This release by the Latvian label SKANi is the debut album of the talented violinist Magdalēna Geka with Iveta Cālīte joining her on the piano. The album features world premiere recordings of the violin sonatas by one of the nowadays most recognized and prominent Latvian women composers Maija Einfelde.
Maija Einfelde blossomed slowly, travelled a difficult road of non-recognition, and, in her mature years, experienced a spectacular wave of recognition, which has not subsided even until this day. Her earlier works were destroyed without pity; only a few orchestra parts, or a piano reduction for a solo part, have been preserved. Famine and post-war poverty – difficult childhood was also a part of what created her as a composer. The Composers' Union only accepted Maija Einfelde as a member thirty years after graduating from the Latvian Conservatory.
"My father had some kind of violin, nothing of quality, I remember that we managed to scrape out something with it. The violin is the only thing that my mother preserved from the Valmiera workshop that burned down during the war. I myself never truly learned how to play the violin, but I have not really fully learned to play any instrument. If one only begins to study music at the age of thirteen, and, prior to that, only carrying sacks and milked cows, one cannot really develop into a pianist. My [later destroyed] violin concerto was laughed at. They complained then and they probably complain now, I just do not know about it. It is important to me that the contents and sound be intonatively rich”, says the composer.
At that time, many professionals considered women composers to be a rarity. Maija herself received particularly destructive, ironic and critical arrows. Musicians occasionally say there is much darkness in Maija's music. "Perhaps that is my battle with the Composers' Union during Soviet times", Maija says. And then one wonders how much of that is true, or perhaps it is more Maija's characteristic harsh humour. Maija Einfelde mainly composes for specific musicians and her body of work includes a symphony, symphonic miniatures, a viola concerto, works for voice, choir and orchestra, vocal chamber music, a collection of choir works, sonatas, instrumental miniatures and music for organ.
Her first violin sonata was composed for Indulis and Ilga Suna. Her second and third, as well as her Sonata for solo violin, were for the violinist Janis Bulavs. "He amazes me, how he feels the music, how he understands music and how he, as a person, is still responsive and even unrestrained (we are still in touch), he was able to tell me everything directly, even if something seemed wrong, and I was not insulted. A phenomenal violinist, a true musical soldier". A careful listener will notice Maija Einfelde's occasional desire to put her a monogram of her last name - E-F-E-D-E - in her music, for example, in the first movement of Sonata No. 2, at the 00:45 mark. The composer neither confirms nor denies the occasional noticeable intonative similarity with the music of Messiaen. The Sonata No. 2 includes a motif from the Latvian folk song Ej, saulite, driz pie Dieva ("Go, Sun, Soon to God"). On the other hand, she admits to possible reflections of Janis Ivanovs' vocalises: "I really like his vocalises, perhaps they are the Ivanovs' works that I like the most".
The violinist Magdalena Geka has performed throughout Europe both as a soloist, as well as a chamber musician, performing in such places like Wigmore Hall in London, the Paris Philharmonic, the Hercules Hall in Munich. Her name has been known to Latvian audiences since her bright debut with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in the autumn of 2014, which was followed by a nomination for the Latvian Great Music Award. © SKANi