GIDON KREMER

Songs of Fate

Works by Šerkšnytė, Kuprevičius, Weinberg, and Jančevskis Kremerata Baltica, Vida Miknevičiūtė, soprano ECM 2745, CD (reviewed as 24/96 WAV). 2024. Manfred Eicher, prod.; Vilius Keras, Aleksandra Keriene, Peter Laenger, engs.

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

Songs of Fate takes us on an extraordinary journey of survival and pain. Far more than a “concept album,” it bears urgent witness to violinist Gidon Kremer’s roots as a Jew who has spent years in the Baltic states. This intimate, personal statement is intended, in Kremer’s words, “to speak to everybody, reminding us of tragic fates along the way and that we each have a ‘voice’ that deserves to be heard and listened to.”

Kremer’s violin, Magdalena Ceple’s cello, Andrei Pushkarev’s vibraphone, and the instruments of Kremerata Baltica speak eloquently as the recently composed “This too shall pass,” by Raminta Šerkšnytė, gives way to four works by Giedrius Kuprevičius. Their heart-grabbing melodies and unmistakable roots in Jewish tradition touch deeply. Vida Miknevičiūtė, a remarkably eloquent and gorgeously voiced soprano, sings “David’s Lamentation” from the chamber symphony, The

Star of David, and an interpretation of the sacred prayer, Kaddish, that Jews recite in memory of the dead.

Five short works by Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996), including three of his Jewish Songs for soprano and string orchestra, intensify the sense of hope, dislocation, and despair that characterize the Jewish struggle for survival over close to six millennia. Kremer has long championed Weinberg’s music, which has finally received recognition. Weinberg’s cradle song, “Viglid,” conveys more than simple sweetness. The program concludes with “Lignum,” the shockingly original, breathtaking dialogue with nature and trees by Jēkabs Jančevskis (b. 1992) that thrillingly expands to huge dimensions as it speaks to nature’s struggle to transcend impending catastrophe. What words cannot describe, music reveals.—Jason Victor Serinus