Maskats: Chamber Music

Featuring

Sigvards Kļava
Aivars Kalējs
Normunds Šnē
Sandis Šteinbergs
Reinis Birznieks
Edgars Saksons

Antra Bigača
Agnese Rugevica
Riga Chamber Players
Latvian Radio Choir
Arturs Maskats

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Performer Biography

The Rīga Chamber Players, founded in 1987 by oboist and conductor Normunds Šnē, have received the National Music Prize of Latvia three times.

Performer Biography

The Latvian Radio Choir, founded in 1940, is flexible in its size, performing as small groups for madrigals or with up to ninety singers for large-scale works.

Composition History

Each composition on this album was created for specific musicians: Normunds Šnē and his chamber orchestra, Sandis Šteinbergs and his violin, Reinis Birznieks and his cello, and Antra Bigača and her mezzo-soprano voice.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Arturs Maskats, a Latvian composer, believes that music must first and foremost be beautiful to speak to individual listeners, stating, "Beauty will save the world."

Composer's Artistic Vision

Arturs Maskats finds inspiration in literature, particularly from authors with "cosmic interests" like Hermann Hesse and Dostoyevsky, and his fellow Latvian Edgars Imants Siliņš.

Composer Biography

Arturs Maskats spent 16 years as the musical director of the Daile Theatre, composing scores for approximately 90 productions across major Latvian theaters.

Performer Biography

Sigvards Kļava, the principal conductor of the Latvian Radio Choir since 1992, won the Grand Prix of the Dmitri Shostakovich Young Conductors' Competition in 1985.