President Adamkus, President Zatlers, and the President of the Riigikogu are in Berlin for the opening of the Baltic Year of Culture in Germany.

http://www.essentia-baltica.de/

What I don’t get: the site is in German and Latvian (no Lithuanian, no Estonian), and all of the events I looked at are… Latvian. Since H.E. Valdas Adamkus is participating, as is the Speaker of Estonia’s Parliament, I assume they’re represented, too. But a look at the site of the German Embassy in Vilnius turned up nothing for me.

What gives?

Geriausio,
/P

I’ve learned that the opening concert at the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Gidon Kremer, included works by Arvo Pärt and Bronius Kutavičius, not just Pēteris Vasks.

Those concerned about cittautiešu support for culture should note that Valery Kargin’s Parex is one of the principal sponsors of the year-long event. Of course, Vasks might not be tautisks enough for Ambersun… and doubtless Gidon Kremer doesn’t celebrate the 16th of March.

Vysu lobu,
/P

P.S. An interview with Kremer can be watched here (in Russian).

Peteris, just keep muddying your political waters - maybe when your U.S. candidate McCain gets elected, you or your kids (or Vasks’) will have to “volunteer” for Iraq. 

PS Vasks was recently here in northern California.  No doubt he had the opportunity to meet some Daugavas Vanagi of the Northern California Latvian Association when he came to Latvian Hall.  He also visited in the homes of unabashed Latvian patriots.  I think most area Latvians, including the Vanagi, contributed to Vasks’ success in this area.  Americans have many talented conductors and artists but you know you can always count on those multi-tasking-ruukisi Latvians to organize special events for any Latvian conductor, March 16 flower-layer or not, who comes through town.

Peteris, just keep muddying your political waters...

I don’t get this—does it mean your waters are crystal clear, purling from the deep springs of your “unabashed” patriotism? Or that you’re a Muddy Waters fan? I am, too!

Vysu lobu,
/P

Ambersuns...Sorry to interrupt the witty reparte with a substantive question, but…
Vasks was in California conducting?  Who?  What?  I would assume when there he might be seen with Kronos Quartet, a group for whom he has composed for and who have premiered several of his works.  I have never seen him conduct, so I’m intriqued.

Some substance --

Mozart #3 in G, Gidon Kremer

Enjoy!
/P

Peteris Cedrins et al.,

“What I don’t get: the site is in German and Latvian (no Lithuanian, no Estonian), and all of the events I looked at are… Latvian. Since H.E. Valdas Adamkus is participating, as is the Speaker of Estonia’s Parliament, I assume they’re represented, too. But a look at the site of the German Embassy in Vilnius turned up nothing for me.

What gives? “

Blame the latvians, as you usually do.

Visu labu,

PC...I’m assuming your kind response was meant in response to me.  I just checked to make sure in my dotage I didn’t type the wrong name.  Thank you for posting the YouTube link...I enjoy Gideon Kremers and Kremerata Baltica very much.  But my question is about Vasks...and conducting, which I’ve never seen him do.  Any ideas for that? :-)

Dear Talzemite, that’s ambersun as in dzintarsaulite.  My greetings to the Latvian ruukiishi in Peru!

Yes, Talzemite, I did write about conductors and artists: “Americans have many talented conductors and artists but you know you can always count on those multi-tasking-ruukisi Latvians to organize special events for any Latvian conductor, March 16 flower-layer or not, who comes through town.”

Talzemite, it certainly was not my intention to intrigue you by failing to name my conductors like Gidon Kremer, etc. and identify my artists as composers like Peteris Vasks, etc.  I have missed the northern California visits of both Gidon Kremer and Peteris Vasks. (I also missed Ilgi in Berkeley and teatris “Kabata” in San Francisco.) If you really want to know what brought Peteris Vasks to northern California, I’m including the following, with my apology:

World Premiere at the Marin Symphony

The Marin Symphony, in conjunction with the Magnum Opus commissioning initiative, is proud to present the World Premiere performance of “Sala” (Symphonic Elegy for Orchestra) by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. “Sala” will be performed at the Marin Symphony’s January 28 and January 30 concerts.

From the North Bay Classical Music review:
“The first MSO concert of the year and the third of the season was performed at the Civic Center Auditorium and to a full house of very enthusiastic concert goers. ...
The program opened with the Magnum Opus World Premier of Sala, a Symphonic Elegy for Orchestra, that was composed this past year.  Composed by the Latvian composer, Peteris Vasks, Sala was a short tonal work (22 minutes) and melancholy in mood. ...
The title of the work - Sala - means island, and Vasks’ interpretation is that every person is an island, which is a source of sadness as well as energy, power, and drama. ...”

McTālzeme—just joking! C’mon, you spent enough time here to learn about Lettish irony. I am very worried about Ambersun’s sense of irony. Yours can’t have atrophied in Colombia. When I put on my Lederhosen to stand behind Aleksei’s амберсан sign (Alyosha shall certainly wear a tautas tērps), I hope to drag her off to concentration camps where we teach bitter humor without emoticons.

I doubt that Vasks conducted.

Vysu lobu,
/P

PC...I remember it well.  But I no longer have a sense of humor...instead I have two teenagers.  Whew.  :-) S

Blame the latvians [sic], as you usually do.

What is this with the lower-case “latvians”? Ambersun has even given “Nation” an upper-case “N,” at least during the Nazi occupation.

Yes, I blame the Latvians all of the time. That must be why I live in Latvia, work for Latvia, and happen to be Latvian.

I know I should blame the Russkies—it’s so much more patriotic! Whenever I have bad breath, I blame the lack of Listerine!

Maybe I’ll keep doing what I usually do, which is getting somewhat pissed off when people try to build castles of sūdi upon a victim complex that gets older and more rotten every day.

I happen not to agree with Kaža—all of his nasty stuff about what he encounters in Latvia (and there is only one Latvia, really, with layers of time and place) is true, and I could and sometimes do add a bit to his complaints. But I love Latvia—even as is—and I find him and some others in this forum to be incredibly blind to reality (which includes surrealism).

Latvia has changed amazingly since I got here. Some things don’t change, and most of those are things I doubt one would want to see change—the mansion in Svente is spiffy now (it’s where the big soap opera is made), for example—but a lot of the country folk around it are as impossible as ever.

Our cynicism is both the national sport and most accomplished art. It tends to nihilism, sure—that’s how we survived, and how we survive.

If one wants the West—one has gotten it in everything except in a decent politics… and that reflects down (and most of the West has an indecent politics, too).

But if I compare a student today to a student in 1991, they are entirely different creatures—the one is free, whilst the other was victimized from the get-go.

There’s a new generation that’s free, and it’s like day and night. If you want to whine about the muttishness of Latvia, as Kaža does—go look at your own countries. They’re coming apart at the seams as we speak. If you compare central Rīga to central Paris, fine—maybe we lose (though I would question even that).

But I think American society can be at least as disgusting as Latvian society, but without the spark I find here.

Take it on its own terms. Send Kaža to the 18ème or Harlem ca. 1985.

It ain’t me denigrating Latvia or Latvians. I take Latvia on its own terms, and I’m a Latvian.

Vysu lobu,
/P

Peteris, I suspected you secretly have LLLedershosen, but where is Alyosha going to get a TTTautas terps?  Maybe Talzemite can send him hers. :)

We’ll rob Raivītis, of course. What else do Russians know but robbery?

/P

ambersun - 17 March 2008 01:42 PM

Peteris, I suspected you secretly have LLLedershosen, but where is Alyosha going to get a TTTautas terps?  Maybe Talzemite can send him hers. :)

I’ll borrow one from Raivītis from his March 16th event.

Sveiki!

Spelling-challenged and addle-brained ‘Ambersuns’ wrote:

„PS Vasks was recently here in northern California.  No doubt he had the opportunity to meet some Daugavas Vanagi of the Northern California Latvian Association when he came to Latvian Hall.  He also visited in the homes of unabashed Latvian patriots.  I think most area Latvians, including the Vanagi, contributed to Vasks’ success in this area.  Americans have many talented conductors and artists but you know you can always count on those multi-tasking-ruukisi Latvians to organize special events for any Latvian conductor, March 16 flower-layer or not, who comes through town. “

The phrase ‘recently here’ is, of course, a relative notion.  But, in point of fact, the premiere of Vasks’ „Sala” occurred 14 months ago in January, 2007.  Sorry that you missed the concert (per what you wrote in a subsequent post), since this elegy was a quite interesting and emotionally compelling piece, his emphasis on wind instruments to convey his themes being a surprising departure from the strings, which he considers his element.

Thank you, Susanna, for pointing out the obvious - that Vasks isn’t a conductor, but rather a composer.

Ambersun, shame on you!  By that I don’t mean your lack of finesse in googling, which prevented you from initially discovering that Vasks isn’t a conductor.  Instead, it’s your patronizing attitude toward Latvia’s Latvians that I find appalling, and which led you to write, „I think most area Latvians, including the Vanagi, contributed to Vasks’ success in this area.”

Sorry - you’ve got it ass-backwards.  „Area Latvians” did absolutely nothing that „contributed to Vasks’ success in this area.” Vasks is the first Latvian composer to have found his place in the international arena - just as Sibelius did for Finland, Bartok for Hungary or Grieg for Norway, etc - , and this occurred long before 2007.  He did it on his own steam, and frankly I didn’t have the impression that other Letts at that concert felt, as you do, that *they* contributed to „Vasks’ success.”

E.