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De Profundis

Between 2000 and 2012, the Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer and his ensemble Kremerata Baltica recorded a series of fascinating albums for the Nonesuch label. I bought six or seven of them and still have a few on my shelves now. Most of these CDs have a theme, and that of De Profundis ('out of the depths'), released in 2010, is, according to Kremer's own booklet notes, to do with composers crying 'out of the depths' with their music for a better world.

Additionally, Kremer writes, he was thinking of the business of oil (extracted out if the depths of the earth) which is "used to sustain tyrannical regimes, be it in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Myanmar, or Russia". There is, moreover, a dedication to the erstwhile oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then in a Russian prison. Having said all that, hearing the pieces on the disc in innocence of the booklet notes, one would be hard-pressed, I think, to deduce a unifying theme from them.

The two longest pieces in the album (Lithuanian composer Raminta Serksnyte's 'De Profundis' and Russian-born Lera Auerbach's 'Sogno di Stabat Mater') are intense contemporary works. Also contemporary, but sweetly melodic, is Georgs Pelēcis' 'Flowering Jasmine' - my favourite track on the CD. These are interspersed with miniatures composed by the likes of Sibelius, Schumann, Schubert & Shostakovich. There's no faulting the performances on this striking and thoughtful recording, which is one, however, I'm more prone to dip into than to play from start to finish.
 

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