Gundaris Pone

Half 1, The dialectic of morning shadows: within the streets and squares, is distinctly evocative, stuffed with distinctive timbres and textures, richly advanced harmonies. Half 2, Lyrical Venice: the Arch of Paradise stays advanced but clear, contrasting wildly with the vivid trumpets on the opening of Half 3, Extreme Venice: the mouth of the lion, which merges violence with vibrant dance. Half 4, The dialectic of afternoon waters, is delicate but busy and quasi-nocturnal while Half 5, A gathering with the messenger of demise on the island of San Michele strikes into actual evening music, or maybe nightmare music. Half 6, Night chatter on San Bartolomeo Sq. is all vivid scurrying but with one thing eerie about it too, what are these individuals chattering about. Lastly, Half 7, The dialectic of evening fog: spectral Venice, which has an underlying rhythmic construction with extra slithering music over, once more I had ideas about Britten and his fondness for passcaglia construction, but additionally get shocking fragments of widespread songs.

That is giant scale, advanced music but such is the evocative, virtually descriptive nature of Pone’s writing that regardless of the complexity the music has nice enchantment. Stuffed with timbres and textures, Pone makes use of his orchestra with nice idiosyncratic ability. Why do not we all know this music extra? The performers on the disc gave the work’s Latvian premiere in Could 2023, so it’s not shocking if others haven’t picked it up, but.

We do not know that a lot concerning the origins of Pone’s American Portraits. Written in 1983-84, the composer acknowledged in a letter that the work was to be carried out by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra within the 1985-86 season, however the first recognized efficiency is by the Louisville Symphony Orchestra in 1986. Evidently Pone acknowledged that he had portrayed 5 Individuals: an inventor, a well-known movie star, a robust financier, a gangster and a navy genius. All legendary – some in a great way, others in a foul method. No extra particulars!

The work is in 5 actions, every vividly characterised and maybe barely tougher edged and fewer evocative than La Serenissima however nonetheless Pone’s writing is vivid and eclectic. He is not afraid of laborious modernist sounds, but can proceed with a quote from 5 Foot Two, Eyes of Blue composed by Ray Henderson, which Pone notes ought to to be carried out in a Twenties type. It’s this sheer eclecticism and vivid creativeness that appeals.

The ultimate work on the disc Avanti! is the earliest, relationship from 1975. Avanti! was commissioned for the 1975 Latvian Music Pageant in Toronto, however the occasion’s organising committee rejected the composition. Judging by modern articles, the organisers of the 1983 Music Pageant in Milwaukee had been of the identical thoughts – Avanti! was not carried out for political causes, and in addition the piece turned out to be too tough to be performed with the musical assets out there. Pone has a transparent dialectic and maybe didactic intention within the piece, he makes use of a motif from the Latvian 1905 revolutionary music With Battle Cries on Our Lips to an impact that we’d see as political. Maybe it is a good second to keep in mind that Pone, at varied occasions, referred to as himself a socialist, a Marxist, a communist.

The extremely informative booklet quotes musicologist Sofija Vēriņa recalling, in 1990, Pone’s first go to to Latvia in 1971 (on the top of the Soviet interval), “The principle challenge was not the artwork of this customer, however what political standing he must be given. The emigrant (who on the age of 11 had fled into exile along with his dad and mom). The avantgardist (unacceptable to us). Sure, very progressive, so a humanist (however not a Marxist). A Trotskyist!, lastly determined the Latvian Committee for Cultural Relations with Compatriots Overseas. Nonetheless, the composer was obtained very kindly, with the authorities making an attempt to adapt the common humanist concepts in his work as finest as attainable to the official [Soviet] propaganda. Thus Gundaris Pone (like his good friend and colleague [the eminent Italian composer Luigi] Nono) discovered himself in a paradoxical place: right here, because of his excessive humanistic potential, he was thought of ideologically ‘appropriate’ however technically misguided, whereas some compatriots overseas noticed him as ideologically misguided however technically ‘appropriate’.” The point out in Nono is intriguing, as right here is one other composer who mixed complexity with a scarcity of dogma and a way of vivid creativeness.

Different parts in Avanti embody, disturbingly, a cuckoo, and a citation of Bach’s mournful chorale O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid, of which Pone mentioned, “That’s all I can do inside my philosophy. As a result of in spite of everything, we have no idea what the ultimate reply might be; we are able to solely stand earlier than the query mark.”

The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, conductors Guntis Kuzma (for La Serenissima and American Portraits) and Normunds Šnē (for Avanti!) do Pone proud. It is a vividly realised recording which does full justice to the complexity and vivid creativeness of this music. 

Gundaris Pone (1932-1994) – La Serenissima, seven Venetian portraits for orchestra
Gundaris Pone – American Portraits
Gundaris Pone – Avanti!
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra
Conductors Guntis Kuzma and Normunds Šnē
Recorded at Nice Amber Live performance Corridor, Liepāja, 8–9 January 2024, February 20-22, 2024, February 27-29, 2024
SKANI LMIC162 1CD [67:11]