Tragic ‘Musica Dolorosa’ Echoes Latvia’s Political Struggle : Composer: Peteris Vasks’ music, to be played in Orange and Costa Mesa, was written in memory of his sister. But maybe, he says, it is a cry of pain--perhaps that of his troubled country.

As the tension surrounding Latvia’s May 4 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union escalates, one person watching the news with special concern is Latvian composer Peteris Vasks.

“Friends and relatives and countrymen are keeping me informed all the time,” Vasks said in a phone interview from New York.

Vasks is making his first trip to the United States and will be stopping in Orange on Sunday and Costa Mesa on Monday to hear his “Musica Dolorosa” played by the Orange County Chamber Orchestra.

In Latvia, “composers and writers are paralyzed in their creativity, in being able to work as they would like,” Vasks said in the three-way phone interview in which he often outpaced his translator.

“In the present situation, with the to-be-or-not-to-be (independence), it is very difficult for them. . . . Some of them are also actively involved in the political scene. If I had political talents, I would take part too.”

Vasks feels, however, that the only thing he has to offer is “my musical talent. . . . I am very happy that I have the opportunity of representing my country so that Americans can know it exists.”

Born in 1946, Vasks grew up in an educated family. His mother was a doctor; his father, a Baptist minister--in a country dominated by Lutherans, in so far as religion is practiced at all.

“Religious families weren’t considered trustworthy under the (communist) regime,” Vasks recalled.

Beyond that, he said, a period of “neo-Stalinism” in 1959 “put (its) mark on everything, including culture.”

“In 1964, I was not accepted into the Latvian conservatory (of music) because I was too outspoken. Yes, I’ve been very stubborn.”

Over time, however, Vasks has become a respected, state-supported composer. But respect does not mean great material success. Vasks lives with his wife and five children in a modest apartment in Riga. They cook on a wood-burning stove, according to Orange County Chamber Orchestra conductor Micah Levy, who went to Latvia last May to conduct the Chamber Orchestra of the State Symphony of Riga in works by American composers. (Levy came back a staunch Vasks enthusiast.)

Says Vasks: “Composers all work a little bit in schools and such things. We have a cultural ministry and it has a budget to purchase works from composers. It does make it possible to live.”

Vasks’ music has a strong nationalistic element, but he has also learned the techniques of 12-tone and serial music. “I have utilized whatever is appropriate to me,” he said.

Surprisingly, he named American composer George Crumb, an exponent of tone color and mysticism, as being “very influential” on him.

“He has a sense of closeness to eternity,” Vasks said. “Any music that comes from the heart has some connection with something higher. It is a creation from something spiritual.

“I try to show in my music some kind of eternal harmony, something spiritual, that life can be beautiful, not how ugly it is. That’s why I write music. I have no other wish than whatever I’ve written would please someone.”

Vasks described “Musica Dolorosa” as “one of my more tragic works.” He wrote it in memory of his sister, Marta, who died of cancer in her early 40s.

“It is maybe a cry of pain,” he said.

While this is his first trip to the United States, last April he crossed the East-West border for the first time in a visit to Germany. “My first impression in the free world was of the stores and everything that was available,” he said.

“My first impression here? The harmony between people and nature impressed me. I had had the impression that all was rocks and stone. I was surprised at all the beauty here.”

He is cautiously optimistic about the political changes in Latvia.

“I hope that the paths will be open now to a lot of future contact,” he said. “Nothing can be more wonderful than having harmony among people. I’m just happy when I did leave and saw other parts of the world where freedom is.”

Peteris Vasks’ “Musica Dolorosa” will be played by the Orange County Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Micah Levy Sunday at 4 p.m. at the St. Joseph Center (Loyola Marymount University), 480 S. Batavia St., Orange; and Monday at 8 p.m. at South Coast Repertory theater, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $15 and $17. Information: (714) 538-8391.