Megadisc

According to discogs.com, the most valuable CD in my collection is the one to the lower right of the picture above – an album called Revelation which brings together four pieces by the contemporary Latvian composer Georgs Pelēcis. I’d be interested to know how this somewhat obscure recording has come to achieve a median value currently calculated as £37.61. It’s a very good record, and presumably an uncommon one, but I have rarer CDs that aren’t valued as highly.

It, like the other three albums shown above, was put out by the Belgian-based Megadisc Classics label. I have another three of their releases on my shelves, and at one time would have had four or five more again. The consistent look of their covers derives from their all featuring details from abstract paintings by the artist Ilse d’Hollander (1968-97). Many of the label’s releases showcased music by composers from the former Soviet Union. Besides Pelēcis, here we have work from Valentin Silvestrov (Ukrainian); Alexandre Rabinovitch (Russian-born) and Rytis Mažulis (Lithuanian).

Top left is Silvestrov’s Orchestral Works (vol. 1) – I also have vol. 2. The highlight on it for me is his Symphony No. 4, a sombre piece with a little more heft to it than one hears in the same composer’s more disembodied later style. Top right is Die Zeit by Rabinovitch, where a briskly idiosyncratic kind of minimalism is the order of the day. The title piece, featuring a quartet of amplified instruments, is my favourite on the disc. Choral music is the focus of Mažulis' Cum Essem Parvulus, with the track Sibylla the one to really catch my ear.

Coming back to Pelēcis, his music is determinedly consonant and upbeat, drawing much of its inspiration from the composer’s study of ‘early music’. Some listeners might consider it kitsch, but it works for me. Buena Riga is a piece I find particularly enjoyable.