Antje Weithaas: Vasks

The Strad Issue: April 2025

Description: Compelling advocacy for a recent violin concerto

Musicians: Antje Weithaas (violin) Camerata Bern

Works: Vasks: Violin Concerto no.2 ‘In Evening Light’

Catalogue number: AVI MUSIC www.avi-music.de

Pēteris Vasks wrote his Second Violin Concerto for Hugo Ticciati in 2020, almost a quarter of a century after the first one, premiered in 1997 by fellow Latvian Gidon Kremer. Both pieces have the physical phenomenon of light as their inspiration: while the First was titled ‘Distant Light’, the Second is ‘In Evening Light’.

As a professional double bass player, Vasks has always favoured string instruments, for which he writes idiomatically and effectively. Both violin concertos are accompanied by a string orchestra from which he consistently coaxes haunting harmonies and evocative sounds that all strike the ear as being unequivocally Nordic.

The 35-minute piece is divided into three sections that flow into one another, articulated by extended cadenzas from the soloist. In them, Antje Weithaas’s unassuming virtuosity comes into its own as she dispatches some extended three- and four-part chordal sequences, as well as a few treacherous tenths, without batting an eyelid or accepting any compromises as far as beauty of tone is concerned.

The deliciously creamy sound of her 2001 Stefan-Peter Greiner violin, discreetly spotlit by a vivid recording, is paraded throughout the instrument’s register which Vasks employs most dramatically. Camerata Bern, whose artistic director Weithaas was for almost a decade, back her to the hilt with precision and power.

CARLOS MARÍA SOLARE