Pages of a Biography
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
Passacaglia, for two violins, vibraphone and strings (2007)
Georgs Pelēcis (b. 1947)
Violin Concerto “Pages of an Biography” (2007)
Andrius Žlabys (b. 1977)
Kaleidoscope of Lost Time, for violin and strings (2014-2020)
Arvo Pärt
Darf ich …, for violin, tubular bell and strings (1999)
Gidon Kremer, Geneva Lewis (violin)
Andrei Pushkarev (vibraphone, tubular bell)
Kremerata Baltica
rec. 2024, Studio Residence Paliesius, Ignalina, Lithuania
ECM 2803 (7410794) [63]
While the booklet doesn’t state it specifically, it would seem that this recording is a celebration of the career of Gidon Kremer and his upcoming 80th birthday (in 2027). The four works were composed for, or are closely associated with, Kremer and his chamber orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, by Baltic composers, one Estonian, one Latvian and one Lithuanian.
Arvo Pärt’s connection to Kremer dates back to the 1970s when Pärt composed Tabula rasa at Kremer’s request. It was the work that brought the composer to the attention of Western music critics and listeners. I’ve never really caught the Pärt bug, so neither of these short works particularly grabbed me. For quite a bit of Passacaglia, I had the feeling that I was listening to the start of the Largo from Winter in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on LP, and the needle had got stuck in a groove. Kremer hands over the solo duties to New Zealand-born Geneva Lewis for the closing work, Darf ich …, which is less static than Passacaglia, but at under four minutes and still very obviously a work by Pärt, it doesn’t travel very far.
The reason I chose this release to review was the violin concerto that gives the album its title, written by one of my favourite composers, Latvian Georgs Pelēcis, who has a very long association with Gidon Kremer. Born in Riga in the same year, they attended the Riga School of Music together, and were roommates at the Moscow Conservatory.
Pages of a Biography was written for Kremer to celebrate his 60th birthday, and includes quotations from four of the great concertos – Beethoven, Brahms, Elgar and Sibelius – each of which was significant in Kremer’s career. Pelēcis wrote a double concerto (for violin and piano) inscrutably titled Nevertheless for Kremer in the 1990s, and it is what caught my attention, and remains one of my Desert Island Discs. Pages of a Biography is not at the level of Nevertheless, being rather bitty and episodic, no doubt due in part to the inclusion of the quotations. It is, however, very distinctly a Pelēcis piece, and as such, enjoyable for those who love his music. Like Nevertheless, it is almost 30 minutes in duration in one movement. It has more dissonance than Pelēcis aficionados will be used to, especially towards the end following the Beethoven quote. The work closes with a minute or so of solo vibraphone and violin, which did strike me as a trifle odd, as it is the only involvement of the vibraphone.
I had to Google Andrius Žlabys to learn that he is a Lithuanian pianist-composer with a long association (you won’t be surprised to read) with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica. The biography on his website spends almost its entirety on his pianistic successes, and essentially nothing on his compositions. His very brief contribution to the booklet notes describes the five movements of Kaleidoscope of Lost Time as sharing “a feeling of time slipping away like sand through fingers – marked by events both beautiful and sad”. The piece has some common ground with Pages of a Biography, though with a higher proportion of dissonance. At various points across its 25 minute span, there is a sense of marking time, but overall, it is not out of place here both in style and quality.
All four works are marked by their relatively unemotional nature, which suits Kremer’s style. The pinches of vibraphone and tubular bell soften the overall soundworld. It almost goes without saying that the playing is excellent, in that very restrained way Kremer and his orchestra have made their own. The sound quality is very good, not exaggerating the somewhat cold nature of the music, nor rounding off its edges.
For aficionados of Kremer, his ensemble and/or the composers, this is a desirable purchase, and while I’m not bowled over by “my new” Pelēcis piece, I’m very happy to add it to my collection.
David Barker
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