Though being best known as a poet, recently deceased Imants Ziedonis also wrote his fair share of prose. Ziedonis’ prose, with its flowery and imaginative language, was almost musical. With this in mind, a recording of Ziedonis’ ‘Zaļā pasaka’ (Green Fairytale) was made with narration and musical accompaniment, and was released by Latvian publisher Musica Baltica (MBR 006).

The story, a fable about the forest unexpectedly coming into Riga one night, driving out all the pollution and dust, is narrated by Latvian singer Lauris Reiniks. Many composers – including Selga Mence, Platons Buravickis, Anitra Tumševica, Evija Vecumniece, Ieva Klingenberga, Laura Gustovska, Juta Bērziņa, and Ēriks Ešenvalds – provide the musical interludes and backgrounds during the storytelling. The music is performed by the combined orchestras of the Jāzeps Mediņš 1st Rīga College of Music and the Pāvuls Jurjāns College of Music, conducted by Laura Staša and Valdis Butāns.

A version in Russian was also released, with narration by Jakovs Rafalsons.

The CD booklet also features the full text of the story in both English and Latvian.

For more information, please visit the Musica Baltica website.