Vasks: Piano Works Reinis Zariņš

• Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946): Cuckoo's Voice (Spring Elegy):
• 1 Vasks: Cuckoo's Voice (Spring Elegy) 12:19
• Cycle:
• 2 Vasks: Cycle: I. Prologue 03:21
• 3 Vasks: Cycle: II. Nocturne 03:59
• 4 Vasks: Cycle: III. Drama 03:11
• 5 Vasks: Cycle: IV. Epilogue 05:24
• The Seasons:
• 6 Vasks: The Seasons: No. 1, White Scenery 08:37
• 7 Vasks: The Seasons: No. 2, Spring Music 19:37
• 8 Vasks: The Seasons: No. 3, Green Scenery 09:20
• 9 Vasks: The Seasons: No. 4, Autumn Music 14:26
• Total Runtime 01:20:14

Info for Vasks: Piano Works

The love for the Latvian landscape is audible in the piano works of Latvia’s greatest living composer, Peteris Vasks (b. 1946), especially in his Seasons, the composer’s most frequently performed piano work. For this album pianist Reinis Zariņš has brought two other piano works alongside The Seasons as first recordings: Vasks’ early piano work Cycle (Zyklus) from the 1970s, and a new piano work, Cuckoo’s Voice. Spring Elegy, written by the composer for Reinis Zariņš during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, Pēteris started composing a new piece for this album. I had no clue how far he was with it, when the news came that he had caught Covid. This was before the advent of vaccines, so there was some real anguish and many heartfelt prayers. But Pēteris kept composing the work throughout his illness. […] The new work is now poignantly called Cuckoo’s voice. Spring elegy, and I dearly treasure the memory of Pēteris showing me the fruit of his labour for the very first time on his home piano. […] There’s hardly a soul who knows the Cycle; not only because it reveals a certain rebelliousness that we do not find in his later oeuvre; but because it completes a beautiful arc of Pēteris Vasks’ life. His first, his last (to date), and his most monumental music for the piano. It’s all here. (Reinis Zariņš)

Reinis Zariņš, piano

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Booklet for Vasks: Piano Works