Pēteris Vasks

A Little Night Music

Peteris Vask's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, composed in 1978, is an example of the tragedy of past eras and a small-scale requiem for the hope of people of all ages. The title borrowed from Mozart is here coloured in a poignantly ironical hue. The greater the musical experience of the listener, the deeper is the understanding of this music and its composer. For example, the Latvian speech melody and the proximity of the diatonic folk song to the mediaeval sequence Dies irae suddenly reveals itself as a concept of night music from a more general aspect. The rhythmically constant pulsation in the piano bass subsequently assumes a semantic significance and could possibly be an elegy for Schubert's Erlkönig.