Peteris Vasks

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The youth choir Kamer... was founded in 1990 on the initiative of conductor Maris Sirmais, who is still the artistic director and principal conductor. Kamer... now includes about seventy young singers, Among the choir’s top honours is the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing (Goriza, Italy, 2004). Kamer... was the first Latvian choir to win this prize. The competition is organized by the six most prestigious international choral competitions in Europe.

Kamer… has worked with some of the world’s leading musicians in concerts and festivals in Latvia and abroad. They have sung alongside Gidon Kremer, who appears on this album and the KREMERata Baltica under the noted conductor and soloist Peter Schreier, as well as violists Yuri Bashmet and Maxim Rysanov, cellist Julius Berger, and many others. The choir has also participated in personal concerts for the composers Arvo Pärt, Giya Kanchelli and Peteris Vasks. In 2006 Kamer... performed in a concert at Latvia’s National Opera House in Riga for a meeting of NATO Heads of State.

This CD is the first to be devoted exclusively to the organ music of the Latvian composer, Peteris Vasks.With the exception of the Te Deum, recorded in St. Gertrude in Riga, all of the works were recorded on the magnificent organ of the cathedral in Riga. Talivaldis Deksnis, one of the principal organists of this venerable house of worship, since 1984, has performed all of Vasks's works for organ, many of them for the first time. Besides original compositions for organ, this CD also includes two adaptations of works for string orchestra: Viatore and Canto di forza, both dedicated to Talivaldis Deksnis, with whom Vasks has maintained a lifelong friendship.

Solo bass player with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Styffe launches his third solo album with brand new repertoire for the instrument. Nine composers, including such well-known names as Pärt and Vasks, allow Styffe to really excel together with a handful of the foremost Norwegian musicians today.

Legendary bass-player Gary Karr writes in his introduction to the booklet: “Styffe has focused on a sonic exploration that draws out of any ordinary sound system colors and nuances one could have never imagined possible.” This autumn Styffe gives concerts and master classes in Paris, Leipzig, Trieste and Wroclaw, and during the Ultima festival in October he is premiering a concerto for double bass together with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.

The mesmerizing masterpiece Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt is of course no less than a classic, and Styffe was given the green light by the composer for a version for the double bass. The Kadenza by Teppo Hauta-Aho is among the most popular and performed works for double bass today.

Several of the pieces on Bass Trip are commissions made by Styffe, and they all explore different territories of the double bass. Jon Øivind Ness unleashes primal forces in his duo for bass and viola Gust, and Henrik Hellstenius stages a mysterious drama for bass and percussion in Ombra della sera (Evening shadows). The Hymn by Lars Petter Hagen is described as “a piece of non-existing folk music for an enormous, virtual, Hardanger fiddle.” The title track of this release is by Peteris Vasks, himself a bass player. It moves from ‘larger than life’ deep power to the utmost beauty in the melancholy little waltz at the end. In the score the composer directs that the melody can be whistled or sung by the player, but we felt that this beautiful moment called for something quite singular. With the composer’s blessing we gave the vocal part to Susanna Wallumrød, known from Susanna and the Magical Orchestra (Rune Grammofon). The result is a perfect end to an exiting and rewarding trip into new music for double bass in splendid performance.