This is a very attractive record of three pieces for stings. All are available on other records as there seem to be many recordings of Vasks' music but usually the same pieces (in different combinations on different records). Viatore is an impressive and haunting piece that builds into a formidable climax and then subsides again. I suppose it brings to mind Sibelius as well as the more obvious comparisons with Goreki, Part, Kancheli. Or you could say it is a piece that would grace the repertoire of any string ensemble and would fit well within their concert programmes. Misica Dolorosa is perhaps more conventional - in terms of the new simplicity that composers from the ex-Soviet Baltic states favour but is a strong example of its type.
The big work is the Violin Concerto, "Distant Light". I never got to hear the account by Gidon Kremer, which is not currently available, and I suppose Katarina Andreasson might not be his equal. But she certainly sounds good! She is inside the music and presents it to us very convincingly. The piece is attractive and not entirely simple - but it does manage to be both striking and conventional (tonal, tuneful). It is a somewhat teasing work - not quite ecstatic but not quite earthbound either. Anyway, this is a very attractive record that might serve as a great introduction to a distinctive voice.