Arvo Pärt and Peteris Vasks - the border music between Northren and Slavic climate

Today's concert at Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic brought to us the climate of Baltic countries - countries suspended between Scandinavian and Slavic nature, culture and in particular - their music.
Famous Arvo Pärt - Estonian composer, who for many years has been my favorite composer of our time, composed Lamentate in 2002.

This 10 part suite was composed as a homage to Anish Kapoor and his famous sculpture "Marsyas" - the largest sculpture ever displayed at Tate Gallery. The music is special and in some sense it dwells on another boundary - between typical Pärt's minimalism and much richer orchestration of his later compositions. The beautiful piano part, has much of a space between sounds, so much of silence - and is just breathtaking.

In perception it is indeed as from "lamentate" but lamentate for living - not for dead.

For this concert, the conductor, Daniel Raiskin asked Ralph van Raat to replace ill Alexei Lubimov (famous pianist known from original ECM recording). Ralph's performance was just great and deep - so unexpectedly but luckily we had chance to meet this great pianist.

The music of Latvian Peteris Vasks was new to me. I must admit - I never heard before about him. So today's discovery is of some mysterious significance. His music, though secular on the surface, is deeply religious in a very broad sense - not being tied to any particular creed.

Lodz's Rubinstein orchestra played his Symphony No. 2 . I can't express in words the beauty of this symphony. As in the title of this post - the music is a kind of bridge between cultures. I heard notes of warm Slavic folk music overlapped with cold minimalism of the North.

Peters Vasks was in the concert hall. He was called by Daniel Raiskin to the stage - and we all were deeply moved and affected by his modesty and unpretentiousness....

This was great concert...

Five giants of modern music

While in Paris in July, I had a chance to buy a collection of five films on the greatest XX century composers: Boulez, Carter, Glass, Messiaen and Part. The series seems to be available on Amazon in individual pieces (see, for example: Carter, Messiaen, Boulez). Seems it's hard to find the collection itself on the web. It is a part of "Juxtapositions" series, but I do not see where it could be ordered in the 5 pieces collection I bought in Virgin Megastore in Paris.




Despite of the potential difficulty to buy it, I strongly recommend it for all serious/contemporary music lovers. All the movies are great, but I must say that those about Carter, Glass and Part are of utmost beauty. They not only tell us about the musicians — they are pieces of art on their own!
The great value of the films lies in the attempt to show the music as being tightly bound to the personality and experience of the composer. I can't forget pictures from Elliot Carter's Manhattan window, scenes from Glass New York's apartment or Arvo Part's scenes from Estonia. The images of nature and songs of birds connected to Olivier Messiaen are also very moving.

However, the music is the main hero of the collection - and you will not be disappointed to listen to the composers' most famous pieces, usually played with the composer during the rehearsals and on informal concerts. The great value of the authors of the films lies in their great sensitivity to the music they tell about.

If you love classical or contemporary music - this 5 DVD collection should be on the top of your list.