Growing up Baptist in Latvia after World War II would not have been easy. Soviet socialism would not have looked kindly on anything religious, let alone Protestant. The music of Pe¯teris Vasks, son of a Baptist pastor, vividly communicates the sense of spiritual struggle he has endured, including being denied the opportunity to study composition in his native country and the risks of writing overtly religious music in a communist society. More recently, this struggle has found expression in anti-capitalist, pro-nature messages.

All five works recorded here were written between 2011 and 2016 and have deep Roman Catholic connections. Da Pacem, Domine is “a cry of desperation for our times,...