On Tuesday, August 10, the first of the two orchestral programs of the Riga Orchestra “Bach, Bruckner, Brittens” will be performed at the Riga Dome Cathedral under the direction of Jānis Liepiņš. Organist Aigars Reinis and oboist Elīna Kuduma will take part in the concert.
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The current first conductor of the Mannheim National Theater Jānis Liepiņš is collaborating with the Riga Orchestra for the second time. In 2017, the music program of Latvian composers was staged together at the festival “Three Stars” dedicated to the centenary of the country. This time, Jānis Liepiņš is pleased with the opportunity to conduct arrangements of world classical opuses for wind orchestra. The conductor has mostly encountered the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Anton Bruckner and Benjamin Britten while still working in the field of choral music.
“I have always admired Bach’s ability to compose so thoughtfully, calculatedly and at the same time so emotionally touching – transcendental,” says the conductor. The orchestra “Riga” will interpret one of the most stormy and virtuoso compositions of the baroque master JS Bach – Fantasy and Fugue solminor. The English horn solo in the performance of the Latvian National Opera Orchestra musician Elīna Kuduma will be heard in the performance of the second part of the concert in Lamažora written by JS Bach in the original oboe “d’amore” with the orchestra.
The concert will feature performances of the choir motifs “Ave Maria” and “Os justi” by a representative of the late Romantic, the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner, as well as a majestic “Song of Glory” arranged for wind orchestra. In the concert of the 20th century classic Benjamin Britten’s work, variations and a fugue on the theme of Henry Persel will be highlighted, op. 34. “This, in my opinion, ingeniously written piece introduces the whole wide range of symphony orchestras, but this time it will be a guide to exploring groups of wind orchestra instruments and their possibilities,” says Jānis Liepiņš.
Organ music is always present in the summer classical concerts of the orchestra “Riga”. In the performance of the cathedral organ master Aigars Reinis, the audience will hear the prelude of JS Bach in Mibemolj Major from the German organ mass. The prelude with the theme of the Holy Trinity is one of the composer’s most extensive works – it includes both French overtures and Italian concerts, as well as German fugue constructions.
Although he himself is an organist and improviser, A. Brukner has not left much lasting music in organ literature. That is why “Fantasy in a Solitaire” for piano in the arrangement of organ has been chosen for the concert. “The flying beautiful melody and the gracefully dancing second part perfectly match the diverse nature of the Dome organ – in addition to grandeur, this organ can also be soft and filigree airy,” says Aigars Reinis.
In the concert, he will also play Britten’s only solo piece for organ – the Prelude and Fugue on the Vitoria Theme, written in 1946, which uses two themes from the motet “Ecce saceredos magnus” by the 17th century Spanish composer Thomas Luis de Vitoria.
The second summer classic concert “Bach, Dvorak, Debussy” with Valdis Bhutan at the conductor’s desk is expected on August 24. The concerts are intended for fully vaccinated visitors with Covid-19, as well as for those who have taken a test before the event, which is negative.
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