Latvian Concerto "Like a Handwritten Letter"

 

On February 24 and 26, the Orchestra’s English horn player, Robert Walters, performs the English Horn Concerto by the living Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks at Severance Hall. Guest conductor Andrey Boreyko calls the concerto “warm, moody, melancholic, sensual, human” and “composed, not constructed.”

Robert describes the piece as deeply expressive:

“The melodic and harmonic language of his English horn Concerto is Eastern European to be sure, Baltic beyond that, but more importantly - it is beautiful and personal; he writes music that feels like a handwritten letter-- expressing musical and emotional truths that every member of the audience will recognize as somehow their own.”

Click here for a video of Robert playing excerpts and talking about the work. 

 “To my mind, every honest composer searches for a way out of the crises of his time—towards affirmation, towards faith…And if I can find this way out, this reason for hope, the outline of a perspective, then I offer it as my model.” – Composer Pēteris Vasks

Photo of Robert Walters by Matt Dine