Ivanovs Jānis

Vocalises

Cast:
SATB

Musicologist Mārtiņš Boiko has commented: "The concept of a 'feeling for nature' finds its fullest and purest expression in the vocalise genre so characteristic of Jānis Ivanovs. Such musical landscapes as Fog, Cumulus Clouds, Autumn Song, Native Landscape, Birds of Passage and others reveal his extraordinary ability to hear colours and shapes and to see sounds - an ability that developed in no small measure due to the contribution of musical impressionism, a movement that Ivanovs followed and studied and which manifested itself to a large extent in his vocalises, but also in his other works."

"However, alongside their impressionistic refinement of colour and texture, these choral works almost invariably contain a fragile romantic longing, which finds its expression in the minor tonalities, in the wistful sense of the past, and in the sense of nature as an entity endowed with a soul. Moreover, with Ivanov's vocalises, it is not their 'rendering' or immediacy that is important for us! When one hears them, Rilke's words come to mind in a particularly profound and clear way:" …is there any landscape whose images are not full of the narrative of one who has seen them?