The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will close its 143rd concert season on 11 May at 18:00 at the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall with a performance featuring the internationally recognized cellist Margarita Balanas and combining the music of the great masters of Latvian and German symphonic music in one programme.
Guntis Kuzma, the chief conductor of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, has included music by Jānis Mediņš, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms in the closing programme of the season.
The concert will feature Schumann's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra with a solo by the special guest of the evening Margarita Balanas.
The concert is known for its lyrical and emotional character and a virtuoso cello part. The Cello Concerto is one of the last works Schumann wrote before his mental health deteriorated rapidly. This work has influenced many other composers of cello concertos, such as Camille Saint Saëns and Antonin Dvořák. It has become one of the cellist repertoire classics and has been frequently performed at various concerts and festivals around the world.
The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra has performed together with Margarita Balanas several times. In the spring of 2023, a collective performance of the Concerto No.1 for Cello and Orchestra by Camille Saint Saëns took place in Ogre, while in the autumn of 2021, Antonin Kraft's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was performed in the “Lielais dzintars” Concert Hall. Cellist and conductor Margarita Balanas has performed with many excellent orchestras and musicians in prestigious concert halls worldwide.
Johannes Brahms's Symphony No.2 is bright and optimistic, unlike his Symphony No.1, a darker and more dramatic piece. The first part of the symphony includes melodies of alpine horns, reflecting Brahms' summer vacation in the Austrian Alps, which inspired the composer to create this work. A close friend of his, a prominent surgeon and music analyst Theodor Billroth commented on this piece: “Blue sky, purling brooks, bright sunlight and cool green shadows.”
Along with the great German composers, Guntis Kuzma, the Chief Conductor of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, will once again offer music by one of the classics of Latvian symphonic music, and this time it will be Jānis Mediņš, who is one of the founders and further developers of the national opera and ballet. Jānis Mediņš has significantly expanded the scope of emotions and forms of Latvian symphonic music, composing pieces of different genres, such as operas, ballets, symphonies and cantatas.
At the end of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra concert one of his most popular and emotional works, the poem “At the Church”, will be performed.
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.
