Baltic Souls

Featuring

Ursula Schoch
Marcel Worms
Arvo Pärt
Jurgis Gaižauskas
Pēteris Vasks
Heino Eller

Ester Mägi
George Gershwin

Did you know?

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Composer's Artistic Vision

After a five-year retreat, Arvo Pärt developed his "tintinnabular" style, which uses simple notes, triads, or harmonies to create music that sounds like bells or chimes.

Album & Artwork

This album is inspired by the lecture-concert series "Baltic Souls," which explores the history of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania through the stories of fifteen families.

Composer Biography

Arvo Pärt, an Estonian composer, began improvising on an old Russian piano with broken middle keys, which influenced his later compositional style of using modest means.

Performer Biography

Ursula Schoch, the violinist on this album, was a member of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1998 to 2000 and has been the Second Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2000/01.

Historical Context

For centuries, the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were occupied by foreign powers, and music was often the only permissible form of national expression.

Composer Biography

Jurgis Gaižauskas, a Lithuanian composer, wrote 500 instrumental and 600 vocal works, many of which he performed with his wife and ten children as a family ensemble.

Composition History

Arvo Pärt's religious work "Credo" (1968) caused him to receive a ten-year publication ban in Estonia after its premiere, while the conductor and his family were sent to the West.