Janis Ivanovs

Janis Ivanovs, one of the most important representatives of the 20th century Baltic school of composers, is widely regarded as one of Latvia's most successful creative artists. He is primarily remembered as a master of orchestral and especially symphonic genres and wrote a total of 21 symphonies. His early works included many references to the traditional scale constructs of Latvian folk music and drew heavily upon the local music of his native province of Latgale. The symphonies of Ivanovs' middle period show an increasing preoccupation with abstract and philosophical concepts, their musical language evolving constantly toward more complex harmony and employing polytonal and linear techniques. His final works revealed an unexpected bent toward chamber-like sonorities, showing a lyric sympathy almost entirely unknown in his earlier and more overtly rhetorical compositions for orchestra.