20th century
Baroque
Classical
Romantic
20th century
21st century
Solo repertoire
Piccolo
Alto flute
Bass flute
Vasks Pēteris
Aitken, Robert
Arnold, Malcolm
Barber, Samuel
Bartók, Béla Viktor János
Beaser, Robert
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berio, Luciano
Bernstein, Leonard
Bloch, Ernest
Bolling, Claude
Boulanger, Marie-Juliette
Bozza, Eugène Joseph
Brown, Elizabeth
Brun, Georges
Burton, Eldin
Büsser, Henri
Camus, Pierre
Carter, Elliott
Casella, Alfredo
Clarke, Ian
Colquhoun, Michael
Copland, Aaron
Corigliano, John
Dahl, Walter Ingolf Marcus
Damase, Jean-Michel
Davidovsky, Mario
Debussy, Claude
Del Tredici, David
Denisov, Edison
Dick, Robert
Dohnányi, Ernő
Dutilleux, Henri
Enescu, George
Feld, Jindřich
Ferroud, Pierre-Octave
Foote, Arthur
Foss, Lukas
Françaix, Jean
Fukushima, Kazuo
Gaubert, Philippe
Gieseking, Walter
Gordeli, Otar
Griffes, Charles Tomlinson
Grovlez, Gabriel
Guarnieri, Mozart Camargo
Hanson, Howard Harold
Harsányi, Tibor
Harty, Hamilton
Heiss, John
Heith, David
Higdon, Jennifer
Hindemith, Paul
Honegger, Arthur
Hoover, Katherine
Hosokawa, Toshio
Hovhaness, Alan
Hüe, Georges Adolphe
Ibert, Jacques
Ichiyanagi, Toshi
Ittzés, Gergely
Jacob, Gordon
Jemnitz, Sándor
Jirák, Karel Boleslav
Jolivet, André
Karg-Elert, Sigfrid
Kennan, Kent Wheeler
Kornauth, Egon
La Montaine, John
Liebermann, Lowell
Martin, Frank
Martino, Donald
Martinů, Bohuslav
Messiaen, Olivier
Mihalovici, Marcel
Milhaud, Darius
Mouquet, Jules
Mower, Mike
Muczynski, Robert
Nielsen, Carl
Offermans, Wil
Piazzolla, Astor
Piston, Walter
Poulenc, Francis
Prokofiev, Sergey
Rachmaninoff, Sergei
Ran, Shulamit
Ravel, Maurice
Reynolds, Verne
Rivier, Jean
Rota, Nino
Roussel, Albert
Rutter, John
Saariaho, Kaija
Sancan, Pierre
Schulhoff, Erwin
Schwantner, Joseph
Sciarrino, Salvatore
Shostakovich, Dmitri
Tailleferre, Germaine
Takemitsu, Tōru
Taktakishvili, Otar
Varèse, Edgar
Vasks, Pēteris
Weigl, Vally
Williams, Ralph Vaughan
Yun, Isang
Sonata for Flute and Alto Flute solo
Sonata for Flute and Alto Flute solo
P. Vasks: Sonata for Flute and Alto Flute was written in 1992 and premiered by flutist Imants Sneibis in Helsinki. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, other worlds became accessible and many showed interest in music created in Baltic countries: Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania.
In 1992 Pēteris Vasks was invited to take part in the Helsinki Festival by creating a new composition, free from any restraints. Vasks always admired the sound of the alto flute, and this offer suited perfectly to explore the possibilities of this instrument.
Pēteris Vasks: "In this piece, I had the idea to tell the story, using the timbres and colors of the flute, that something is not right with us in terms of environment. Aren't we hurting our fellow inhabitants on this planet: birds, other animals, and trees as well? Is it not a terrible arrogance for a man to call himself the ruler of the world?"
Vasks Pēteris
Pēteris Vasks (1946) is a Latvian composer who was born in a little town of Aizpute in a family of Baptist priest during Soviet times. After initial music and double-bass studies at the Lithuanian Music Academy, he continued composition studies with Valentin Utkin at the Latvian Music Academy. While working at various orchestras as a double-bass player he composed his first compositions, influenced by works of W. Lutosławski, K.Penderecki and G. Crumb.
Gradually he developed his own style: often including Latvian folk music and programmatic titles. His music is generally extremely clear, referring to nature and above all – relations between nature and man. Starting from 1990s his career took off when violinist Gidon Kremer started to introduce his music to broader audiences. Among his most popular compositions: works for string orchestra Cantabile (1979), Musica dolorosa (1984), six string quartets (the 4th and 5th were composed for Kronos Quartet); violin (1997) and flute (2008) concertos. He is a recipient of numerous awards and prizes.
Vasks considers flute his favorite woodwind instrument and overall has written 5 different compositions for it: "Aria and Dance" (1972) for flute and piano; "Landscape with Birds" (1980) for flute solo; Sonata for Flute and Alto Flute solo (1992); Flute concerto (2008), and the "Little Summer music" for flute and piano (2016).