Gidon Kremer - Songs Of Fate - Import CD

Credits:

Gidon Kremer

Description:

Songs of Fate," a new album by violinist and conductor Gidon Kremer, born in Riga, Latvia, explores the meaning of life through the works of Baltic composers. The album features works by Baltic composers Laminta Schalkschneite, Giedrius Kuprevicius, Yekabus Janczewski, and Polish-born Jew Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Lithuanian female composer Charcsynte's This too shall pass for violin, cello, vibraphone, and string orchestra is an excellent work that expresses in music the inevitable transience of all things on earth. Giedrius Kuprevicius is may not be well known outside of Lithuania, but in his native country he has long been a very versatile composer, carillon master, and educator, as well as a cultural statesman and author. Kremer has combined parts of the composer's magnum opus, "The Star of David," to create a mosaic that brings the Jewish context to the forefront. Weinberg's works, including violin sonatas, chamber works, and symphonies, have been recorded by Kremer before, but this time he has chosen lesser-known works that were doomed by the dual horrors of the Nazis and Stalin's "purges" in Germany. The three works on this disc are "Nocturne," arranged by Andrei Pushkarev for solo violin and string orchestra, "Arias," Op. 9, written in 1942, and "Jewish Songs," Op. 13. The Jewish Song is a Yiddish song by Polish-Jewish poet Yitzhok Leib Peretz, completed in Warsaw just before Weinberg moved to Moscow, and printed during the war in the Soviet Union under the title The Children's Song. The album concludes with Lignum, a work for string orchestra by 1992 Riga-born Yekabs Janchevskis.The piece was inspired by a book about trees. According to Janczewskis, the piece is like a dialogue with the trees, "It is not a verbal communication, but rather a seeking to listen and understand... Music is a wonderful means to reveal to us something that is not yet known. This piece is my dialogue and meditation." The Lithuanian soprano Vida Miknevicute, the Latvian cellist Magdalena Ceple, the vibraphonist Andrei Pushkarev from Khiu, Ukraine, and Kremer, who in 1997 brought together young performers from the Baltic countries, founded He performs with Kremerata Baltica, which Kremer founded in 1997 to bring together young performers from the Baltic countries. This program is intended to speak to everyone: "Life is short, and our mission is to fill the space we are given with meaning, to give meaning to that life." "The program aims to speak to everyone, reminding us of our tragic fate along the way and reminding us that each of us has a voice that deserves to be heard and to be listened to... We hope to deliver a meaning that listeners may "recognize" and even identify with. -Gidon Kremer, Universal Music/IMS