Featuring:
Iveta APKALNA (organ)
Sniedze KAŅEPE (mezzo-soprano)
Kaspars VĒVERS (baritons)
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Guntis KUZMA
Programme:
Jēkabs JANČEVSKIS (1992) Organ Symphony (Premiere)
I. Lost fathers
II. Collapsing projections
III. Creating light
IV. Tempus edax rerum
Hector BERLIOZ (1803–1869) Symphonie fantastique: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections
I. Daydreams
II. A ball
III. Scene in the country
IV. March to the scaffold
V. Dream of a night of the sabbath
The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra launches its 145th concert season in grand style, presenting a programme that brings together contemporary Latvian music and a masterpiece of early Romanticism.
At the heart of the evening lies the world premiere of the Organ Symphony, commissioned especially for the occasion by Jēkabs Jančevskis – one of the most expressive and sensuous voices among the new generation of Latvian composers. His music is known for its emotional intensity and deep dramaturgy. Jančevskis masterfully blends tradition with a contemporary musical language, creating works that resonate with a broad audience.
The new symphony will be performed by world-renowned Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna, whose unmatched technical mastery and artistic sensitivity bring out the subtlest nuances of musical timbre. Her radiant charisma fills the stage with a vibrant and compelling presence.
In the second half of the concert, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will present one of the most significant works of early Romanticism – Symphonie fantastique: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections, written in 1830 by French composer Hector Berlioz.
In this symphony, Berlioz reveals an unprecedented freedom of musical thought – daring orchestration and formal audacity that shatter the conventions of the classical symphony, resulting in a vivid musical psychodrama.
Telling the story of an artist driven to despair by unrequited love and attempting suicide by opium, this symphony has become one of Romanticism’s most striking masterpieces. Leonard Bernstein famously called it “the first musical expedition into psychedelia”.
SYMPHONY NO. 1 (ORGAN SYMPHONY)
Through my first symphony, I open a window into the profound questions posed by psychotherapist and Jungian analyst James Hollis in his book “Under Saturn’s Shadow”—questions that quite literally tore open my inner world at a time when I was desperately searching for answers.
“Under Saturn’s Shadow” became the driving force behind the conceptual structure of this symphony, alongside several other works by Hollis and countless books by other authors, in which I’ve sought answers, comfort, and understanding of the depths and mysteries of my psyche—and ultimately, of the great enigma we call life. The work is built not only upon Hollis’s inquiries, which I’ve returned to repeatedly for self-therapeutic purposes, but also upon fragments of thought from philosophers, poets, and thinkers. Some are mentioned in this program note; others live within the musical fabric of the symphony itself.
Through the symphony, I ask four questions:
– What imprints do the lived and unlived lives of our ancestors leave behind?
– Are projections a free choice, a self-deception, or an uncontrollable psychological inheritance?
– Is it possible to retain one’s humanity in the face of pain?
– How do we coexist with time?
The central axis and thematic core of “Under Saturn’s Shadow” is rooted in mythology—specifically the Roman god Saturn, whose Greek counterpart, Cronus, was born of the masculine principle Uranus and the feminine Gaia. Uranus feared and despised his children. Gaia fashioned a sickle and urged Cronus to attack his father. Cronus severed Uranus’s phallus, and from the blood that fell to the earth, terrifying giants were born. The fertilized sea gave birth to Aphrodite—her name meaning “born of foam.” After overthrowing his father, Cronus (Saturn) took his place and became just as cruel. When his wife Rhea bore children, Cronus devoured them one by one.
This myth powerfully illustrates the narrative of a distorted ancestral legacy and male trauma—of power, fear, and their transmission from one generation to the next, and the next, and yet again the next. These chains bind us from times far older than we can imagine.
Modern society is full of neurotic, aggressive, confused men—raised directly or indirectly in Saturn’s shadow. Not always through violence or aggression, but often in the shade of neglect and abandonment.
“The pain of abandonment is the most severe form of poverty.”
— Mother Teresa
“Stand not too close together, for the temple’s pillars stand apart, and the cypress trees grow not in each other’s shadow.”
— Khalil Gibran
The projections we’ve long lived within are crumbling. The masks have fallen. Who could have foreseen it?
“You lost yourself in me. Now you risk disappearing entirely.”
If one manages not to vanish, and dares to look into the deepest corners of their psyche, it becomes the beginning of a new path. Inevitable and necessary—because from every previous core, a new one must be born. Otherwise, we remain in eternal stagnation.
“Every transformation presupposes the end of a world—the collapse of the philosophy of one’s previous life.”
— Carl Gustav Jung
One of the central driving forces in a man’s life is fear. Conscious or unconscious—it drives the fear of humiliation, betrayal, shame, defeat. From fear comes anger, from anger—defense, from defense—isolation, from isolation—loneliness, and from loneliness—greater fear.
This movement is the symphony’s gravitational center—a scream into the universe, loaded with confusion, shock, fear, and rage, but at its core, unspeakable sorrow. The climax is cruelly and ironically prepared by the repeated quotation of the American children’s song “The wheel turns and rolls along.” As the music continues, the climax is accompanied by a heavy, monstrous march that irreversibly carries away not only time, illusions, and memories, but also my past self—who never suspected how fleeting it all would be.
“Like golden dunes, rising and flowing in a sea of light, are memories.
They fill everything—the sea, shimmering in immeasurable gold with every wind…”
— Juan Ramón Jiménez
“You grow from within—no one can teach you, no one can make you spiritual. There is no teacher but your own Soul.”
— Swami Vivekananda
The third movement, the soul of the symphony, is my meditation—a path toward light. In essence, it is the path of every day, throughout a lifetime. Without passing through darkness, it is difficult to feel the longing for light. And the balancing act on this pendulum continues constantly—with an unending movement toward illumination.
Lately, I’ve been especially drawn to people who have reached a high level of spiritual development—they captivate me, inspire me to follow. Heralds of a new era. The highest respect belongs to those who, having endured immense pain, have not lost their humanity. This movement is dedicated to them—and to everyone who seeks or will seek their path of spiritual growth toward the light.
“…And we shall sit upon green grass,
and share our inspiration like bread.
And dreams shall shine across our foreheads,
and peace shall come to all who have suffered long,
and darkness shall retreat beyond the horizon,
and enlightenment shall rise above time.”
— Velga Krile
“Tempus edax rerum” — “Time, devourer of all things,” as Ovid wrote.
Time is a seductive and terrifying force, to which all order is subject. To coexist with time is to balance between burning and burning out. Between the creation of genius and madness. Between the desire to prolong the moment and the truth that everything is transient.
Time is a wave—it lifts and carries us, but it can also bury us if we resist. It is neither friend nor foe, but a force that demands humility. Time reveals truth and erases it. It makes us witnesses, but never owners. Not to conquer time, but to learn to flow with it—to burn, but not to be consumed. To continue to BE. Between spark and ash.
The Concert is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the Liepāja City and the concert hall “Lielais dzintars”.
INFORMATION FOR OUR VISITORS:
Discounts:
Students, disabled persons, pensioners – 3 euros
Pupils - 50%
Family 3+ card holders - 30%
For a companion of a person with a disability of group I or II - 50%
Groups (10 or more people) – 20%
When purchasing group tickets online, please send an e-mail to sales@lso.lv
When attending the concert, the visitor must present a document certifying their eligibility to a discount.
Useful:
The concert is accessible to people with hearing impairments, as the induction loop function will be activated during it. Based on the experiences of people with hearing impairments when trying this system, the best listening experience is possible in seats in the center parterre area from rows 5 to 12 - from 6 to 28.
