Songs of Fate in Bloomington, MN

Few performers have reshaped the classical repertory like violinist
Gidon Kremer
. He was key in bringing the music of composer
Mieczys¿aw Weinberg
to general attention, and he identified a highly productive fount of music where minimalism met avant-garde styles. Hardly anything
Kremer
has done has been anything less than well-considered and well-executed, but with
Songs of Fate
, he and his ensemble
Kremerata Baltica
outdo themselves. The album is inspired by
's Jewish background, something he hasn't made a point of in the past, but that seems to snap much of his output into relief after one has heard this. The program consists of works by Baltic composers, apparently not all of them Jewish, and three of the
Jewish Songs, Op. 13
, of
Weinberg
, which have a quality of Jewish self-revelation akin to that which
is accomplishing here. There are also two highly appealing early
pieces that could be added to the repertory of any orchestra. Most of the music involves
's string orchestra, with novel solo instruments such as a svilpaunieki and a vibraphone. The program was recorded in two sessions, one of them live, in 2019 and 2022; only the works by
Raminta ¿erk¿nyt¿
and
J¿kabs Jan¿evskis
were recorded after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and none were done prior to the attacks of October 7, 2023, in Israel. Yet both events seem to hang over the music, which rises from a mix of Jewish roots and uneasy dissonance to a soaring finale in
Jan¿evskis
'
Lignum
. This is a powerful album, and
ECM
's crack engineering staff unifies the diverse sound sources. It has the feel of a project that came together as
and the other performers realized its impact, and one may be thankful that they did. ~ James Manheim