鈥淚 think it is very important that a musician speaks passionate feelings about his homeland. For me, what is important is to speak as a representative of a very small, unhappy but courageous country which has suffered much.鈥�
Peteris Vasks
Devastated during World War I, then annexed to the USSR for almost 50 years, Latvia suffered much under Soviet rule. As we know from composers such as Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian, Soviet rules also stifled free creativity, with freedom of speech and expression fraught with risk. This is the cultural landscape in which Vasks lived life as a student and practising musician, yet, unlike many others in similar circumstances, he never tried to escape this, and has enjoyed a fruitful career as both double bassist and composer.
Written in 1979, Vasks鈥� Cantabile is a euphoric outpouring for strings, melding beauty and harmony with intense brooding. Vasks said 鈥淏eauty and harmony are rare in life, but in music they are possible鈥�, and this Cantabile captures the coexistence of the two wonderfully. Flowing almost as a floating stream of consciousness, rhythmically agitated passages and deep sonority sustained by held notes in the lower strings make way for 鈥榝ree鈥� passages imbuing the music with a sensual other worldly atmosphere. Simply magical鈥�
Programme note 漏 Amy Campbell