Digital Release Day

Born in 1946, Latvian composer, composition teacher, and double bassist Pēteris Vasks wrote his second violin concerto, Vakara gaismā (“In Evening Light”) in 2020 as a commissioned work for violin and string orchestra, the same line-up as his first violin concerto written almost 25 years earlier.

As in Vasks’s first concerto, the theme of light once more plays a role here in terms of musical content: evening light as a metaphor for the twilight years in our lives. The middle of the three movements, which merge into one another, evokes a human being looking back on an entire life, including dramatic moments; this reflection leads to ecstasy after a virtuoso cadenza. In contrast, the slow, lyrical outer movements exude a calm, melancholy atmosphere of farewell to life, with a hopeful glimpse of (evening) light on the horizon.

Spotify