At the Liepāja International Star Festival, which will take place from 9 March to 23 March, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra conducted by Finnish conductor Juha Kangas will play in cooperation with one of the most outstanding oboists in the world in the last ten years – the French artist Céline Moinet.
At the festival concert “Mozart. Vasks. Kangas”, on 16 March at 18:00 in the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall, Céline Moinet will play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra, which was written in the year 1777 and is still considered one of the most significant pieces in this instrument’s repertoire.
Until 1920, the Oboe Concerto was deemed lost until the Austrian conductor and composer Bernhard Paumgartner found a set of handwritten parts in the archives of Mozart University Salzburg and discovered significant similarities with the Flute Concerto written in 1778. After serious research into Mozart's letters and the music itself, it was acknowledged that the piece was originally intended for oboe. At the same time, this concerto has been extensively studied and played in both versions – for oboe and flute.
French oboist Céline Moinet is a much sought-after soloist performing with the leading orchestras around the world.
Céline Moinet was born in Lille, France in 1984, and graduated with honors from the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris) and at the age of 23 she was assigned the position of the leading oboist at the prestigious Dresden State Chapel.
Moinet has performed with such famous conductors as Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado and Andris Nelsons. She is a frequent guest at the concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra.
The French artist's first solo album with compositions for oboe by Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Benjamin Britten, Luciano Berio and Elliott Carter was released in 2012 under the auspices of the French classical and jazz music record label “Harmonia mundi” and received good reviews from critics.
Céline Moinet plays oboe and English horn made by the French company Marigaux. These instruments have a particularly rich sound and flexibility, which is greatly appreciated by the musician, as it allows her to freely express herself in music: “When playing this instrument, every place feels like home to me.”
Tickets for the 32nd Liepāja International Star Festival consisting of five concerts, which will take place from 9 March to 23 March in the Liepāja “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall, are available at “Biļešu paradīze” ticket office chain.
This year, among many participants of the Festival, the audience will see and hear the Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, the German violinist Kathrin ten Hagen and the French oboist Céline Moinet, as well as the Finnish conductor Juha Kangas, the State Academic Choir “Latvija” and internationally recognized opera singers, pianist Aurēlija Šimkus and other outstanding artists.
Therefore this year’s Festival programme will delight the audience with the music by Frederic Chopin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pēteris Vasks, Giuseppe Verdi, Sergei Prokofiev and Philip Glass. Such events as the chamber jazz music night and piano music solo night will take place at the Chamber Hall named after Dzintars Jurgelaitis of the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall
The Festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation, the Liepāja City, SEB Bank and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Riga.