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| Peteris Vasks: String Quartet No. 4 | 
 enlarge | Creators: Peteris Vasks, Kronos Quartet
Label: Nonesuch
Category: Music
List Price: $10.98
Buy New: $7.89
You Save: $3.09 (28%)
Buy New/Used from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  (10 reviews)
Sales Rank: 141892
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.5
MPN: 79695
UPC: 075597969528
EAN: 0075597969528
ASIN: B0000AN4FI
Release Date: August 19, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | I. Elegy | | • | II. Toccata I | | • | III. Chorale | | • | IV. Toccata II | | • | V. Meditation |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The contemporary Latvian composer Peteris Vasks has said "There has been so much bloodshed and destruction, and yet love's power and idealism have helped to keep the world in balance. I wanted to speak of these things in my new quartet; not from the sidelines, but with direct emotion and sensitivity," and, indeed, from the folksy melodies through to chaos and back again which he creates in this, his fourth quartet, we are taken through a myriad of feelings. His music is always intense and he knows how to build to a climax, relax, and return the listener to a heightened awareness of drama, and so forth. His meditative moments will remind listeners of Arvo Paert; his disruptive passages bring Shostakovitch to mind. But the textures, so beautifully brought out by the great Kronos Quartet, are uniquely Vasks' and when, at the work's conclusion, after a return to the folk melody of the first movement, the strings fly up to their highest registers and simply disappear into the ethos, the effect is magical and, somehow, comforting. It's similar to the way he ends his violin concerto and it's just as effective. A fascinating release. --Robert Levine
Album Description
Full title - Peteris Vasks - String Quartet No. 4. Vasks' Fourth String Quartet, composed of five movements, was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and was premiered in 2000 at the Theatre de la Ville in Paris. A somber reflection on the passing century, it incorporates Latvian folk songs, its movements variously meditative, strident, restless, subdued. Slipcase. Nonesuch. 2003.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Bravo, March 30, 2008
What a great string quartet. I sat transfixed by Vasks writing. How wonderful the music develops, hints of Latvian floksongs inform much of the quieter movements and when the crunchy, disonant Toccata's 1 & 2 arrive, the listner is ready for it. The ending is marvelous bit of composition in which the violins perform a morendo as the gliss (sorry, I play trombone and this is the best I can do to describe it) upward into silence....I will be purchasing the violin concerto and other string quartets of Vasks as the editorial review suggests. This is wonderful 20th century music.
 A secret door from Baltic Avenue to Boardwalk October 22, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Growing up in downtown Winnipeg during the 1950s I was part of hordes of other children, most of them unruly, who had a lot of time on their hands during the long two-month summer holidays which in relative time were actually two centuries long. With the temperature being 95F outside with humidity and squadrons of vicious mosquitoes lurking in the un-mowed grass, the more clever children, like me, spent our time indoors rotting our teeth by consuming chocolate in various forms washed down with uncounted 16 oz. Coca Colas, and playing games like Monopoly. Little did we know that we were being brainwashed into buying into a virulent form of capitalism instead of playing a harmless children's game. The point of all this is that on the Monopoly board the cheapest and most scorned of properties were Mediterranean and Baltic Avenues. Was this fair? I am here to tell you that a lot of the best new classical music is being composed and performed in the Baltic area by Estonian, Latvian and Ukrainian artists. Here is an example. It is Peteris Vasks' String Quartet No. 4 performed by the brilliant and eclectic Kronos Quartet.
This is an amazing work. There are two spiky discordant movements (Toccata I and Toccata II) along with more introspective movements, including the final movement, Meditation, which is one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever heard -strange, nostalgic, and very moving. It takes me to places, other worldly places, better places. Even though I am usually a complaining, cynical, malcontent, fatalistic pseudo-gnostic, listening to the fifth movement (Meditation) somehow gives me hope that all is not lost. Think of it as a message from a better world -one you used to live in and may be able to go back to some day.
A Very Good, Albeit Unorignal, Quartet December 5, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Vasks' Fourth String Quartet is much like Shostakovich's Eight String Quartet, except not. Whereas Shostakovich's quartet is overwhelming, brooding, and relentless, Vasks' work is far more reserved. Tension is just beneath the surface.
Shostakovich's opus ends in defeat. The finale is an example of just how haunting music can be. The finale to Vasks' Fourth Quartet is again another example of how haunting music can be- but this time, in another way. The pensive finale, with its violin solo, reflects upon all the injustice wrought last century.
Vasks voices compassion at the end of a brutal century October 31, 2004
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
The Kronos Quartet continues its devotion to contemporary works by Eastern European composers with this release. Lyrical and elegiac, the 4th String Quartet by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks is a meditation on the brutality and suffering of the 20th century. Commissioned for Kronos, it was first performed in May of 2000.
It is a five-movement work of about 30 minutes, and while not highly original, it has excellent models. Vasks declares that the second and fourth movements, Toccata I and Toccata II, are "in a spirit close to that of Shostakovich's style" -- "aggressive, and at times, ironic." This is a notable departure for Vasks, who is not known for anything dissonant or angry. These movements remind me specifically of Shostakovich's famous 8th Quartet, a work full of rage and sorrow dedicated to "the victims of war and fascism," and thought by many to be an indictment of Stalin as well (recorded by Kronos on BLACK ANGELS -- see my review). The first, third and fifth movements (Elegy, Chorale, and Meditation) are in the style that Vasks is known for, influenced by the "holy minimalism" of Part and Gorecki, with Latvian folksong motifs and romantic gestures that some might find to be overly ripe. He utilizes glissandos, seemingly representing movements up and down between the Earth to Heaven, which echo the powerful works of Sofia Gubaidulina. And Vasks draws on yet another influence -- the climax of the central Chorale parallels the well-known climax of Barber's "Adagio." The closing Meditation, the longest movement at 11:35, features a long, lovely solo for David Harrington's violin. This passage beautifully expresses the feeling of COMPASSION.
Vasks says of his 4th Quartet, "[t]here has been so much bloodshed and destruction, and yet love's power and idealism have helped keep the world in balance." Utilizing the recognizable works by Barber and Shostakovich, both emotionally direct and powerful works, couldn't make more sense. Vasks may not be the most original of contemporary composers, but he knows how to work with existing materials and create music that is accessible and moving.
Just beautiful March 28, 2004
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
What is greater than purely beautiful, inspired music? Not much. Some think it would be better to combine this piece with the Berg Lyric Suite, putting them on the same CD. That would be better for your wallet, but I don't think it would serve the music as well as separate discs. They are two separate great pieces of music. They are completely different styles. They do not belong on the same CD. Each one is valuable and important on its own and needs no 'filler' to make the CDs worth the money.
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