at such renowned concert halls as the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Berlin and Cité de la Musique in Paris. The Latvian Radio Choir is a six-time recipient of the Great Music Award of the Latvian government and a founding member of Tenso, a European exchange and research network for professional chamber choirs.

www.radiokoris.lv

Sigvards Kļava began working with the Latvian Radio Choir in 1987 and was appointed its Chief Conductor and Artistic Director in 1992. As one of Latvia’s most prolific choral conductors, Sigvards Kļava has collaborated with every leading choir and orchestra in the country, performing the great works of the standard repertoire in addition to conducting most premieres of new choral works by Latvian composers. He has recorded over 20 CDs with the Latvian Radio Choir. Sigvards Kļava has also been Chief Conductor at a number of Latvian and Nordic song festivals. He is a co-founder of the Latvian New Music Festival ARENA and serves as a member of its artistic board. He teaches young conductors at the Choral Department of the Latvian Academy of Music and the Choral College of the Riga Lutheran Cathedral. Sigvards Kļava appears as a guest conductor with leading European choirs. He has received the Latvian Great Music Award and the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers Award.

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1 Zīles ziņa

Kas sit pie vārtiem šorīt gulēt gribu.Aizraudāta acs lec saule mākoņos lai mazais brālis jāj lai kumeļam nav grūti.Nē smejas kara kungs.Un tik vien paliek: mētelis to auzu skaru tā cepure to zirņu ziedu paiet gadu daudz.

Uldis Bērziņšdzejoļu krājums Piemineklis kazai

Rīga, 1972/1995

Klusās dziesmas

2 Inosāpi pārsāpi mūžu gara dienalai tevi aiznest nēzdogā zaļālai tevi aprakt puķes un rozestad celsies augšāmtad atsāpēsi

Knuts Skujenieksdzejoļi un atdzejojumi Lirika un balsis

Rīga, Liesma, 1978

1 The Tomtit’s Message

Who pummels the gate this morning? I want to sleep.Wept eye, the sun rises in the clouds, may the little brother ride, may it not be hard for the steed.No, war master laughs.And only this remains: coat from oat panicles, hat from pea blossoms. Many years elapse.

(Translation: Gundega Vaska)

Silent Songs

2 Ihurt overhurtlife long daylet you be carriedin a handkerchief greenlet you be buriedflowers and rosesthen will risethen you will unhurt yourself

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3 IIdusi dusi nogurusiman vēl nakts nav atnākusisaule blāzmu nolikusitālu prom pret tavu pusiklusi klusi mirdzējusivienu dziesmu dziedājusivienu pusi iesākusiotru pusi aizmigusi

Knuts Skujenieksdzejoļu krājums iesien baltā lakatiņā

Rīga, Liesma, 1986

4 IIItrīs meži jāj tumšos zirgostrīs meži pie durvīm stāvtrīs reizes pie durvīm klauvēbet manis tais mājās nav

Leons Briedisdzejoļu krājums Laiks mest ēnu

Rīga, Liesma, 1977

5 IVpaldies tev vēlā sauleka gauži sasildījipar māti un par mutipar manu dvašu biji

3 IIsleep sleep you, the tired onethe night has not come for me yetthe sun has put down the dawnfar away against your sidequietly quietly has glitteredone song has sungone half has startedthe other one has fallen asleep

4 IIIthree forests ride the dark horses,three forests in front of the door stand,three times they knock on the door,but I am not in that house

5 IVthank you, the late sunthat warmed me so muchyou’ve been my motherand my mouth, my breath

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es nezinu kas paliksšo sūro vārdu starpābet sirds pie ceļmalaskā klusa rudzu vārpa

Knuts Skujenieksdzejoļi un atdzejojumi Lirika un balsis

Rīga, Liesma, 1978

6 Mūsu māšu vārdi

Dzilna, tu dzirdi mani?Cielava, atsaucies!(Tramvaji rībēdamirīta pusmiglā dziest).

Ja vien varētu, uzietucauri gadiem (un neliktos daudz),kur grieze griež bērniem maizi,kur vālodze lietu sauc,

siltu laiku kur sadzied Žube(ai, spārnu sasvītrots logs).Bet zeme ir virsū uzbērta,

what will remain, I do not knowbetween these bitter wordsbut heart at the roadsideas a silent ear of rye

(Translation: Gundega Vaska)

6 Our Mother’s Names

Their women they named after birds,And they gave them the names of particular birds.Paul Einhorn, Historia Lettica, 1649

Woodpecker, do you hear me?Wagtail, answer!(Streetcars, rumbling,Fade away in morning fog.)

If it were possible I would go backthrough all the years (there don’t seem to be so many),where the quails quarrel over food for their children,the oriole summons the rain,

the blackbird sings out the warm weather(oh, windowpane from birds besmeared).But earth has been poured over it,

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un virsū uzstādīts koks.

Kādu roku un klēpjupaglābts manas dzīvības trauks?Putni – noslēpuma slēpējiputni un kapulauks.

Ai, smagā, zinošā zeme,ai, vēji, plēsēji, grauzēji,ņemiet ņemamo visa ņēmēji,tikai galotni nenolauziet,

Lai palika galotnīte,Kur putniem uzmesties.

Māris Čaklais

7 Skumjā māte

Dusi, valdniek manu, dusi, Nelaimes un rūpes gaist.Tikai es vēl nenogurstu,Vēl man sirds bez miega kaist.

Dusi, dusi, lai tu naktī Dvašo netverams un liegs,Tā kā lapa koka zarā, Tā kā smalciņš zīda diegs.

and on top, a tree is planted.

Which hands and lapHave saved my life?Birds – dealers in secrets,Birds and burial grounds.

Oh, earth, heavy knowing earth,oh, wind, flayer and gnawer,take what you must, you who take everything,only don’t break the treetop,

leave the treetop to the birds,to settle themselves upon.

(Translation: Laurie Anne McGowan)

7 The Sad Mother

Sleep, my governor, sleep,Misfortune and care disappear.Only me still tireless,And my heart is sleepless.

Sleep, sleep, let you at nightBreathe subtle and tenderLike a leaf in the tree,Like a fine silk twist.

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Lēni tevī mieg mans augums, Nelaimes un rūpes klus,Tevī manas acis veras, Tavā sirdī mana dus.

atdz. Knuts Skujenieks

8 Vasara

Arvien grūtākiem soļiem Vasara aiziet uz rudens pusi,Aizvien skaidrākām acīmUz noieto ceļu atplaukusi.

Tur, kur viņa ir gājusi garām,-Visur tās pēdās gaisma sēsies. Dzirdiet, kāds sauc... Drīz vasaras miesā,šī gada maizīte sakustēsies.

Leons Briedis

10 Mazi, silti svētki

Dedzināmais ir sadedzināts.Aprokamais ir aprakts.Sētsvidus nogrābts.Gabaliņš Latvijas ir atkal sakopts.Nav kauns, ka debess skatās.

Jānis Baltvilks

Slowly my body falls asleep in you,Misfortune and care vanish.My eyes gaze at you,My heart rests in yours.

(Translation: Gundega Vaska)

8 Summer

With harder stepsSummer turns to fall-sideWith clearer eyesIt blossoms out the gone way.

Where summer has passed byThe light will pour in its stepsHear, it calls: three summers in flesh,Bread of this year will swing.

(Translation: Gundega Vaska)

10 Small, Warm Holiday

The burned is being burned,The buried is being buried.The courtyard is raked smooth,A piece of Latvia is tidied up again.No shame that sky is looking.

(Translation: Gundega Vaska)

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11 Piedzimšana

Saulīt manu augstu raduZiemelim aizprecētaTāda nakte tāda dienaNeredz sauli šai zemē

Vidū jūras vidū ledusSaule kāra šūpulītiTur līgoja rīta ausmaTur auklēja auseklīti

Nedod zemi nedod sauliZiemeli vārdzinātLiesim varu kalsim ratusLai brauc saule skanēdama

Vara rati cauri braucaGrieztin grieza asi lediTumša jūra sarktin sarkaNo saulītes asinīm

Uz tām rīta robežāmDzīvs ar dzīvu satikāsZeme deva augumiņuSaule savu dvēselīti

Inese Zandere

11 Birth

The sun is a great kin of mineMarried to the northern windThrough the night, through the dayThe sun is gone from these lands

Amidst the sea, amidst the iceThe sun hung up a cradleWhere the dawn rocked awayAnd the morning star was nurtured

Don’t let the earth, don’t let the sunFor the northern wind to weakenLet’s pour copper let’s forge a wagonSo the sun can ride forth resounding

The copper wagon rode onThe sharp ice churning churnedThe dark sea reddening reddenedFrom the blood of the sun

On the borders of the morningA mortal meets a mortalThe earth gives a bodyThe sun gives its soul

(Translation: Rihards Kalniņš)

Song texts and translations courtesy of Schott Music.

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Publisher: Schott Music

A co-production with Latvijas KoncertiExecutive Producer: Reijo Kiilunen

Recording: Riga, St John’s Church, May 2011Producer & Engineer: Andris Ūze

℗ 2012 Latvijas Koncerti

© 2012 Ondine Oy, HelsinkiCover Photo © Mikus Meirāns

Booklet Texts & Photos © Latvian Radio Choir Design: Armand Alcazar

23Latvian Radio Choir

ODE 1194-2

Also available:

For a complete discography visit www.ondine.net

ODE 1151-5 (CD/SACD hybrid)“…may be the finest performance on disc…” –

ClassicsToday.com “10/10 Artistic & Sound Quality”

ODE 1106-2“…a rare outing for Vasks’ choral music” –

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“10/10 Artistic & Sound Quality”

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[71’28] Liner notes enclosed · Lyrics with English translation℗ 2012 Latvias Koncerti, Riga · © 2012 Ondine Oy, HelsinkiManufactured in Germany. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of this recording is prohibited. www.radiokoris.lv • www.latvijaskoncerti.lv O

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0 761195 119426

PēterisVasks (b. 1946)

1 thetomtit’sMessage(Zīles ziņa, 1981/2004) 9’342–5 silentsongs(Klusās dziesmas, 1979/1992) 10’586 OurMother’sNames(Mūsu māšu vārdi, 1977/2003) 12’327 thesadMother(Skumjā māte, 1980/91) 3’358 summer(Vasara, 1978) 4’229 Plainscapes(Līdzenuma ainavas, 2002) 16’41 SandiS ŠteinbergS, violin Guna ĀboLtiņa, cello

10 small,WarmHoliday(Mazi, silti svētki, 1988) 1’2711 Birth(Piedzimšana, 2008) 12’17 JĀniS KoKinS, percussion

Latvian Radio Choir SiGVaRdS KļaVa, conductor