Latvian String Quartets
Performers
String Quartet of the Orchestra “Riga Chamber Players”
String Quartet of the Latvian Academy of Music
The Latvian Philharmonic String Quartet
String Quartet “Difference”
Recorded
1973-2005
Release date
01.09.2015
Compositions
Emilis Melngailis
String Quartet "Quasi uno quartetto"
Jānis Ivanovs
String Quartet No. 1
Jāzeps Vītols
String Quartet G dur op. 27
Imants Zemzaris
"Pirms sniega" (Before the Snow)
Pauls Dambis
String Quartet No. 5
Romualds Kalsons
String Quartet
Maija Einfelde
"Skumjās serenādes" (Sad Serenades) or "Trīs dziedājumi mirstošai jūrai" (Three Songs for the Dying Sea)
Santa Ratniece
"Aragonite"
Mārtiņš Viļums
String Quartet No. 2
Description
LMIC 015
“As a new nation we Latvians generally lack the level of moderation that is characteristic of a cultured person. We immediately leap from the shepherd’s knoll into the city boulevard. And this leap is not always successful, as not everyone can glance back, smile and step forwards slowly....” This is how the poet Antons Austriņš described the first, at times bitter-sweet, experience of professional Latvian artists at the beginning of the 20th century in the context of European cultural standards and the taste of local consumers of art. How was it possible to leap into the refined “framework” of the string quartet that had been cultivated for centuries? Not even into the city boulevard, but into something resembling the palace court or the ivory tower of the creative mind.
