Description
This album contains both studio and live world premiere recordings of orchestral works by Latvian composer Agris Engelmanis (1936-2011) performed by Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, pianist Elina Bertina and conductor Atvars Lakstigala.
Engelmanis mainly composed symphonic music and choral songs, plus several vocal-instrumental works, a few pieces of instrumental chamber music, and a couple of compositions for organ. He was one of the most modernist-oriented Latvian composers, yet he remains utterly underrated.
Olafs Gutmanis, who was a close friend and colleague of Engelmanis, once wrote: "There are people who feel better in the shadows. In the twilight of the evening, at sunset, when an intimate hour has arrived, extinguishing the vivid impressions of the day, when loneliness hits the hardest and longing takes on a tragic hue. Not by dispelling thoughts and feelings, but by concentrating them in a sharp and vital experience. The clouds thicken in the sky, the trees thicken in the forest, and the shadows merge into a deep and cosy darkness. And man casts off his own longest shadow until it merges with the shadows of nature, until the human becomes unnoticeable as a being. He has melted into nature, he has hidden himself from the curious light, he has entered the night. And that is where he feels best. There his wings, the wings of the nocturnal bird, unfold. There his flight begins."