Track Listing

1. No. l. Klusuma balsis
2. No. ll. Dzivibas balsis
3. No. lll. Sirdsapzinas balsis

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #178810 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
Vasks (b. 1946 in Latvia) is one of the rising stars of the Baltic region. His music has some affinities with that of Pärt and Tormis, and while Vasks isn't afraid to tap into different stylistic modes, like Schnittke, his music remains mostly tonal and doggedly idealistic. Musica Dolorosa (1983) is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Its combined strings create a sound world similar to Gorecki's famous Symphony 3. The major work here is the Symphony Stimmen (Voices) for string orchestra. It's unimaginably beautiful, full of flirtatious string-borne melodies and shadows of sadness here and there. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews

Good Art, Poor Engineering
To start, this CD is a wonderful exercise in, above all, orchestration. Vasks' works clearly show his admiration for the Romantic and early Modern masters, from Bruckner and Rachmaninov to Stravinsky and Salinen; as well as his ability to assimilate, then restructure their melodies and harmonics in a delightfully spacious way.

Many composers, Vasks among them, utilize great dynamic range variations, crescendos and diminuendos, as a tool to create a deeper spatial dimension and psychological impact. There is only one problem with this technique: While it works in a symphony hall or in a well-insulated, acoustically designed, listening room with hundred-thousand dollar sound equipment, on a CD played in your automobile or the typical living room with a modest sound system the results are literally aggravating!

In this particular CD, the dynamic range is so great that, to hear anything at all, or to protect your ear drums, you have to keep your agile fingers on the volume knob. In my opinion, the problem is two-fold: microphone placements and recording engineering, as well as the job of conducting the orchestra for the recording media.

Dolorosa
Vasks compositions on this CD are the most powerful modern-classical pieces I have heard. The emotion is raw and clear, the music is soaring and connects directly to the soul. Where it is truly not for the musical faint of heart, it is unbelievably powerful. Prepare for thrilling dynamics and strains of music that flow like ribbon.

Musica Dolorosa
A critical review of a work, in a music store, may be received poorly. Because mostly people who want to purchase that work, will visit the particular page in the first place.

That said, I do not want to issue a critical review on Vasks' music. This music is of an unbelievably high spiritual quality, such as many an aspiring composer could hardly hope to achieve.

So, perhaps, only a few observations are relevant:

I) This is serious music.

II) Little humor is to be found here, and, as a result, perhaps little joy as well. This is music for the time of being poor in spirit. You may feel a desire to weep, while listening. Perhaps in these tears, there is a blessing: communion with someone who has been, in some sense, wounded.

III) What is the ethos that makes this music so serious? Also, what is the ethos that, perhaps, permits happiness to be possible? These, for me, are the interesting questions that Mr. Vasks work raises.