Composer: Fridrich Bruk
Performer: Gertruda Jerjomenko, Anda Eglīte
Orchestra: Liepaja Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Maris Kupčs
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0455
Release: 2018
Size: 900 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 17 “Joy of Life”
01. I. Attempts: Andantino
02. II. Sorrow: Largamente
03. III. Strength: Robusto. Con spirito
Symphony No. 18 “Daugavpils”
04. I. Rose (Ruzena): Andante
05. II. Daugavpils 1915 – Banishment: Allegretto
06. III. 5 Variations on an Own Theme: Theme: Pensieroso
07. III. 5 Variations on an Own Theme: Variation 1
08. III. 5 Variations on an Own Theme: Variation 2: Lento
09. III. 5 Variations on an Own Theme: Variation 3
10. III. 5 Variations on an Own Theme: Variation 4: Sostenuto
11. III. 5 Variations on an Own Theme: Variation 5
Fridrich Bruk – born in Kharkov in 1937 and a Finnish resident since 1974 – made his name as a composer of tangos. But the heart of his music lies in a series of eighteen symphonies, which have a strong narrative element, some reflecting Jewish themes, others inspired by Karelia and Finland. Symphony No. 17, Joy of Life (which Bruk also calls a ‘Concerto-Symphony for Orchestra and Piano’),has an autobiographical programme charting, in abstract terms, Bruk’s surmounting of the obstacles fate put in his path. Symphony No. 18 takes as its starting point a Latvian-Jewish folksong: it is premised on the deportation of his grandparents from their Latvian home, in an anti-Semitic campaign by Tsarist Russia that Bruksees as a kind of prologue to the Holocaust.