Fate in the programme with Vestard Shimkus

On 1 October at 19.00 in Liepāja Great Amber Concert Hall and on 2 October at 17.00 in Tukums City House of Culture, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra lead by the conductor Atvars Lakstīgala will meet the brilliant piano virtuoso and also composer Vestard Shimkus in a thoughtful concert programme.

This is a special cooperation between the orchestra and Shimkus as this time the latter will present himself in two roles—as an outstanding pianist and composer.

The programme will include two compositions by Shimkus; one is the composition “Likteņa vārti” (Destiny Gates) for piano and orchestra, which tells about a soul entering this world and was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Memorial Park Likteņdārzs (The Garden of Destiny), where it was first performed by the author himself in summer 2018.

This composition for piano and orchestra is based on a simple, tender motif rich in traditional intonations that becomes an epic and impressive symphonic episode. The author describes the opus as a portrayal of his reflections on how “a soul enters this world through the Destiny Gate to begin its life in this world. Behind the Gate, the destiny of all individuals and of the nation in whole becomes unstoppable and irreversible. And bound together.”

The concert will also include the Piano Concerto No. 1 for piano and string orchestra written by Shimkus in 2008. This composition originally bears an indication “Dedicated to the Inconvenient Person”. The composer suggests everyone who has ever felt ‘inconvenient’ and not favourable to the comfort of the world to relate this work to themselves.

The composer introduces this composition by saying: “Ideas about this composition first crossed my mind when I walked around forest near my home in Kurzeme and watched clean cuts and towns pressing into the forest more and more year by year. This concerto for piano is inspired by sound combinations that come into my head when I listen to nature.”

Then, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will continue the destiny topic in the second part of the concert with one of the most famous symphonies of all times – Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth or the Fate Symphony, which was written in early 19th century and symbolises a man’s struggle with the inevitable.

It is also called in France the “Victory Anthem” and “Triumphal March” which illustrates the dramatic nature of this tense composition.

“I want to grasp fate by the throat, it should certainly not completely bend me,” Beethoven wrote when the progressing deafness made him realise that there is no far-reaching career for him as a pianist thus urging him to leave his name in the musical history as a composer.

On the conductor’s podium – Atvars Lakstīgala, the former chief conductor of Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, who is remarkably successful in revealing and interpreting the works of the Great Master of Classical Music.

Tickets to the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra concerts can be purchased in all Box-Offices of “Biļešu paradise” and at www.bilesuparadize.lv

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