Plainscapes for Piano Trio

Delta Piano Trio

Gerard Spronk [violin], Irene Enzlin [cello]
Vera Kooper [piano]

Peteris Vasks [born 1946]

Plainscapes for Piano Trio [2011]

Vasks Plainscapes began as a meditation for eight-voice choir with violin and cello, later substantially rewritten for piano trio. The work is in one movement, unfolding in a single arc inspired by the unspoilt beauty of the Latvian landscape. Like Haydn in his Sunrise Quartet Vasks creates music for the gradual approach of dawn leading to an ecstatic climax as the sun rises and the birds all break into song.

The composer writes: In my adaptation of a work originally composed in 2002 for eight-voice choir, violin and violoncello, I was particularly interested in recreating the tonal spectrum of the three extended vocalises (sung by the choir) for the piano in my new version for piano trio. While the piano part had to accommodate the entire choral texture, the parts for violin and violoncello remained almost unaltered. This was however not a mere transcription: above all, I significantly expanded the ecstatic climax occurring towards the end of the version for choir, which expresses a vision of dawn breaking and the awakening of nature with its profusion of birdsong. 

Peteris Vasks