Georgs Pelēcis (also Georges Pélétsis;Pelēcis, Georgs, 1947-. From Library of Congress Name Authority File. born 18 June 1947) is a Latvian composer and musicologist. He is currently a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music.
Academic and compositional career Pelēcis was born in Riga. He studied under Aram Khachaturian at the Moscow Conservatory, and post-graduate music theory studies with Vladimir Protopopov (1908-2004). At the Latvian State Conservatory he became a lecturer, then professor of counterpoint and fugue.Michael Herman. Scandinavian, Finnish and Baltic Concertos He has worked in a creative capacity at Oxford University and Cambridge University.
His style has been described as post-avant-garde, or as "new consonant music", with an "amazingly clear positive spirit".New Consonant Music. Composers."Georgs Pelecis". The Concertina Bianca for piano and strings, for instance, is described as "in the key of C major" and restricted to the white keys only, with no accidentals.Richard Taruskin. 'North (Europe) by Northwest (America)', in The New York Times, 18 April, 2004 This approach has its critics. Gramophone called the piece as "so mild in its manner that it seems to be aspiring to the status of a backing track to an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest".'Eastern European Piano Music', in Gramophone, August 1996
His 45 minute orchestral score for Roald Dahl's Jack and the Beanstalk was premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1996 with Simon Callow, Danny DeVito and Joanna Lumley as co-narrators.Jack and the Beanstalk, MusicLink International More recently, recordings and live performances by (among others) pianists Tamara-Anna Cislowska, Alexei Lubimov and Polina Osetinskaya, and by violinist Gidon Kremer (his classmate at the Moscow Conservatory), have helped establish his popularity.Georgs Pelēcis. Revelation, Megadisc MDC7797 (2009)
Selected works All in the Past/Remembering Oskar Strock, tango for violin and strings (1999) Buena-Riga: Astor Piazzolla, Oskar Strock and Me, tango (2001) Children’s Concerto for piano and orchestra (1985) Concertino Bianco for piano and chamber orchestra (1984)Recorded by Tamara-Anna Cislowska on ABC 4816295 (2017) and by Alexei Lubimov on ERATO 0630-12709-2 (1996) Concerto for Balalaika, Saxophone and Orchestra (1970) Concerto for Wind Orchestra (1971) En Souvenir d’Orfée, concerto for oboe and chamber orchestra (2006) Dedication to My Teacher, concerto for two pianos and chamber orchestra (2003) Endorphin Music, concerto for orchestra (2011) Field of Dandelions for cello, piano and vibraphoneRecorded on Contemporary Chamber Music From Latvia, SKANI LMIC057 (2018) Flowering Jasmine, concerto for violin, vibraphone, and strings (2007)Recorded by Gidon Kremer, Nonsuch 7559799699 (2010) Jack and the Beanstalk, for symphony orchestra and narrators The Last Song Meeting with a Friend for violin and strings (2001)Recorded by Gidon Kramer on Deutsche Grammophon 474 801-2 (2004) Nevertheless, concerto for violin, piano, and strings (1994)Recorded on From My Home, Gidon Kremer, Teldec 0630 146542 (1997) Pages of a Biography, concerto for violin and chamber orchestra (2007) Quatrième Suite for pianoRecorded by Mireille Gleizes, YouTube Revelation, concerto for counter-tenor, piano, and trumpet (2003 Seasons, cycle of six piano pieces (1977-2021)Recorded by Linda Leine, Seasons, LMIC 137 (2022) Thirteenth London Symphony for orchestra (after Haydn's 12 London symphonies) (2000) Trumpet Concerto (1982)
Musicology Pelēcis' musicological work focuses on musical form in work from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque eras. He has written theses focusing on the work of Giovanni Pierluigi da PalestrinaGeorgs Pelēcis. A Study Of Palestrina Style (1993) and Johannes Ockeghem.Musica Baltica. Georgs Pelēcis. Biography
Pelēcis teaches the history of theory and counterpoint at the Latvian Academy of Music, and was the first president of the Riga Center for Early Music.
References
External links Georgs Pelēcis at the Latvian Music Information Centre Georgs Pelēcis at Alain Van Kerckhoven Editeur