(picture: Riga skyline, Latvia, the logo of Cameo's Ivanovs CD series)

JANIS IVANOVS - COMPOSER

JANIS IVANOVS is considered Latvia's most distinguished symphonist. His grasp of orchestral colour and musical texture was so extraordinary that his colleagues often praised him for his precise and expressive musical idiom.Just as few in the West had heard of Inessa Galante before the break-up of the Soviet Union, few were aware of the most prominent Latvian composer of the 20th century Janis Ivanovs. Like Prokofiev and Shostakovich, Ivanovs survived conflicts with the Stalinist authorities, was even sometimes in official favour, but unlike Russian composers of that era he was a citizen of an occupied territory and his chances of his greatness being recognised outside his native Latvia were seriously compromised. He was also, to a large extent, cut off from outside developments in music, although his early symphonies and tone poems show him very attentive to musical trends. Apart from a short experimental period, he remained a very melodic composer, with roots in romanticism, developing his own voice in the isolation of his occupied homeland. Now Latvia has regained its independence it is proud to reveal his talents to the world.

Campion Records plans to issue Latvian archive recordings all but three of the symphonies and many other works over the next five years.

Scores of most of the symphonies and concerti are available for hire from Latvia - make arrangements through Campion Records or The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.

The score and parts of the Violin Concerto are also available for hire from D I Music in the UK. This is a very melodic piece entirely suitable for a general concert audience which deserves greater exposure.

Using RealAudio technology, we are now able to offer you the chance to hear some short samples of Janis Ivanovs works.  More will be added, but here are a few to begin with:

JANIS IVANOVS ORCHESTRAL MUSIC VOLUMES 1 - 3

Following its successful first collaborations with Latvian Radio, begun shortly after the release of Inessa Galante's "Debut" album, Campion Records is now releasing the first CDs of a series which will bring nearly all the orchestral works of Janis Ivanovs to CD, most of them for the first time. Janis Ivanovs, who died in 1983 while Latvia was still governed by the Soviet Union, occupies a place similar to that of Sibelius in Finland, or Nielsen in Denmark, only he wrote considerably more symphonies than either, with 20 completed and a 21st unfinished at his death. The Campion series will run to at least 12 volumes over the next 2 -3 years.

VOLUME 1 1933 - 1937 Symphony No 1; Latgalian Landscapes; Symphony No 2

CATALOGUE NUMBER: CAMEO 2008

Mail Order Price £12.50 including postage

VOLUME 2 1938 Symphony No 3; 'Cello Concerto; The Cloudy Mountain

CATALOGUE NUMBER: CAMEO 2009

Mail Order Price £12.50 including postage

VOLUME 3

Symphony No. 4 "Atlantis"
Rainbow (Symphonic Poem)

RAINBOW is unique amongst Ivanovs orchestral works, it is a work of delicate orchestral colour and harmony, lacking his usual melodic brightness and structural solidity. It is a work clearly influenced by Impressionism, but Ivanovs chose to take no further steps down this road.

ATLANTIS, symphony number four, which was begun in the thirties, has the character of a prophecy of doom, influenced by the political unrest and artistic soul searching of that time, but by its release it must also have been seen as a dark prophecy of Latvia's future, after the invasion by the Soviet Army in 1940. It is a large-scale work, both in concept and in its orchestral realisation, including parts for a Women's chorus. It is perhaps the last completely free utterance of the Composer for many years. He, like the greater of the Soviet composers, had for a while to discover a voice which spoke individually whilst also pleasing the authorities who wanted a controlled art, understood by the "masses".  Even after this phase of control ended Ivanovs never entirely escaped the shadow of Soviet occupation of his homeland.

CATALOGUE NUMBER: CAMEO 2007

Mail Order Price £12.50 including postage

NOTE: THE VOLUMES ARE NUMBERED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER BUT ARE BEING ISSUED IN ORDER OF LICENSING, SO THERE MAY BE GAPS IN THE SERIES UNTIL IT IS COMPLETED

VOLUME 6 1955 - 1957   Frost In Spring; Symphony No 8; Lacplesis    

CATALOGUE NUMBER: CAMEO 2012

Mail Order Price £12.50 including postage

VOLUME 7 1959- 1963  Piano Concerto; Andante; Symphony No 10    

CATALOGUE NUMBER: CAMEO 2013

Mail Order Price £12.50 including postage

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