Gidon Kremer’s Latest Album of Discovery

Listening to the repertoire of Kremerata Baltica and its Artistic Director Gidon Kremer is not always an easy matter. Nevertheless, those that have followed this site (not to mention my previous site on Examiner.com) for some time probably know by now that I am drawn to every new release by this ensemble the way a moth is drawn to a flame. More often than not, I encounter names of composers that had previously been unknown to me. Unless my memory is failing me, even my first encounter with Mieczysław Weinberg was due to Kremer, even though I would subsequently write about recordings by other performers.

One week from today ECM New Series will release Songs of Fate, Kremer’s latest “journey of discovery” album; and, as many will expect, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for processing pre-orders. As usual, he leads his Kremerata Baltica; and he also appears as soloist on four of the twelve tracks. Instrumental solos are taken by cellist Magdalena Ceple and Andrei Pushkarev on vibraphone. The other featured soloist is the soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė, who performs on six of the tracks.

Half of the tracks are devoted to Weinberg. The other composer that Kremer followers may have previously encountered is Raminta Šerkšnytė; but her earlier contribution was an arrangement of a prelude and fugue in A minor from Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 889) for flute, oboe, cembalo, and string orchestra. She appears on the first track of Songs of Fate with “This too shall pass,” scored for string orchestra with solo parts for violin, cello, and vibraphone.

The tuned bird ocarina included in the score of “Lignum” (from a YouTube video)

From my vantage point, the “new discoveries” on this album are the two composers Giedrius Kuprevičius and Jēkabs Jančevskis. The latter appears on the final track in a performance of “Lignum,” which is scored for string orchestra, tumšie svilpaunieki (an ocarina in the shape of a bird, as shown above), chimes, and wind chimes. The four Kuprevičius tracks, on the other hand, are all informed by Judaism. Two of them are movements from a chamber symphony entitled “The Star of David.” The other two are inspired by the Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. “Penultimate Kaddish” is a setting the Aramaic text for soprano and orchestra. It is preceded (appropriately enough) by “Kaddish-Prelude,” scored for violin and percussion. As a lapsed Jew I can appreciate the connotations behind this music; but I must confess that, where this text is concerned, I still tend to prefer the setting by Maurice Ravel, even if he was an atheist!

However, whatever issues I may have with religion, I feel that there is much for the adventurous listener to discover in this new release.