The program of the grand concert of Latvian symphonic music taking place in the Great Guild on January 28 also includes Jānis Mediņš composed in 1947 Second concerto for cello and orchestra. The soloist, together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ainārs Rubikis, will be the concertmaster of the cello group of the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra since 2016 Kristaps Berg.
Raised in a family of musicians, Kristaps Berg studied with excellent cello masters in his native Riga (Diana Ozoliņa, Eleonora TesteĽac, Ligita Zemberga) and Vienna (Reinhard Latzko, Heinrich Schiff), won laurels in several competitions and performed in many important concert halls, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ Volta Disney Hall, Vienna music Society and concert hallAmsterdam concert hallat the Royal Albert Hall in London and Royal Festival HallTokyo Suntory Hall u. c. Thanks to a private sponsor, Kristaps plays on a special instrument built by Lorenzo Ventapane in 1836.
The Second Cello Concerto of Arturas Maskatas, dedicated to Kristaps, was premiered last year in the “Cēsis” concert hall, but he had the opportunity to get to know the work of Jānis Mediņš:
“My history with this concert is quite long, for several years.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, my former teacher Diana Ozoliņa announced that she had these notes and had once played this concerto with the JVLMA orchestra. The sheet music has traveled to Latvia via Canada from Australia and was not in such a form that it could be taken to the orchestra, placed on the consoles and played by them, because the notes are written by hand, they can be folded and separated vertically and not at all as is accepted nowadays. For a while, we were all worried about this Mediņš work, and Arturs Maskats realized that it would be very beautiful to play it in a big concert. Thank you very much for this invitation, I am very honored. And also a little scared. Well, not really, but let’s face it – I’ve never played anything in my life that someone else hasn’t really played before. The experience with Artur Muscat’s Cello Concerto was different, because so far in my experience the piece has always had a record, some history.
Now I understand that young cellists are more likely to listen to my recording of Jānis Mediņš’s concert. It seems somehow strange. But everything in life has to be experienced!
The cello concerto has a very interesting, unusual musical language for me. At first, I didn’t understand if I wanted to listen more to the harmonic world or let the melody lead me. I listened to the works of Jānis Mediņš in order to understand his musical language and means of expression. This cello concerto is very special. From what I read in the score and sheet music, there are a lot of options. There are many episodes in a very high register, which is not comfortable. What is interesting – in this concert, Mediņš loves quintole very much. I don’t know any other work in Latvian music that is so full of quintola, even in the main theme. We Latvians prefer two, three, four. I spent a long time at the cello thinking about what will be mine, how I will make this Medin, and I realized that it is something that I have never played. I really liked the technical challenge – such a healthy daily sport. Lots of technical stuff, lots of octaves, various virtuoso passages. There are places where the composer has indicated such a fast tempo that I wonder if I will be able to understand even a syllable in it? I don’t know what he had in mind – that virtuosity and speed would achieve that effect? It is very, very interesting.
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