- 11.02.10
Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica - Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica take a spiritual plunge
Los Angeles Times - 11.01.10
Kremerata Baltica - Kremerata Baltica review: rough and classy
San Francisco Chronicle - 09.30.10
Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica - Review: De Profundis –Gidon Kremer, violin and director/ Daniil Grishin, viola/ Ula Ulijona Zebriunaite, viola/ Andrei Pushkarev, vibraphone/ Reinut Tepp, cembalo/ Kremerata Baltica – Nonesuch
Audiophile Audition
In 1997, Austria’s legendary Lockenhaus chamber music festival was witness to a small revolution when, beside many distinguished musicians, the violinist Gidon Kremer presented a brand new chamber orchestra: Kremerata Baltica, comprising 24 young players from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, conquered the discerning audience, injecting new blood into the festival with their exuberance, energy and joy in playing, Kremerata Baltica, an educational project with a long-term vision, was Kremer’s 50th birthday present to himself: a way of passing on his wisdom to young colleagues from the Baltic states while making no compromises on artistic standards as he nurtured and inspired musical life in the region.
The talented group of musicians soon developed into a world-class professional ensemble and has cemented its international reputation in major concert venues around the world. In the last 13 years, Kremerata Baltica have played in more than 50 countries, performing in 600 cities and including around 1000 concerts in Japan, Australia, the United States, Latin America, Russia and throughout Europe. They have released more than 20 CDs, won the Grammy Award in 2002, the ECHO prize in 2002 and the Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists in 2009.
The chamber orchestra is supported by the governments of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Its members, all outstanding musical personalities, are selected through a rigorous auditioning process and play as a stable ensemble. Among the celebrated soloists with whom Kremerata Baltica has played are soprano Jessye Norman, pianists Mikhail Pletnev, Yevgeny Kissin and Oleg Maisenberg, violinists Thomas Zehetmair and Vadim Repin, and cellists Boris Pergamenshikov and Yo-Yo Ma; conductors have included Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph Eschenbach, Kent Nagano, Heinz Holliger and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Each of these musicians has contributed to shaping the chamber orchestra.
Essential to Kremerata Baltica’s artistic personality is its creative approach to programming, which often looks beyond the mainstream and has given rise to numerous world premieres of works by composers such as Kancheli, Vasks, Desyatnikov and Raskatov. The orchestra’s wide-ranging and carefully chosen repertoire is also showcased in its many and highly praised CD recordings, such as Eight Seasons, pairing Vivaldi’s set of concertos with Piazzolla’s Argentinian sequence, and Silencio, compositions by contemporary composers: Pärt, Glass und Martynov. After Mozart, a 21st century take on the composer, won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance, and Mozart’s five violin concertos, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival in 2006, his 250th birth anniversary, have both been released on the Nonesuch label. In conjunction with the orchestra’s 2010 US tour Nonesuch label released the next recording entitled De Profundis and more recently The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould for Glenn Gould’s 80th birthday, comprised of eleven pieces by contemporary composers who quote from or are inspired by works of J.S. Bach that Gould recorded. Nonesuch’s eight CD box set The Complete Astor Piazzolla Recordings is due for release in November 2012. Other recent releases include “Mozart Concertos No. 20 & 27” featuring Evgeny Kissin on EMI, "Hymns and Prayers" and a new CD dedicated to Sofia Gubaidulina "The Canticle of the Sun" released in February of 2012 on ECM records.
The 10th edition of Kremerata Baltica’s annual festival, one of the most important cultural events of the Latvian classical music scene today, will take place in Sigula next summer.
The talented group of musicians soon developed into a world-class professional ensemble and has cemented its international reputation in major concert venues around the world. In the last 13 years, Kremerata Baltica have played in more than 50 countries, performing in 600 cities and including around 1000 concerts in Japan, Australia, the United States, Latin America, Russia and throughout Europe. They have released more than 20 CDs, won the Grammy Award in 2002, the ECHO prize in 2002 and the Praemium Imperiale Grant for Young Artists in 2009.
The chamber orchestra is supported by the governments of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Its members, all outstanding musical personalities, are selected through a rigorous auditioning process and play as a stable ensemble. Among the celebrated soloists with whom Kremerata Baltica has played are soprano Jessye Norman, pianists Mikhail Pletnev, Yevgeny Kissin and Oleg Maisenberg, violinists Thomas Zehetmair and Vadim Repin, and cellists Boris Pergamenshikov and Yo-Yo Ma; conductors have included Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph Eschenbach, Kent Nagano, Heinz Holliger and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Each of these musicians has contributed to shaping the chamber orchestra.
Essential to Kremerata Baltica’s artistic personality is its creative approach to programming, which often looks beyond the mainstream and has given rise to numerous world premieres of works by composers such as Kancheli, Vasks, Desyatnikov and Raskatov. The orchestra’s wide-ranging and carefully chosen repertoire is also showcased in its many and highly praised CD recordings, such as Eight Seasons, pairing Vivaldi’s set of concertos with Piazzolla’s Argentinian sequence, and Silencio, compositions by contemporary composers: Pärt, Glass und Martynov. After Mozart, a 21st century take on the composer, won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance, and Mozart’s five violin concertos, recorded live at the Salzburg Festival in 2006, his 250th birth anniversary, have both been released on the Nonesuch label. In conjunction with the orchestra’s 2010 US tour Nonesuch label released the next recording entitled De Profundis and more recently The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould for Glenn Gould’s 80th birthday, comprised of eleven pieces by contemporary composers who quote from or are inspired by works of J.S. Bach that Gould recorded. Nonesuch’s eight CD box set The Complete Astor Piazzolla Recordings is due for release in November 2012. Other recent releases include “Mozart Concertos No. 20 & 27” featuring Evgeny Kissin on EMI, "Hymns and Prayers" and a new CD dedicated to Sofia Gubaidulina "The Canticle of the Sun" released in February of 2012 on ECM records.
The 10th edition of Kremerata Baltica’s annual festival, one of the most important cultural events of the Latvian classical music scene today, will take place in Sigula next summer.
Audio Clip
String Quartet No. 15 in G, D. 887: III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace - Trio. Allegretto courtesy of ECM Records (Universal).
Last updated November 2012. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.