Arietta

Ādolfs Skulte 28.10.1909 - 20.03.2000

Ā. Skulte was born on October 28th, 1909 in Kiev in the Ukraine. The composer’s father was the Latvian builder Pēteris Skulte, and his mother – the Italian Victoria Rizzolatti. In 1921, the family of Pēteris Skulte returned to live in Latvia. In 1928, Skulte enrolled in the Engineering Department at the University of Latvia, and in 1930, the composer began study at the Latvian Conservatory. In 1931, his engineering studies at the University were interrupted, and in 1936, he graduated the practical composition class of J. Vītols at the Conservatory and also became a member of the faculty.

For his entire long life and range of creative work, Skulte created music with a classically romantic expression, still he allowed his students free expression. This is proven by the fact, that under the direction of Skulte, composition knowledge was gained by such unique Latvian composers as Ģederts Ramans (1927–1999), Artūrs Grīnups (1931–1989), Vilnis Šmīdbergs (1944), Romualds Kalsons (1936), Romualds Grīnblats (1930–1995), Imants Kalniņš (1941), Mārtiņš Brauns (1951), and Imants Zemzaris (1951).

In 1952, he was elected professor of J. Vītols Latvian State Conservatory and worked in this occupation until the end of his life (the composer passed away on March 20th, 2000).

The musical style of Ā. Skulte is characterised by a refined impressionism, a lyrical warmth. Skulte’s heritage of rich creative work surprises with an ability to captivatingly work in all classical music genres icluding 9 films.

The best known works of the composer are the ballet Brīvības sakta (The Brooch of Freedom), and the symphonic portrayals Viļņi (Waves) and Horeogrāfiskā poēma (Choreographic Poem), the Third Symphony (Kosmiskā [The Cosmic]), the Fifth Symphony, the Seventh Symphony [Preserve Nature!]), the Eighth Symphony, the the beautiful choral poiece Quasi una sonata per coro da camera.

Jānis Kudiņš

https://www.lmic.lv/en/composers/adolfs-skulte-325#work