9. The Importance of Art in Unstable Times
Sat, June 13th at 11
The venue will be announced later
Composers Pēteris Vasks and Olli Kortekangas discuss the importance of art. Hosted by Seppo Kimanen and Marko Ylönen. The event will be held in German and Finnish.
Music: Pēteris Vasks (*1946): String Quartet no. 4 (1999)
I Elegy
II Toccata I
III Chorale
IV Toccata II
V Meditation
In his work, Pēteris Vasks contemplates the place of humanity in the final stretch of time and seeks hope and faith amid destruction through music. His string quartet, composed in 1999, was created as a tribute to his mother on her 90th birthday; she had lived through the upheavals of the 20th century in Latvia.
The movements of the quartet alternate between meditative melancholy and violent energy. Elegy opens the work quietly, like an encounter with the past, with the music surging toward an unknown future. It is followed by furious Toccata movements, where rhythmic intensity and dissonance recall Shostakovich’s outbursts. The central Choral offers a momentary pause and a flash of hope before the music again accelerates toward chaos. The final movement, Meditation, rises like the song of an angel, where sorrow and hope intertwine. Vasks himself has said that the sound of wings always symbolizes hope.
Based on an article by West Cork Music.
FREE ADMISSION
Photo: Janis Porietis / Peteris Vasks, Saara Vuorjoki / Olli Kortekangas