?�vocations? is a suite for Piano solo, impressionistic, contemplative much in the trail of Satie, Debussy or Mompou. Intimist and suitable for aesthetic pleasure. This is a series of works that will lead you into an exotic journey to far away places. Just letyourself be drift away to a better place where the sounds will healyour soul.

These Evocations range all degrees of difficulty, from very easy to more challenging ones. Therefore, are suitable for the classrom, recitals or family gatherings and parties.

Evocation I ? The Harvest

The harvest in Alentejo, Portugal, occurs when the fields become tanned and a soft, warm wind coming from the south blows. It is the time of the year when you grab your hat made of straw and you let yourself be sunk ina sea of rye.

Evocation II ? The Sepia photograph

Memories. They can be happy, bittersweet or painful... Sometimes nostalgia gets the better out of us. And then we are dragged into the past, into a suspended, slow and hypnotic time. Old sepia colored pictures in a drawer orscattered around our bed.

Evocation III ? The dead soldier

The battle is over. Amournful wife, the weeping children. An everlasting pain shutteringour heart. And the hope that wherever he is, he is in peace now. And we are all proud of him. Thank you for serving our country.

Evocation IV ? The composer

The tragedy of the blank page. An everlasting winter in our soul. Snow is falling, thepath is difficult to trail. Being an artist involves an incommensurable amount of suffering because we have to give it all. And even giving it all it isn't enough, and we feel drained and exhausted in the end.

Evocation V ? The Glowing Sun

The blond hair and the most radiant smile one could ever imagine. She is a glowing sun, like an everlasting shine in the sky. She doesn't walk, she floats with extreme elegance across the street, and in the corner, she doesn't turn ? she spins and swirls with heavenly grace.

Evocation VI ? The Far

Longing. Eternally. I hope you've read my letters. I hope you've heard my calls. I opened my heart to you. Why do you take so long? Why can't I hear your voice? Why do you keep me waiting here. Here, so close, yet... so far... alone... forever...

Evocation VII ? The Queen of Spades

The dark lady is the strongest in the deck. Mystical, fantastic, she wanders like a shadow in your world. Across the garden, carrying a sickle, she's just waiting to chop a head on the next turn.

Evocation VIII ? The Poem

A book, a sonnet. Fourteen verses with rigorous metric, with a defined purpose. A parlor game, a riddle. Can you guess what's hidden inside these wondrous sounds?

Evocation IX ? The Thinker

A desk loaded with books. The glasses. A mind always working, methodic, cold, rigorous. Numbers, hidden relationships, an everlasting connection with the abstraction.

Evocation X ? The Island of the Hydrangeas.

A paradise on earth, smooth rain, narrow and sinuous roads. Walking, then biking, then driving around. An adventure in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Evocation XI ? The Near

When you're here everything will be beautiful. I can see it already in my head, the endless, passionate love, a tender sweet kiss that will last forever. Your lips on mine, while holding hands, in the bench, in the garden, under the tree. You are the one.

Evocation XII ?Saffron rice

The rice is golden like your hair and your class. The sweet taste of nobility, the craft ofwisdom, the delicacy of experience. Maturity is what time brings, it is not a curse, it is a gift that we should embrace and respect.

Peteris Vasks occupies a special position in the circle of Baltic composers. He is not only the most significant and popular composer ever to come out of Latvia. he always speaks to his listeners with a fervent intensity that seems to point to something higher. This higher aspect is without a doubt something that stands above the world of humanity but is also present within each person: divine nature.

"I am deeply rooted in nature, in the nature of the North. It influences all of my music. The nature we know is also quite various. we have four very distinct seasons. The winter is very long, the summer very short and therefore all the more beautiful and longed for. The seasons in between are quite dramatic."

The first of Peteris Vasks's Seasons pieces was not written with the intention of forming a complete cycle. For his friend, Talivaldis Deksnis, he composed in 1980 Balta ainava - White Landscape (Winter), in 1981 Rudens muzika - Autumn Music, and in 1995 the Pavasara muzika - Spring Music. In 2008, Zala ainava - Green Landscape (Summer) came into being, the piece which completed the cycle.

In 2009, as a kind of "encore", Vasks wrote Vasaras vakara muzika - Music for a Summer Evening based on old sketches. this, of all the pieces, is the one most anchored in tradition. Only the two newest pieces - both of which have to do with summer - have a fixed metrical structure. The three earlier works are metrically free, notated without bar lines, which gives them an improvisatory character.

Vasks says of the individual pieces in the cycle: "In Balta ainava everything is white. A new year begins. It is a quiet meditation, a new beginning, with only two themes.

Pavasara muzika. Quasi una Sonata - the most demanding piece in this cycle - is intense, an impressive development. Spring comes slowly, with much drama. It is like a battle, until it is simply there. This multi-faceted piece, with its bird songs, lives from conflicts and dramatic intensification and ends in ecstatic rapture. Zala ainava is based on two themes. Our summer is very brief and offers a respite after the battles. And it is so beautiful! The music reflects joy and contentment. The first theme brings a kind of pure energy. the second is more devoted to tone painting. At the end, a five-note quotation from a well-known Latvian folksong about a drunkard is heard.

Rudens muzika begins pianissimo on a quiet September day, in a peaceful, sunny atmosphere. Now the autumn storms sweep over the land. a gentle sadness settles on the people and on nature, which surrenders its splendor. After a last great storm, the snow comes again as a symbol of purified conclusion and a new beginning. Vasaras vakara muzika takes place at the quiet end of a summer day. The sun sets. Slowness. Memories of previous experiences surface. With the memories' appearance comes an increase in intensity. Towards the end, a kind of folksong is heard: 'We have survived the time of tyranny and retained our identity'. The ending is quiet, everything is asleep."

Christoph Schluren

Translation: John Patrick Thomas and W. Richard Rieves

This collection of sixteen piano solos features unique and inspiring arrangements of favorite hymns. From peaceful and relaxing to upbeat and joyful, the intermediate to advanced-intermediate pianist will find these uplifting songs a delightful addition to their church repertoire.

Each of the 16 arrangements is also available separately with accompanying preview pages and audio samples.

Titles in this collection include:
Church in the Wildwood
Close to Thee
God Leads Us Along
God of Our Fathers
He Leadeth Me
The Holy City
If You but Trust in God to Guide You
In the Heart of Jesus
Jesus Is All the World to Me
The Lily of the Valley
Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone
O How I Love Jesus
Only Trust Him
Since Jesus Came Into My Heart
To God Be the Glory
What Wondrous Love Is This