On November 2 at 19:00 Aivis Greters, who conducted the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music graduation examination in the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall just two years ago and is currently experiencing a rapid development of his international career as a conductor, will return to the conductor's desk of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra in the “Symphony Closer” concert series.
Currently Aivis Greters is working as an assistant conductor at the Gothenburg Opera and the Orchestra de Paris.
From 2018 till 2022 Mr.Greters was the artistic director and conductor of the youth choir “Kamēr...”, previously he has worked as a second conductor and singer. Under Greter's direction the choir “Kamēr...” has received the Grand Prix at the Tolosa International Choir Competition in Spain (2018), and also has won the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing in Arezzo, Italy (2019), thus becoming the first choir to win this competition three times.
In the spring of 2021 Greters received the Grand Music Prize 2020 in the category “Young Artist of the Year” and in the category “For creative, courageous and innovative artistic activity in the conditions of the Covid-19 crisis” for the project presented by the choir “Kamēr...” at the Cēsis Art Festival.
In the “Symphony Closer” concert series taking place on 2 November at 19:00 in the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the conductor Aivis Greters will play the program symphony called “Fantastical Symphony” written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830, which is an important piece of early romanticism.
The first performance of the symphony was at the Paris Conservatoire on 5 December 1830, but in 1833 Franz Liszt made a piano transcription of this symphony.
The symphony tells the story of an artist who is gifted with a lively imagination and who, because of hopeless, unrequited love, has fallen into despair and attempted to commit suicide by poisoning himself with opium. Berlioz provided his own preface and notes for each section of the work, and from these notes it can be seen how Berlioz downplayed the programmatic aspect of the piece later in life.
Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia both because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature, and because history suggests Berlioz composed at least a portion of it under the influence of opium. According to Bernstein, “Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral.”
The concert series “Symphony CLOSER” created by the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra was created to introduce the audience to the cornerstones of the world symphonic repertoire – beautiful, classical symphonies that everyone should know.
The concert “Symphony CLOSER. Fantastical Symphony by Berlioz” and discussion will begin with the welcome speech given by the music reviewer Orests Silabriedis, revealing the context of the time when the symphony was created and the structural specifics of the masterpiece. After the concert guests will also be encouraged to engage in an informal conversation with the conductor Aivis Greters.
Tickets for the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra concerts can be purchased at “Biļešu paradīze” ticket offices.
The Concert is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the State Cultural Capital Foundation and Liepāja City.
