Kremerata Baltica & Gidon Kremer

Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer's 2000 release Eight Seasons is a conceptual masterwork. Kremer, long known for his skillful interpretations of Astor Piazzolla's Argentinean tangos, had the brilliant idea of matching four of the Latin master's tone poems of the seasons in his native Buenos Aires with Antonio Vivaldi's conceptually similar masterpiece "The Four Seasons," alternating seasons between the two works. Besides the conceptual perfection of the idea, the performances are exquisite. Kremer and his conservatory orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, do a particularly masterful job with the Vivaldi, avoiding the ornate bloat that affects so many recordings of this work. Their performances are brisk and to-the-point, with bright tempos that add a vitality not often found in this rather shopworn old standard. As always, Kremer's solos in the Piazzolla works are absolutely superb, with the dramatic flourishes of the massed string section providing startling counterpoint, especially on the breathtaking "Verano Porteno". Eight Seasons is a truly remarkable work by an underrated performer.

A beautifully-recorded album from master violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata, Baltica, spanning a wide range of music, all of it broached with conviction. Hungarian composer and pianist Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer from the Serbian province of Vojvodina has written eight hymns in commemoration of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky, an artist he has called a homo moralis whose remarkable visions cast a small but significant light on the tragic world of the previous century. Georgian composer Giya Kancheli contributes a silent prayer for two of his most important musical associates: the cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and the violinist Gidon Kremer.

“Gidon Kremer has perhaps never before revealed himself as intimately and as existentially focused as on this recording”, observes Wolfgang Sandner in his liner note accompanying the Latvian violinist’s new album Songs of Fate. Together with his Kremerata Baltica chamber ensemble and soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė, Kremer approaches scores by Baltic composers Raminta Šerkšnytė, Giedrius Kuprevičius, Jēkabs Jančevskis and the Polish-Jewish composer Mieczysław Weinberg. In a performer’s note, Kremer explains how, reflecting on the different threads that create the fabric of this programme, “I realise – to my own surprise – that in many ways, this project revolves around the notion of ‘Jewishness’.“ Poignant deliveries of excerpts from the Chamber Symphony The Star of David and Kaddish by Giedrius Kuprevičius as well as the Jewish Songs by Mieczysław Weinberg emphasize this connotation.

The Baltic countries, just a couple of decades old in their current incarnations, have emerged as hotbeds of contemporary music, resting on a triad of experimentalism, community music-making, and a few big stars committed to the growth of a distinctive homegrown scene. Among the latter group, violinist Gidon Kremer has made consistently successful recordings, artistically and commercially, with his handpicked group of young Latvian musicians, Kremerata Baltica. Many of these have displayed Kremer's knack for combining contemporary music, tango, and established repertory in compelling thematic combinations.

Gidon Kremer's emotionally-engaged performing style is transferred to an orchestral scale as he leads and directs his award-winning Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra - playing with unrivalled energy and refinement - in a pair of central works of 20th century symphonic repertoire: Mahler's swansong, the Adagio from the unfinished Symphony No.10 in a new arrangement for strings, and Shostakovich's dramatic, moving Symphony No.14