Riga String Quartet

Viatore / Distant Light / Voices Riga String Quartet

The works on this CD are for chamber-music string ensembles: his first symphony "Balsis - Voices" (1991), the haunting violin concerto "Tala gaisma - Distant Light" (1996/97), and the piece "Viatore" (the traveller; 2001), dedicated to Arvo Pärt, here in a version for eleven solo strings by the conductor, church musician and arranger Stefan Vanselow. The Münchner Rundfunkorchester plays under its chief conductor Ivan Repusic, and the concerto soloist is Stanko Madic, first concertmaster of the MRO. The beauty that the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks evokes in his works would not be possible without the experience of violence and cruelty in this

world. He grew up in a country deprived of liberty, and because of his faith and his artistic convictions he was exposed to reprisals from Russian cultural doctrine. His father, a Baptist pastor, was regarded as an "enemy of the people", and his homeland was under Soviet control.