Pēteris PLAKIDIS (1947-2017)
Eternity
Latvian Radio Choir/Sigvards Kļava
rec. 22-26 March 2021, St John’s Church, Riga, Latvia
SKANI 123 [66:42]
Pēteris Plakidis is celebrated as a pianist and composer in his native Latvia, but his music is not so widely known or performed elsewhere. There is an excellent disc of music for strings on the courageous and indefatigable Toccata Classics label, but otherwise it is the composer’s choral music that has the widest currency. Here is a collection performed by the magnificent Latvian Radio Choir.
Plakidis’s music is basically tonal, but in no way bland or unadventurous. A listener will learn much about the composer by listening to the piece that gives the programme its title, Mūžība (Eternity). At a few seconds short of six minutes, this is the longest piece in the collection. Basically in E minor, its ten pages of score carry barely an extra sharp or flat. The song begins with overlapping wordless pentatonic melismata from the sopranos divided into three groups. Under this constantly moving yet serene background the tenors and basses, in four and sometimes even five parts, intone the words of the poem. For the most part it is the first tenors who carry the melody, supported by harmonies of extreme richness from the other male voices, creating a texture typical of much modern choral music from the Baltic nations. A few G-sharps are introduced at the mention of the sun, and ravishing chords of E-flat major underline the closing mentions of eternity. It is in E flat major that the composer chooses to end the piece, but with added notes that further the idea of timelessness. There is no closure, no definitive ending, only a feeling that all will continue. Eternity is a setting of a poem by Jānis Jaunsudrabiņš (1877-1962) – most of these pieces are settings of modern Latvian poetry – in which the notion of eternity is to be found everywhere. Thoughts of eternity creep into the poet’s heart when night’s fears crowd upon him, or when he addresses the sun. (The sun is a potent symbol in Latvian folk art and traditions.) We are mortal, and one day will cease to exist, yet everything else will continue. The poem’s quiet contemplation is perfectly realised in the music.
Dear Mother, the Sun is based on a Latvian folk song, a prayer to the sun to show itself and ease the hardship of a shepherd’s day. The shepherd accepts that there will be rain, but please, just for one day at a time, and certainly not the whole summer. The piece is based on a bare minimum of thematic material, but the choral textures and expressive means create a minor masterpiece of choral writing. Plakidis illustrates the falling of rain in the final stanza by means of a rapid ostinato given to the altos around which the other voices sing the same text in gentle, ingenious yet unobtrusive counterpoint. The effect is exquisite.
Plakidis’s choral style frequently involves repetition of tiny melodic motifs, melodies sung over held, drone-like notes in the men’s voices, often in bare fifths, and multiple divisions of voices creating choral textures of great richness and beauty. Latvian folk music is an inescapable influence. New listeners will probably be particularly struck by the writing for the tenors and basses. This music does not sound like Russian orthodox choral writing as encountered in Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil or in certain of Tchaikovsky’s sacred works; there are no bottom B-flats for the basses, for instance. Even so, a more southerly choir needs basses that will not be troubled by the challenge of holding and projecting a low-lying melodic line. And quite apart from the exceptional voices required, much of this music is extremely difficult to sing. The Two Magic Songs, for instance, require considerable technical mastery, especially from the sopranos and altos in the first song, and the angular vocal line that characterises the harshness of the outdoors in A Life must also be singularly challenging to manoeuvre.
A tambourine adds to the irresistible, dancing high spirits in Song of Bread. This is followed by two songs in the Latin of the Old Testament. The first song features harsh dissonances to evoke the ‘tears of the oppressed’ who have ‘no comforter’. The second song, on the other hand, speaks of happiness and doing good, its music based on a simple and naggingly memorable rising major scale melodic phrase. Of the remaining works, only Shore of Kurzeme, Shore of Vidzeme, with its bell-like imitative writing between the voices, seems to me to fall below the consistently high level of inspiration that characterises the programme. Fata Morgana – I am unable to discern the meaning of the title – is a pearl of a short, three-part cycle, and listeners will hear in In memoriam choral textures of unparalleled richness. A fervent song of homage to the local region that is the poet’s homeland closes the collection.
The Latvian Radio Choir is one of the greatest of all vocal ensembles. Their vibrato-light singing is technically flawless. Theirs is perhaps not vocally beautiful in the conventional sense, but there is a richness and unanimity to their singing, allied with impeccable tuning, that is deeply satisfying. I have heard them live in a wide variety of repertoire and have always been enchanted by what they achieve. Here, in music that is in their blood, with Sigvards Kļava, one of the choir’s two directors – the other is Kaspars Putniņš – they are world-beating. The sound, in the perfect acoustic of their frequent recording venue, St John’s Church in Riga, is very fine. The booklet is informative despite a bumpy translation, and provides all the sung texts in Latvian and in English.
To those listeners yet to discover the deeply satisfying world of modern Baltic choral music I offer the strongest possible encouragement to acquire this disc. Devotees will leap at the chance.
William Hedley
Contents
Teiksma (Legend) [5:07]
"Zvana vārdi" (Words of the Bell) [1:48]
Izkapts ābelē" (Scythe in the Apple Tree) [1:36]
Mūžība (Eternity) [5:59]
Papardes zieds (Fern Blossom) [2:03]
Div’ buramdziesmas" (Two Magic Songs) [7:12]
Maizes dziesma (Song of Bread) [2:27]
Divi dziedājumi no Vecās Derības (Two Chants from the Old Testament) [7:01]
Kurzemes krasts, Vidzemes krasts (Shore of Kurzeme, Shore of Vidzeme) [5:21]
Fatamorgana (Fata Morgana) [6:06]
Rudenī (In Autumn) [2:49]
Saulīt, mīļā māmulīt (Dear Mother, the Sun) [3:00]
Mūža aina (A Life) 3:29]
Ausmas stundā (Daybreak) [2:54]
Jāņa bērnam (To the Midsummer Child) [1:34]
In memoriam [4:19]
Tavas saknes tavā zemē (Your Roots in Your Land) [3:47]
