On the weekend, the Lutheran Church of Sigulda hosted Linda Leen’s concert series “Lighting games. Light is only half the story” opening concert. In a concert that was completely sold out and filled with a wide range of emotions, familiar and beloved Christmas songs created a festive atmosphere for the audience.
The concert experience is a duet for light and darkness, the organizers say. It is created as a mosaic of emotional halftones from the most ethereal moments of the message of light to the deepest feelings of darkness in a full spectrum of light, interweaving it with rays of lightness and hope. Songs from Linda Leen’s albums “So quiet and holy” (2000) and “Ziemasskaņas” (2009), the chorale “Oh, holy night”, a fragment from Zigmar Liepiņš’s opera “Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral” sounded in the church atmosphere.
The surprise of the concert, which the audience received with ovation, was the compositions from the legendary album “Songs of Faith and Devotion” of the group “Depeche Mode” in a previously unheard interpretation for the church organ, vocal group, guitar and Linda’s voice. The musicians had created the legendary album in 1993 during the very difficult time of the pressure of fame, addictions, personal and group existence challenges, about the cravings for the dark object, the eternal search for truth, meaning and questions to which there are no rational answers. As an acknowledgment of the refuge given by the Most High.
“Sometimes it seems that we have adopted a kind of emotional label for the holidays, how we should feel and express ourselves during them, but joy, like difficult times and challenges, comes and goes regardless of the clock on the calendar. And so my warmest desire in creating this Christmas concert is to create an atmosphere where you can let yourself be without the need to pretend. Neither for a saint nor for a sinner, but simply for a person,” says Linda Leen.
“Even if you are in the church only for this concert, it does something to you. Weeds out the redundant. As the working title of this program says – “the light is in Your hands” or God can act in our lives only through other people. We are each other’s greatest helpers or hindrances, builders or destroyers, who do we want to be? In the church we come to be strengthened to return to love. That’s why I affectionately, but truly call these concerts “services of the heart.”
Creators of the concert program: singer and composer Linda Leen, electric and acoustic guitar virtuoso Rihards Efeja-Lībietis, vocal group “Midnight Five”, organist – Jānis Pelše, master of arrangements Andris Sējāns, sound direction – Didzis Simanovičs.
Linda Leen’s concert series “Games of Light”. Light is only half the story” will continue on December 21 at Talsi Evangelical Lutheran Church, on December 22 at Cēsi St. John’s Church, on December 25 at the Riga Lutheran Evangelical Lutheran Church in Riga (Torņkaln), on December 26 at the Cesvaine Evangelical Lutheran Church, on December 27 at the Latgale Embassy “Gors” in Rēzekne, on December 29 at the Ventspils concert hall “Latvija” and on December 30 at Liepāja’s St. Trinity Cathedral. Tickets for concerts can be purchased in the “Bilešu paradīze” network.
2023-12-18 15:50:04
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