LŪCIJA GARŪTA | ĀBELE

Performers

Latvian Radio Choir
Sigvards Kļava - conductor

Recorded

2023

Release date

03.11.2023

Compositions

Lūcija Garūta

"Ābele" / "Apple Tree"

Lūcija Garūta

"Gāju putnu rudens dziesma" / "Autumn Song of the Migrating Birds"

Lūcija Garūta

"Pavasara lietū" / In the Spring Rain

Lūcija Garūta

"Sirmai māmuliņai" / To a Dear Elderly Mother

Lūcija Garūta

"Mērens vējiņš" / A Moderate Breeze

Lūcija Garūta

"Nāc, jaunā audze" / Come, Young Generation

Lūcija Garūta

"Aizgājušie" / The Departed

Lūcija Garūta

"Mums mūžam brīviem, latvji, būt" / May We, Latvians, Forever Be Free

Lūcija Garūta

"Vēlējums bērnam" / A Wish for a Child

Lūcija Garūta

"Miera balss" / The Voice of Peace

Lūcija Garūta

"Dziesmiņas gaitas" / The Little Song’s Path

Lūcija Garūta

"Jaunatnes balsis" /The Voices of Youth

Lūcija Garūta

"Dziesma, - cilvēka dziesma" / The Song – Humanity’s Song

Lūcija Garūta

"Dziesmu diena" / Day of Song

Lūcija Garūta

"Tava skaņu pils" / Your Castle of Sound

Lūcija Garūta

"Liela, plaša mūsu druva" / Our Field so Vast and Wide

Lūcija Garūta

"Dziesma saulei līdzi iet" / The Song Walks Alongside the Sun

Lūcija Garūta

"Līgo"

Lūcija Garūta

"Ai, manā zemītē" / Oh, in My Land

Lūcija Garūta

"Baltaitiņa jūru pelda" / A White Sheep Swims in the Sea

Lūcija Garūta

"Rīb tiltiņis" / The Bridge Rumbles

Description

Lūcija Garūta (1902–1977) was one of the first Latvian professional female composers. She wrote dozens of a cappella choral works, but only now, with this album, are several of those songs experiencing their premieres. 

Like most composers born in Latvia in the early 20th century and who lived through the Soviet occupation, Garūta’s work can be divided into periods before and after the Second World War. In the memoirs of her contemporaries from the 1930s, we read about venues full to overflowing on evenings featuring Garūta’s solo songs, when the young composer herself, who had studied in Paris (1926–1928) alongside studies at the Latvian Conservatoire, sat at the piano and accompanied the brightest soloists of the day, including soprano Milda Brehmane-Štengele, mezzo-soprano Herta Lūse, tenor Mariss Vētra and baritone Ādolfs Kaktiņš. Garūta was admired for her unusual interplay of thoughts that reflected on current trends in the world of music at the time, bravely defending even the ideas of Les Six, but at the same time remained faithful to elements of Latvian music, especially praising the Latvian folk song.  

Kristiāna Vaickovska