For many of us, we think of Spring as the start of the seasons – Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter – saving the cold for the end.

For Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946), who started thinking about the shape of the seasons after he wrote the music for Ansis Bērziņš’ animated film Abi gali balti, viducis zaļš [What is white at both ends and green in the middle?], he found that the pure white stillness of Winter was where his seasons cycle started.

Pēteris Vasks

For Vasks, Winter was the season that wiped the slate clean. Surrounded by the pure white of snow, everything turns inward; we start thinking better thoughts, start doing better works, once all the details of the world disappear around us. The world has not only been cleaned but cleansed.

Pēteris Vasks: Gadalaiki (The Seasons) – No. 1. Baltā ainava (White Scenery) (Reinis Zariņš, piano)

Springtime, on the other hand, is the transition away from white to the melting ice. Spring starts slowly, with just a few ideas of green interrupting the previous white world, but then it starts to accelerate. Birds make their appearance (Vasks says it was the first time he tried to incorporate bird song in his music). As a side note, this is one of the season changes the composer tracks: when do the birds return, and when does he hear their first songs? Spring music is music of ecstatic return.

Pēteris Vasks: Gadalaiki (The Seasons) – No. 2. Pavasara mūzika (Spring Music) (Reinis Zariņš, piano)

Summertime signals both the end of Spring’s chaos and the arrival of joy for Summer. The composer says the movement has two images it’s seeking to illustrate: ‘One is the height of summer when human beings understand how to rejoice without artificial aids. The other is more romantic with the potential for inner development; the earth, the fields, meadows, and gardens are full of fragrance. It is not the aroma of mown grass but rather that of a gentle meadow in full bloom.’

The height of the summer, at the Solstice, is both a triumph of arrival and a sorrow that from here all roads lead downward: the days will only get shorter, the summer colours will fade, and humans start their retreat back indoors. Despite the arrival of the solstice with an aethereal pianissimo, in the end, the festive summer mode returns.

Pēteris Vasks: Gadalaiki (The Seasons) – No. 3. Zaļā ainava (Green Scenery) (Reinis Zariņš, piano)

Autumn is the end of Vasks’ year. He starts us on a sunny September day. The morning dew outlines the spider webs in the grass. Nature still has its beauty, but it’s gradually drying away. The heavy fall storms give way, once again, to snow. The snow covers the world again and clears away the details and focuses us again on the point where we started.

Pēteris Vasks: Gadalaiki (The Seasons) – No. 4. Rudens mūzika (Autumn Music) (Reinis Zariņš, piano)

The composer notes that the cycle must be performed in order, starting with Winter, although individual movements may be performed alone.

Vasks’ shift of the start of the year to Winter gives him the opportunity to create a cycle that begins and ends in peace. Although we may love Spring as the most active season, it’s one of uproar and disturbance and not of silence and calm.

For more of the best in classical music, sign up for our E-Newsletter