Reinis Zariņš. Undulations

2026

16.10.2026

Once, long ago, at the doors of St. Gertrude’s Old Church in Riga, composer Pēteris Vasks happened to run into a Latvian pianist visiting from abroad. They talked of this and that, and Vasks then asked whether the pianist had ever thought of adding to his repertoire something by Latvian composers alongside the usual Beethoven, Liszt, and Schumann. At the time, the pianist merely shrugged, not knowing what to say. Today, that pianist is writing the foreword to this double album of piano music by many different Latvian composers – all of which has come into being after that memorable conversation with Vasks. My current discography already includes many albums devoted to Latvian music, including two dedicated entirely to Vasks’s work. Yet it seems to me that this latest recording is the best answer to the question he asked me back then.

This collection has been conceived quite deliberately as an anthology – a portrait, as multifaceted as possible, of recent Latvian piano music with which I have had direct personal contact. Quite a few of these works are closely bound up with my own story, and I feel a personal responsibility toward them, because they found their way to me; and some were written specifically for me or dedicated to me. Over the years I have performed them many times in concert, but concerts are painfully fleeting: no sooner has the music sounded than it begins to fade away. Eventually there comes a moment when a body of works gathered in this way begins to, yes, call out to me, asking for a more lasting life.

This is not everything that might have been included. Several works written for me have already appeared on earlier albums, while two particularly fascinating pieces reached me only after the studio sessions for this recording had already come to an end. Life goes on, new music is constantly being born, and I, too, keep changing, growing bolder. So I shall not be surprised if, before long, another collection of works starts calling to me, asking to be given a lasting home. But for today, let this album be a rich snapshot of the musical treasures that are breathing and walking among us here and now.

- Reinis Zariņš

LMIC 181