Eight Seasons

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Release Date
DescriptionExcerpt

Kremer interpolates Vivaldi's Four Seasons with Astor Piazzolla's modern, four-part contemplation of the same theme. Says the Los Angeles Times, "Back and forth we go with ease between 17th-century Venice and 20th-century Buenos Aires, between Baroque dance and Argentine tango, the globe's hemispheres and history all made one."

Description

Gidon Kremer, whose interpretation of the music of Astor Piazzolla has brought increased recognition to an already distinguished career, continues to push the boundaries of music-making on Eight Seasons. Together with the Kremerata Baltica, a group of young musicians from the Baltic States he assembled in 1996, the album takes the listener on a musical journey across two centuries and two hemispheres.

The idea for Eight Seasons began more than a decade before the album's 2000 release, when Kremer sought out several composers in hopes of commissioning a new version of Vivaldi’s masterpiece The Four Seasons, to be written with the same instrumentation as the original but in the chosen composer’s unique style. After seeking out composers like Alfred Schnittke, Luigi Nono, and Arvo Pärt, he found that they all resisted the idea of trying to approach something that would come so close to Vivaldi’s original work. Several years later, when Kremer first discovered Piazzolla’s opera Maria de Buenos Aires, he also learned that among some of the Piazzolla works in his repertoire was Invierno porteño (Winter in Buenos Aires). Shortly thereafter he found that within the Piazzolla catalog there existed other seasons as well.

After recording Maria de Buenos Aires, Kremer had the idea to re-orchestrate Piazzolla’s Cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) and combine it with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, so he proceeded with the help of the composer Leonid Desyatnikov, a close associate who assisted with arrangements of some of Kremer’s previous Piazzolla recordings. Kremer views the Eight Seasons as a dialogue of sorts between Piazzolla and Vivaldi, and says, “it is Desyatnikov’s achievement to make Piazzolla speak directly to Vivaldi, and in such a way also Vivaldi to Piazzolla, because using certain quotations of Vivaldi in the context of the score helps to build bridges between these two different geniuses, two different cycles, two different worlds, making them a unit, a unity, giving them full exposure of the vitality, not just on its own but in the dialogue, making this dialogue possible.”

Kremer believes that although both works stand on their own as masterpieces, combining Piazzolla’s Four Seasons with Vivaldi’s does not diminish the power of either of them, but rather magnifies it. “Playing it or listening to it, you enter another world,” Kremer says. “You enter a world in which you don’t think any more about the glamor of the music or music-making. Kremerata Baltica and I are trying to serve the cause of music as a language, music as something that is electrifying, as something that reminds us of being alive, that was an important ingredient of life centuries ago and will remain an important ingredient of life for centuries to come. This is not music that can be put on a museum shelf.”

Eight Seasons is a project in which the borders, between musical genres, continents and centuries, are eliminated, and what endures is the consistent quality of the works themselves. For Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica, a group of young musicians from the independent Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, their common language is a musical one. The ensemble’s performance breathes new life into the Vivaldi work without compromising its essence, and introduces audiences to Piazzolla’s lesser-known and eminently worthy composition.

Eight Seasons is the inaugural release in an exclusive, six-record agreement between Kremerata Baltica and Nonesuch Records. Gidon Kremer’s Nonesuch discography also includes the Grammy-nominated Hommage à Piazzolla (1996) and El Tango (1997), both featuring arrangements of the works of Astor Piazzolla performed by Kremer’s acclaimed Astor Quartet.

ProductionCredits

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Recording produced by Helmut Mühle
Recorded September 6-9, 1998, Reutlingen-Gönningen, Germany, at Evangelische Peter und Paul-Kirche
Recording Engineer: Markus Heiland, Tritonus Musikproduktion GmbH
Editing: Gudrun Maurer

Music by Antonio Vivaldi (1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-15), Astor Piazzolla (4, 8, 12, 16)

Design by John Gall

Executive Producers: Gidon Kremer and Matteo Tradardi

Nonesuch Selection Number

79568

Number of Discs in Set
1disc
ns_album_artistid
66
ns_album_id
192
ns_album_releasedate
ns_genre_1
0
ns_genre_2
0
Album Status
Artist Name
Gidon Kremer
Kremerata Baltica
MusicianDetails

MUSICIANS
Kremerata Baltica:
Gidon Kremer, artistic leader, solo violin
First violin: Dzeraldas Bidva, Eva Bindere (solo and continuo), Migle Diksaitiene, Myroslava Kotorovich, Sandis Steinbergs, Rasa Vosyliute, Sanita Zarina
Second violin: Andrejs Golikovs, Inga Gylyte, Elo Ivask, Lasma Mucenice, Marija Nemanyte, Andrei Valigura (solo and continuo)
Viola: Janis Lielbardis, Ula Ulijona (solo and continuo), Kaspars Vilnitis, Zita Zemovica
Cello: Peteris Cirksis, Ilze Grudule, Eriks Kirsfelds, Marta Sudraba (solo and continuo)
Bass: Janis Mednis, Indrek Sarrap   
Harpsichord: Reinut Tepp (solo and continuo)

Cover Art
UPC/Price
Label
CD+MP3
UPC
075597956825BUN
Label
MP3
Price
9.00
UPC
603497198160
  • 79568

News & Reviews

  • Congratulations to violinist Gidon Kremer, who has been named the 2016 Praemium Imperiale Laureate in Music. The award is presented by the Japan Art Association in Tokyo to honor artists who have contributed significantly to the development of international arts and culture. The 2016 laureates in other fields are Cindy Sherman, Annette Messager, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, and Martin Scorsese. Past music laureates include Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Leonard Bernstein. Each laureate receives 15 million yen ($146,000); a medal will be presented by Prince Hitachi in a ceremony held in Tokyo on October 18, 2016.

  • The Royal Conservatory's Koerner Hall in Toronto has announced its 2014–15 concert season, the organization's sixth anniversary season, which will feature performances from several artists familiar to readers of the Nonesuch Journal: Jeremy Denk, Richard Goode, and Natalie Merchant, making their Koerner Hall debuts, and a return visit from Gidon Kremer. Tickets are on sale now.

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  • About This Album

    Gidon Kremer, whose interpretation of the music of Astor Piazzolla has brought increased recognition to an already distinguished career, continues to push the boundaries of music-making on Eight Seasons. Together with the Kremerata Baltica, a group of young musicians from the Baltic States he assembled in 1996, the album takes the listener on a musical journey across two centuries and two hemispheres.

    The idea for Eight Seasons began more than a decade before the album's 2000 release, when Kremer sought out several composers in hopes of commissioning a new version of Vivaldi’s masterpiece The Four Seasons, to be written with the same instrumentation as the original but in the chosen composer’s unique style. After seeking out composers like Alfred Schnittke, Luigi Nono, and Arvo Pärt, he found that they all resisted the idea of trying to approach something that would come so close to Vivaldi’s original work. Several years later, when Kremer first discovered Piazzolla’s opera Maria de Buenos Aires, he also learned that among some of the Piazzolla works in his repertoire was Invierno porteño (Winter in Buenos Aires). Shortly thereafter he found that within the Piazzolla catalog there existed other seasons as well.

    After recording Maria de Buenos Aires, Kremer had the idea to re-orchestrate Piazzolla’s Cuatro estaciones porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) and combine it with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, so he proceeded with the help of the composer Leonid Desyatnikov, a close associate who assisted with arrangements of some of Kremer’s previous Piazzolla recordings. Kremer views the Eight Seasons as a dialogue of sorts between Piazzolla and Vivaldi, and says, “it is Desyatnikov’s achievement to make Piazzolla speak directly to Vivaldi, and in such a way also Vivaldi to Piazzolla, because using certain quotations of Vivaldi in the context of the score helps to build bridges between these two different geniuses, two different cycles, two different worlds, making them a unit, a unity, giving them full exposure of the vitality, not just on its own but in the dialogue, making this dialogue possible.”

    Kremer believes that although both works stand on their own as masterpieces, combining Piazzolla’s Four Seasons with Vivaldi’s does not diminish the power of either of them, but rather magnifies it. “Playing it or listening to it, you enter another world,” Kremer says. “You enter a world in which you don’t think any more about the glamor of the music or music-making. Kremerata Baltica and I are trying to serve the cause of music as a language, music as something that is electrifying, as something that reminds us of being alive, that was an important ingredient of life centuries ago and will remain an important ingredient of life for centuries to come. This is not music that can be put on a museum shelf.”

    Eight Seasons is a project in which the borders, between musical genres, continents and centuries, are eliminated, and what endures is the consistent quality of the works themselves. For Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica, a group of young musicians from the independent Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, their common language is a musical one. The ensemble’s performance breathes new life into the Vivaldi work without compromising its essence, and introduces audiences to Piazzolla’s lesser-known and eminently worthy composition.

    Eight Seasons is the inaugural release in an exclusive, six-record agreement between Kremerata Baltica and Nonesuch Records. Gidon Kremer’s Nonesuch discography also includes the Grammy-nominated Hommage à Piazzolla (1996) and El Tango (1997), both featuring arrangements of the works of Astor Piazzolla performed by Kremer’s acclaimed Astor Quartet.

    Credits

    MUSICIANS
    Kremerata Baltica:
    Gidon Kremer, artistic leader, solo violin
    First violin: Dzeraldas Bidva, Eva Bindere (solo and continuo), Migle Diksaitiene, Myroslava Kotorovich, Sandis Steinbergs, Rasa Vosyliute, Sanita Zarina
    Second violin: Andrejs Golikovs, Inga Gylyte, Elo Ivask, Lasma Mucenice, Marija Nemanyte, Andrei Valigura (solo and continuo)
    Viola: Janis Lielbardis, Ula Ulijona (solo and continuo), Kaspars Vilnitis, Zita Zemovica
    Cello: Peteris Cirksis, Ilze Grudule, Eriks Kirsfelds, Marta Sudraba (solo and continuo)
    Bass: Janis Mednis, Indrek Sarrap   
    Harpsichord: Reinut Tepp (solo and continuo)

    PRODUCTION CREDITS
    Recording produced by Helmut Mühle
    Recorded September 6-9, 1998, Reutlingen-Gönningen, Germany, at Evangelische Peter und Paul-Kirche
    Recording Engineer: Markus Heiland, Tritonus Musikproduktion GmbH
    Editing: Gudrun Maurer

    Music by Antonio Vivaldi (1-3, 5-7, 9-11, 13-15), Astor Piazzolla (4, 8, 12, 16)

    Design by John Gall

    Executive Producers: Gidon Kremer and Matteo Tradardi

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