Virst Impressions Of Vasks
Vasks is the way forward! That was the advice from my friendly readers (hi there, you) after a post last week about baby-steps into Penderecki’s music, and my quest to find a new composer that I heart as much as Shosty. Heeding this advice like the heedonist I am, off we skipped to eMusic to download this sucker — which contains the fewest tracks of any CD I own. The three tracks are:
- Violin Concerto, “Distant Light”
- Music Dolorosa
- Viatore
I can see why you guys recommend Vasks for me. There is a lot of slow swelling, interspersed with funky interludes of fidgety strings. I like the latter bits best, but that’s not exactly surprising… when getting familiar with a new piece it’s always the least classical-musically bits that stand out the most.
I kind of wish that there was another heftier piece on the CD, along with the violin concerto. The shorter ones sound neat, but maybe a bit cheap…. well that’s my initial intuition anyway. It doesn’t seem like there is too much large scale structure to piece together, like it’s more cinematic than symphony. That doesn’t mean they short pieces are bad, just that they might not have so much staying power. That may be a totally wrong judgment call. Incidentally, I already woke up with the refrain from Viatore in my head.
The meatier piece — the violin concerto — will take extra-long to get into, as it’s another one of these monolithic one movement deals. The intro is pretty interesting, it’s like a violin pretending to be a tape-reel booting up. I haven’t identified enough landmarks to even begin to start understanding it yet, so no smashingly insightful and hilarious commentary yet.
October 21st, 2008 at 7:11 am
Yay! [Vasks evangelist does little dance of pleasure]
But you really must check out the cello concerto, even if it means hunting down a physical CD. I think you’ll find it structurally more rewarding than the violin concerto. The best recording in my view is the one with David Geringas, for whom it was written.
(http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Name/Jonas-Alexa/Conductor/59536-3)
October 21st, 2008 at 7:17 am
PS. And e-music does have the performance with Marko Ylönen, which I don’t know.
(http://www.emusic.com/album/10990/10990225.html)
October 21st, 2008 at 9:31 am
Hi Yvonne,
Well, I just ordered a physical disc for the first time in about half a year, you should feel proud :)
October 21st, 2008 at 9:47 am
Hehe, and I like the swellings a bit more than the frenziness. ;)
I only have the Ylönen recording and I can recommend it even without hearing other recordings, such a beautiful tone he brings out of the cello in those slow movements (I, III, and V — noticed the symmetry? Guess what movements II and IV are!)!
I look at the Violin Concerto structurally as “movements” before and after the cadenzas for the solo violin (there are three of them — getting wilder and wilder in each reincarnation).
As for Musica dolorosa: It has a very sad story behind it for Vasks.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Oh man… now I can’t decide whether to hold out for the CD or download it… let’s see if it arrives in the next couple of days. In the meantime I’ll try and parse the violin concerto with your hint.