Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Imants Kalninš - "4. Simfonija" ("Rock" Symphony) {Latvia} [1972]

Imants Kalninš (born May 26, 1941 in Riga, Latvia) is one of the most important composers in the history of Latvian music. Having studied classical, as well as choral music, he has written six symphonies, several operas (including the first rock opera in the USSR - Ei, jus tur!/ "Hey, you there!"), oratorios, cantatas, choir songs, a lot of movie and theater music. However, he is generally best known for his rock songs and is to be considered the first composer of intellectual rock music. http://soundmaven.com


"Travelling the Baltic States the influence of the Russification that was applied by the Soviet regime for more then forty years is notable everywhere. Also in the music scene. During the Soviet period, artists and writers were kept under surveillance and their work was heavily censored. This was done largely through state sponsorship. Artists who were approved by the state were given superior accommodation and the state purchased their work. There were also artists that tried to find mazes in the Soviet regulation and were able to keep local culture alive.

In musical terms the Latvian traditional music originates in the Daina. A mix of music and poetry telling stories about local mythology and legendary Latvian heroes. No wonder the Soviet rule wasn’t to keen on these nationalistic songs. With this in mind the work of composer Imants Kalniņš is undeniable of great importance. Born in 1941 he was brought up under Soviet rule. Still he was interested in the old Latvian daina’s and mixed them in his classical work. This did not go down to well. To make things even worse he became interested in rock ‘n roll in sixties and founded the first Latvian pop-band 2xBBM. After a short-lived succesfull start the local officials banned the band just a year after their first appearance.

Probably pretty pissed off Kalniņš started to work on a project that would be released as ‘symfony 4’ in 1972. The project was no classical work but is in fact the first progressive rock album in Latvia history. Inspired by illegal music like Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ and Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’ Kalniņš mixed rock and Latvia folklore with classical music. To make things even worse he incorporated poetry from American beat poet Kelly Cherry (who was his lover at the time) for the final movement. Still with all these obvious attempts to irritate the Soviet officials the symphony was allowed to be released if Cherry’s poem would be left off. Although it looks like a minor step for some the relevance of this work for Latvian people must have been huge. Note that a copy of the album is even on display at the Riga Occupation Museum as a symbol of the Latvian culture being cherished in the seventies. (review first published on europopmusic.eu)
"
by europopmusic
http://www.europopmusic.eu/Eastern_Europe_Pages/Kalnins.html

more info... http://inkpot.com/classical/ssogarbage.html

01 Allegreto (14:14)
02 Andante trnquillo (8:46)
03 Grave molto (8:37)
04 Moderato rubato (17:49)

Allegreto...

link in comments...

10 comments:

isabelbc said...

http://lix.in/-86f354

Anonymous said...

This opera from Latvian Composer Maestro Imants Kalniņš, is very much in the classical music field and could convince also the listeners of that genre. Deep and intensely emotive.

Thank you ISA

Anonymous said...

the zip file is not working

isabelbc said...

link is ok, http://lix.in/-86f354 click "Continue" :o)

Oracus said...

Judging from the sample, this is heavy stuff, I like it! Thanks Isabel!

Anonymous said...

any chance you can reupload this? tried 4 times to download it and it wont let me unzip. thanks :)

isabelbc said...

hi Anonymous,
please, download and use this program for unzip
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
isabel :o)

Anonymous said...

no need of 7z !

but a new link!

isabelbc said...

new link http://netkups.com/?d=b9845f08250f1

etvipane said...

Could you reupload the album, please? From what I hear, this has to be the milestone of Soviet progressive rock!

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