The Latvian national recording company SKANi releases a new album “Gidon Kremer and Friends. Homage to Tālivaldis Ķeniņš”. The album, dedicated to a notable Latvian-born composer, contains sixteen compositions (fifteen in the physical release) performed by Kremerata Lettonica and featuring a Canadian cellist Luka Coetzee, U.S.-based Lithuanian pianist Andrius Žlabys and other guest artists. The album (streaming and download format) is already available; the CD format will be reaching its listeners in September.
Album is also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
“The music of Tālivaldis Ķeniņš demonstrates a unique combination of classical thinking and the stylistics and techniques of contemporary music. It is precisely this synthesis that makes his personal musical signature so distinctive. By recording several works of chamber music together with the outstanding soloists of Kremerata Baltica and musicians who share the spirit of the Kremerata musical family, we have succeeded in creating a truly special album. I hope this album, in the creation of which I myself have participated, will enchant and inspire many listeners”,
says one of the world’s leading violinists Gidon Kremer.
Violinist and artistic director of Kremerata Lettonica, Madara Pētersone, who initiated the idea and creation of Tālivaldas Ķeniņš's chamber music album, says:
“I clearly remember the sense of discovery and joy I felt in regard to Tālivaldis Ķeniņš’s music after our first rehearsal for “Concertino barocco “Omaggio à J. S. Bach” for two violins. I had pulled the sheet music for the duet from an obscure shelf in the library. And this joy continued to grow with every concert in which we performed the piece, feeling the connection with the audience. It gave us the conviction that Ķeniņš’s music reaches into all our hearts. And what a thrill to continue exploring this unique voice in Ķeniņš’s chamber music! This music is a treasure for all of us, and it stands on a pedestal equal to that of Latvian choral and symphonic music. May every listener discover a piece of their soul in it!”
Tālivaldis Ķeniņš is one of the most prominent Latvian composers – a stark, vital, technically virtuosic master of form and content with a Baroque and Neo-Romantic sensibility. He was born in Latvia, studied in France, and lived in Canada from the end of the Second World War until his death. Ķeniņš is one of Canada’s most frequently performed composers. A long-time lecturer in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, he became a professor in 1973. Ķeniņš was active in the Canadian League of Composers, serving as its president for two years. Ķeniņš’s contributions are both academic and practical, a fact recognised by the university administration and the Canadian government.
Ķeniņš’s oeuvre consists mainly of instrumental music – eight symphonies, symphonic miniatures, more than ten instrumental concerti, an impressive series of works for chamber ensembles, piano and organ – but it also includes solo and choral songs, three cantatas and an oratorio. In this selection of works by Ķeniņš, curated by the musicians of Kremerata Baltica, we encounter this beauty and mastery in vivid, original and unique progression.
Read more about the album HERE.
Founded in 1997 on Gidon Kremer’s initiative, the Kremerata Baltica orchestra features musicians from the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The orchestra gives around 500 concerts a year, organises an annual festival, performs in the finest concert halls around the globe and collaborates with the world’s most outstanding soloists and ensembles. Kremerata Baltica has performed more than 1000 concerts in 600 cities in 50 countries. Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Pēteris Vasks, Leonid Desyatnikov, Georgs Pelēcis, Arturs Maskats, and many other distinguished composers have dedicated new works to the orchestra. Kremerata Baltica’s recordings have won Grammy, Echo Klassik and Gramophone awards.
Kremerata Lettonica is an offshoot of Kremerata Baltica and consists of Latvian musicians from the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra. The ensemble was formed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when international collaboration was not possible. The ensemble balances a dedication to classical masterpieces with a commitment to musical exploration. It actively seeks out rare and previously undiscovered scores and also commissions new works dedicated specifically to Kremerata Lettonica. Kremerata Lettonica is featured on the album PPP – Plakidis, Pētersons, Pelēcis (released by the Skani label), which won the “Zelta Mikrofons” (Golden Microphone) Latvian Music Recording Industry Award for best classical music recording.
Gidon Kremer is one of the most compelling and artistically powerful figures of our time, not only as a musician but also as a shaper of the musical landscape. In his youth, he won several major international competitions. Over the past half century, he has performed in all of the world’s major concert halls and has collaborated with nearly all of the most renowned European and North American orchestras and conductors. Kremer’s repertoire is unusually broad and surprisingly diverse: it includes classical and Romantic works for violin as well as contemporary music. Kremer has recorded and released more than 120 albums, several of which have won prestigious awards for their unique interpretations. In 2016, he received the Praemium Imperiale award from the Japan Art Association, which is often referred to as the Nobel Prize of music. Kremer is the author of several books, which have been translated into multiple languages and offer a deep insight into this master’s inner world and artistic persona. Kremer plays a 1641 violin by Nicola Amati.
SKANi is a division of the Latvian Music Information Centre (LMIC). Funded by the Latvian Ministry of Culture, its goal is to produce high quality recordings of Latvian classical music performed by both emerging and established Latvian musicians and promote Latvia’s classical music heritage through its distinctive and varied programming. Founded in 2014, it has released more than 170 recordings and has longstanding relationships with the Latvian Radio Choir, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, State Choir “Latvia”, Sinfonietta Riga, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and many other soloists and chamber music groups.