LMIC radio

Pēteris Plakidis: Eternity

Performers

Sigvards Kļava - conductor
Latvian Radio Choir

Series

Latvian composers

Recorded

2021

Release date

03.09.2021

Compositions

Pēteris Plakidis

"Teiksma" (Legend)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Zvana vārdi" (Words of the Bell)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Izkapts ābelē" (Scythe in the Apple Tree)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Mūžība" (Eternity)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Papardes zieds" (Fern Blossom)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Div’ buramdziesmas" (Two Magic Songs)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Maizes dziesma" (Song of Bread)

Pēteris Plakidis

Two Chants from the Old Testament

Pēteris Plakidis

"Kurzemes krasts, Vidzemes krasts (Shore of Kurzeme, Shore of Vidzeme)"

Pēteris Plakidis

"Fatamorgana" (Fata Morgana)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Rudenī"(In Autumn)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Saulīt, mīļā māmulīt" (Dear Mother, the Sun)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Mūža aina" (A Life)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Ausmas stundā" (Daybreak)

Pēteris Plakidis

"Jāņa bērnam" (To the Midsummer Child)

Pēteris Plakidis

"In memoriam"

Pēteris Plakidis

"Tavas saknes tavā zemē" (Your Roots in Your Land)

Description

"Pēteris Plakidis (1947–2017) is – and will remain – one of the most significant Latvian composers. He observed life with a keen, sharp gaze and echoed it in his music firmly, strictly, actively. He tread quietly and imperceptibly yet resolutely and decisively in the realm of the nation’s spirit (in composition, pedagogy, performance art, theatre and cinema). He persisted and has endured. 

At first glance (or listen), Plakidis was a true instrumentalist, creating everything from miniatures to ambitious, voluminous works. In addition, an opus sparkling in unchecked humour would often swirl up next to his ever-substantial, frequently tense, contradictory works. While these pieces were invitations to repose from the usual chain of ideas and intonations, in fact they usually served as supplements, escapades, a spark of fantasy. But quite soon a clear turn, or even push, towards vocal chamber music appeared. The solo song, which had long lived in the vitality of enthusiastic lyrics, suddenly lit up with a completely different, tense and polemically intense character."

Jānis Torgāns

Review

"Peteris Plakidis (1947-2017) is one of the many successful composers of choral music from the Baltic States. It is above all the tradition of the great singing festivals that always prompts composers to enrich the repertoire with strong works.
Peteris Plaikidis’ choral music echoes above all the tradition of vocal polyphony, which inspires the Latvian Radio Choir to sing in a very differentiated and sonorous way. Conductor Sigvards Klava creates a wonderful homogeneity of voices with finely nuanced gradations from delicate, crystalline high soprano to warm, richly shaded middle voices to earthy bass.
Over often medieval-like basic motifs, Klava allows the upper voices to float almost ethereally, but animates them just as much to passionate declamation. The result is a recording of 21 choral movements that above all sustainably underscores the poetic power of Plakidis’ music."

Guy Engels
www.pizzicato.lu

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The Latvian Pēteris Plakidis (1947-2017) is unfortunately not yet as famous in Central Europe as his compatriot of the same first name, Pēteris Vasks, who was born just one year earlier. This is certainly not due to the quality of Plakidis' music. The album "Eternity", which has just been released on the Latvian label Skani, is impressive proof of this. It features a selection from Plakidis' rich repertoire, which he has composed for a cappella choir in various settings since the late 1960s. Except for the two Latin songs "Verti me ad alia" and "Et cognovi" based on texts from the Old Testament, all the songs are in Latvian. As for the other texts, Plakidis makes use of diverse sources. The spectrum ranges from traditional folk tunes to famous authors of his homeland: Ojārs Vācietis, Vizma Belševica, Imants Ziedonis, Jānis Peters, Knuts Skujenieks and others. Subtle political messages are conveyed above all by the songs based on texts by Latvian exile authors such as Zinaīda Lazda, which could hardly be sung in public before the fall of the Iron Curtain. The stylistic "keyboard" on which Plakidis' songs "play" is correspondingly large, but the Baltic tone can be felt everywhere. The Latvian Radio Choir, already one of the best choirs in the world, has a real home game here. You can't sing these songs any better than this.

Burkhard Schäfer