Riga Philharmonic Orchestra, Kriss Rusmanis - Peteris Vasks: Message (2005)

By his own admission, emotion is central to the music of Peteris Vasks, though his intense outpourings are far from amorphous or undisciplined rhapsodies. Rather, his most passionate works are tempered by an appreciation of tradition and a practical awareness of instrumental techniques, timbres, and orchestral textures. Neo-Romanticism plainly dominates Vasks' works from the last quarter of the twentieth century, and this is revealed in the quasi-Mahlerian essays for string orchestra, Cantabile (1979) and Musica dolorosa (1983), the lush and brilliantly orchestrated Cor Anglais Concerto (1989), and the aspiring, suspension-filled Lauda (1986). Yet Vasks also employs many modernist devices: echoes of Bartók's evocative "night music" may be recognized in Message for strings, percussion, and two pianos (1982), and towering cluster chords, sweeping glissandi, and free dissonant counterpoint enrich Vasks' expression; his music is not limited to merely imitating the Romantic past, but is open to any technique that communicates feeling. The Riga Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kriss Rusmanis, lavishes all the works with gorgeous sonorities, dynamic intensity, and alert execution. Normunds Schnee, the English horn soloist in the concerto, displays a burnished tone that is wonderful to hear, and cellist Ligita Zemberga is haunting in the brief solo in Musica dolorosa.