Drei Stucke fur Klarinette und Klavier (1973), and: Moments musicaux: Fur Klarinette in B solo (1977), and: Pieskarieni = Beruhrungen/Touches: Fur Oboe solo, and: Vasaras dziedadjumi: 2. stigu kvartets = Sommerweisen: 2. Streichquartett (1984), and: Simfonija stigu orkestrim "Balsis" = Symphonie fur Streicher "Stimmen" (1991), and: Fantasia Izdegusas zemes ainavas = Landschaften der ausgebrannten Erde: Fur Klavier (1992), and: Litene (Uldis Berzins): Gemischter Chor (SSSAAATTTBBB) a cappella [1993] (review)

Peteris Vasks. Drei Stücke für Klarinette und Klavier (1973). (Clarinet Library = Klarinetten-Bibliothek.) Mainz: Schott, c1996. [Notes, 1 p.; score, p. 3-16; and part. ISMN M-001-11370-0; KLB 42. 16.50.]

Peteris Vasks. Moments musicaux: Für Klarinette in B solo (1977). Mainz: Schott, c1996. (Clarinet Library = Klarinetten-Bibliothek.) [Notes, 3 p.; score, p. 5-8. ISMN M-001-11369-4; KLB 41. Duration, ca. 10 min. 9.95.]

Peteris Vasks. Pieskarieni = Berührungen/Touches: Für Oboe solo. (Oboe Library = Oboen-Bibliothek.) Mainz: Schott, c1996. [Notes, 3 p.; score, p. 5-8. ISMN M-001-11371-7; OBB 37. Duration, ca. 7 min. 11.50.]

Peteris Vasks. Vasaras dziedajumi: 2. stigu kvartets = Sommerweisen: 2. Streichquartett (1984). Mainz: Schott, c1997. [Notes, 2 p.; score, p. 5-19; and 4 parts. ISMN M-001-11366-3; ED 8512. Duration, ca. 23 min. 39.95.]

Peteris Vasks. Simfonija stigu orkestrim "Balsis" = Symphonie für Streicher "Stimmen" (1991). (Musik unserer Zeit.) Mainz: Schott, c1993. Studienpartitur. [Notes, 3 p.; score, p. 7-67. ED 8032. Duration, ca. 27 min. 29.95.]

Peteris Vasks. Fantasia Izdegusas zemes ainavas = Landschaften der ausgebrannten Erde: Für Klavier (1992). Mainz: Schott, c1993. [Notes, 2 p.; score, p. 5-19. ED 8102. Duration, ca. 15 min. 14.50.]

Peteris Vasks. Litene (Uldis Berzins): Gemischter Chor (SSSAAATTTBBB) a cappella [1993]. (Kammerchor = Chamber Choir.) Mainz: Schott, c1998. [Notes, 3 p.; score, p. 5-42. ISMN M-001-10158-5; SKR 20030. Duration, 11 min. 12.]

The renewed and reimagined nationalisms that continue to transform the identity of the New Europe and to reframe its boundaries have variously mobilized the figure of the national composer as an authentic and cosmopolitan representative of the nation. This role for contemporary composers has been a remarkable aspect of nationalisms in the Baltic states and elsewhere. In Estonia, such figures include Arvo Pärt, Veljo Tormis, and Erkki-Sven Tüür; in Latvia, Peteris Plakidis and Peteris Vasks; in Lithuania, Osvaldas Balakauskas and Vytautas Barkauskas; and in Georgia, Giya Kancheli. As figures of national authenticity, these composers embody the folk traditions, the religious practices, and the natural environment of the nation while giving voice to its Soviet, post-Soviet, and new-European experiences. As cosmopolitan figures, such composers demonstrate the ways in which these national or local values are transformed into more universal categories of human experience as their music circulates transnationally through the media of recordings and films and among elite cultural institutions.

Peteris Vasks (b. 1946 in Aizpute, Latvia) is Latvia's most internationally renowned composer and, from a global perspective, Latvia's national composer. Through the dedicated advocacy of fellow Latvian Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica, Vasks's music has helped articulate a specific national and regional musical identity. Indeed, Vasks understands his expressive and creative work in national terms: "For me what is important is to speak as a representative of a very small, unhappy but courageous country which has suffered much. In my music I speak Latvian" (notes accompanying the CD Peteris Vasks, Chamber Music [Conifer Classics 75605 51272 2, 1996]). The forms such enunciation take in Vasks's music, however, are symbolic absolutes rather than distinctly national signifiers: good and evil, hope and despair, idealism and...