Vasks: Chamber Music / Parnassus Trio

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VASKS Episodi e Canto perpetuo. Quartet 1 Tr Parnassus; Avri Levitan (va) 1 MDG 903 1513 (Hybrid multichannel SACD 65:15)


Péteris Vasks belongs to the grouping of Eastern European composers who were trained in the Soviet era (he was born in Latvia in 1946), and have, since the fall of the iron curtain, amalgamated modernistic (formerly banished) elements into their aural palette. The work of such composers as Pärt, Gubaidulina, Silvestrov, and Górecki, while very different in important ways, all share a depth of expression reflecting a dark world view and life experience that does not occur in the music of their Western colleagues. Vasks wrote this piano trio in 1985; he describes it as “a painful journey through misery, disappointment and suffering towards love,” and dedicates the piece to Olivier Messiaen. The French master’s influence is all over this beautiful work, with many echoes from the Quatuor pour le fin de temps . There are the huge cluster chords on the piano, the oddly lurching rhythmic effects, and most tellingly, grand, arching crescendos of intense emotional power, reminiscent of Messiaen’s two magnificent louanges (praises) from the Quartet.


The Quartet (it is a piano quartet), completed 16 years later, begins in a generally more jaunty way, incorporating what sound like folk-dance elements, in the manner of Bartók. It is not without the singular expressiveness of the composer, however, especially in the canti that are at the heart of the six-movement work. The language of the music is more approachable than the 1985 work, but it is as uncompromising in depth of expression. The more jagged edges of the earlier music make it more interesting to me, though, particularly in the rhythmic structure. None of this is what I would call easy listening, nor was it intended to be.


Performances by the German ensemble Trio Parnassus, as well as by Israeli violist Avri Levitan in the Quartet, are superbly committed and vibrant, and MDG, as usual, captures them in rich, natural sound.

FANFARE: Peter Burwasser


This is a hybrid Super Audio CD playable on both regular and Super Audio CD players.


Product Description:


  • Catalog Number: 9031513-6


  • UPC: 760623151366


  • Label: MDG


  • Composer: Peteris Vasks


  • Orchestra/Ensemble: Parnassus Trio


  • Performer: Avri Levitan, Chia Chou, Michael Gross, Yamei Yu