Vasks: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light" Antje Weithaas & Camerata Bern

• Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946): Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light":
• 1 Vasks: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light": I. Andante con passione 07:16
• 2 Vasks: Cadenza (to Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra „In Evening Light”: Cadenza I 03:40
• 3 Vasks: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light": II. Andante cantabile 08:48
• 4 Vasks: Cadenza (to Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra „In Evening Light”: Candenza II 06:19
• 5 Vasks: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light": III. Andante con amore 09:24
• Total Runtime 35:27

Info for Vasks: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light"

Violinist Antje Weithaas and the Camerata Bern are releasing their album recorded together with our partner label CAvi Music, which includes a studio recording of the second violin concerto Vakara gaismā (‘In Evening Light’) written by Latvian composer, composition teacher and double bassist Pēteris Vasks. Vasks wrote this concerto in 2020 as a commissioned work for violin and string orchestra, the same instrumentation as his first violin concerto, which he composed almost 25 years earlier.

The subliminal feeling of serenity in this violin concerto has its origins in a reflection on nature. Birdsong in particular, combined with religious faith - he grew up as the son of a pastor - inspired Vasks to compose the concerto. The work also reflects the composer's genuinely chaotic experiences during his childhood in a small Latvian town, which was characterised by fear, censorship and a sense of hopelessness.

Camerata Bern
Antje Weithaas, violin, conductor

Antje Weithaas
Brimful of energy, Antje Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves. She has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck.

As a soloist, Antje Weithaas has worked with most of Germany’s leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony and the major German radio orchestras, numerous major international orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Symphony, as well as and the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Asia. She has collaborated with the illustrious conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitri Kitayenko, Sir Neville Marriner, Marc Albrecht, Yakov Kreizberg, Sakari Oramo and Carlos Kalmar.

Antje Weithaas begins the 2023/24 season with concerts at Marie-Elisabeth Hecker’s and Martin Helmchen’s new Fliessen Festival and at the Schubertiade. She continues her musical partnership with harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in three concerts at the Wigmore Hall and at the Lammermuir Festival. Other highlights include concerts with Ensemble Resonanz, Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Camerata Bern and Kammerakademie Potsdam. With the Duisburger Philharmoniker under Axel Kober, she will premiere the new version of Manfred Trojahn’s Violin Concerto. She will make her debut in the Pierre Boulez Saal in a duo recital with Dénes Várjon. In trio concerts with Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen, she will also appear at the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer and the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele.

Through her infectious zest for communication, Antje Weithaas‘ reputation for inspiring play-lead concerts with international renowned chamber orchestras is rapidly growing. Having been the Camerata Bern’s artistic director for almost ten years, she was responsible for the ensemble’s musical profile, leading large works such as Beethoven’s symphonies, and recording music by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. Her concerts as artiste associé of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in the 2021/22 season led to an immediate re-invitation.

Antje Weithaas produced a reference recording of Beethoven and Berg’s violin concertos in 2013 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane (CAvi-music). The label cpo released her recordings of Max Bruch’s complete works for violin and orchestra with the NDR Radio Philharmonic under Hermann Bäumer to great acclaim. There were rave reviews for Antje Weithaas’ project for CAvi, the complete recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas and Eugène Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas. Two CDs were released in 2019: a recording of the violin concerto by Robert Schumann and the double concerto by Johannes Brahms with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, cellist Maximilian Hornung and conductor Andrew Manze, and a recording of the violin concerto and concert rhapsody by Khachaturian with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and conductor Daniel Raiskin. Spring 2023 saw the release of Vol. I of the planned complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's violin sonatas with pianist Dénes Várjon on the CAvi-music label.

Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and later studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin with Professor Werner Scholz. She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987 and the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1988, as well as the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hanover in 1991. Together with Oliver Wille, she recently took over the artistic leadership of the renowned Joachim competition. After teaching at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Antje Weithaas became a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner violin.

Booklet for Vasks: Concerto No. 2 for Violin and String Orchestra "In Evening Light"