Jānis Mediņš. Music for Piano

Performers

Reinis Zariņš - piano
Kaspars Ādamsons - conductor
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra

Recorded

2025

Release date

31.10.2025

Compositions

Jānis Mediņš

Concerto for Piano and Symphony Orchestra

My first in-depth encounter with Jānis Mediņš’s music took place in 2010, during the celebration of his 120th anniversary at the Latvian National Opera. I had been invited to perform as the soloist in his Piano Concerto. What I remember most about learning the piece is how difficult the process was—mainly because the sheet music existed only in a handwritten version, barely legible. Memorizing Mediņš’s Rachmaninoff-like passages from a manuscript took considerably more time than learning, say, Rachmaninoff himself. But often, the things we suffer for, later become dearest to us. That’s what happened to me—Mediņš’s Piano Concerto now holds a special place in my heart, and I readily wish to present it to the world as a true classic of Latvian music. Remarkably, despite being the very first Latvian piano concerto, composed over 90 years ago, it had never been released in a modern and widely accessible recording. Today, that dream has come true—thanks in large part to the generous involvement of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kaspars Ādamsons. We had already performed the piece together in a concert marking Latvia’s Independence Day in 2022, and it was clear to me that we had to reunite also for this recording.

If the Piano Concerto is the trunk of a mighty oak on this album, the solo pieces are its branches and twigs. Before the recording, I spent time in music libraries, reading through all of Mediņš’s piano works, including many I had never heard of before. I was especially intrigued by the compositions written during his exile—perhaps because they stand out so strikingly among his better-known works. Of course, an album lasting 70–80 minutes requires making choices. So I picked as wide a range of pieces as I could — something from his early period, something from his final years, something familiar, and something entirely new. One of the biggest surprises for me was the Ballade, composed in 1922 and dedicated to the outstanding pianist Lilija Kalniņa-Ozoliņa, who’s name is inseparable from the history of the Piano Concerto. I was astonished to discover that this epic piece had never been recorded. Now, at last, it can be heard by all.

Alongside studying Mediņš’s music, I read his autobiography Tones and Half-Tones. Just three days before the scheduled recording, I realized there was one more piece that had to be included in the album: the famous Aria from his First Orchestral Suite. Why? Because from his autobiography, I learned how deeply this Aria resonated in the lives of Latvians in exile—not just as a beautiful melody, but as a symbol of a lost homeland. That’s something that may be hard to grasp for Latvians living in Latvia. But my own years in the USA and London taught me how bittersweet that love for Latvia can be among émigrés — just like Mediņš’s Aria, which he himself rearranged during exile, transforming it from a grand orchestral piece into an intimate chamber music work. And so, in a hurry, I printed out blank sheet music, found the scores of both versions of the Aria in the library, created my piano arrangement, and recorded it just two days later. It was one of those times when you know that something must be done, even if it appears impossible, and so you just do it.

Brochure

Review

Here I was expecting two surprises, and the first allowed me to conclude: so this is what the first Latvian piano concerto sounds like—and it must be acknowledged as respectable, not at all to be dismissed! Flowing melodic writing, rich in Latvian intonations (in the piano cadenza, associations arise as if it were another separate daina). I hope that the creation of such recordings will be able to shift the focus of music literature pedagogy from statistics and writing about music to the music itself. Knowledge about the composer of the first Latvian piano concerto does not help one understand the musical content if one has not actually heard it.

The second surprise is the Ballade. It surprised not so much by its length (approximately 12 minutes) as by the harmonic diversity of variations built on a single intonation—this sounds relatively modern. Significantly, in the culminating episodes Zariņš does not arm himself with massive force; rather, he strips the music down to dramatic octave unisons. I will not overcompare the interpretations of the dainas with Arta Arnicāne’s recording; I will say only one thing—Zariņš is more spiritual and dreamlike.

Idea ★★★★★
Performance ★★★★
Enjoyment ★★★★★

Armands Skuķis, magazine "Mūzikas Saule", No. 4/2025

In the album dedicated to Jānis Mediņš, Reinis Zariņš has included everything that can possibly be fitted into the running time of a single compact disc: the Piano Concerto (and until the score of Wolfgang Dārziņš’s First Piano Concerto is found, we shall call this work the very first example of the genre in Latvian music), three dainas together with a Ballade related in spirit to Alfrēds Kalniņš and Jāzeps Vītols, and works from the years of exile as points of contact with the world of modernism (this is particularly valuable, as many of Mediņš’s works still exist only in manuscript). In a double or triple album, the soloist would have included even more—but that is a task not only for Reinis Zariņš and Artas Arnicāne, but also for other Latvian instrumentalists (since Mediņš’s chamber music is very little known).

Thus, alongside outstanding stamina, equally outstanding professionalism and musical refinement are revealed—qualities in which the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kaspars Ādamsons remain a step behind; comparison with the aforementioned pianist colleague suggests that Reinis Zariņš’s romanticism is more introverted, which by no means prevents it from blossoming into passionate fulfillment at the right moment; in the pianistically agile and precise movements of the Sonatina or “Spēles”, the aesthetics of Jānis Kalniņš and Tālivalds Ķeniņš resonate. And once again—although one would not quite call Jānis Mediņš’s Piano Concerto, formed in a thoroughly classical synthesis of form and content, a masterpiece, I would gladly take this work with me from the era of the first Latvian republic. Possibly foreign performers who feel close to Elgar, Holst, and Delius would think the same.

Idea ★★★★★
Performance ★★★★
Enjoyment ★★★★

Armands Znotiņš, magazine "Mūzikas Saule", No. 4/2025

Eine hörenswerte Neuentdeckung: Klavierwerke von Jānis Mediņš

Der Pianist Reinis Zariņš spielt zusammen mit dem Liepāja Symphony Orchestra das Klavierkonzert des lettischen Komponisten Jānis Mediņš. Unbedingt hören, meint Miriam Vanneste-Vratz.

LISTEN BROADCAST (in German).

WDR 3 Hörstoff – neue Klassik-Alben

05.12.2025, duration: 5 min

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