Forbes Classical CD Of The Week: Consoling, Questioning, Scratching -- Pēteris Vasks String Quartets

...The String Quartets of Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks (*1946) are manifold works of considerable, eerie beauty and will be loved by those who appreciate Janáček’s and Shostakovich’s quartets and modern music like Krzysztof Penderecki’s or Kaija Saariaho’s. This disc combines quartets 1, 3 and 4, written in 1977, 95, and 99. Not all is quietly serene beauty (“Meditation” from Quartet No.4; “Melodia” from #1), with occasional, tastefully applied glissandos, or driven like a Bartók String Quartet (“Toccata” from Quartet No.4 or “Sonata” from Quartet No.1) when planes of music are treated with vigorous strokes…

-> Classical CD Of The Week: Consoling, Questioning, Scratching -- Pēteris Vasks String Quartets

Pēteris Vasks, String Quartets Nos. 1, 3, 4, Spīķeru String Quartet, Wergo