“LNSO, Poska and Berg to Perform Brahms Symphony and More in Concert”

on April 21 at 19.00 The symphonic music concert “LNSO, Poska and Brahms” will be held in the Great Guild. Together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO), the chief guest conductor of the orchestra, the internationally sought-after conductor Kristīna Poska, and the cellist Kristaps Bergs, who is active in Europe, will take the stage. The concert will include the First Symphony of Johannes Brahms, the Opus Chordae of the modern Estonian composer Ilo Krigula, as well as the Cello Concerto of Witold Lutoslavsky.

Cellist Kristaps Berg has long memories with the LNSO. As a soloist, Berg made his debut with the LNSO under the direction of Andr Nelson in 2005 at the Great Guild. Currently, he is already well known all over the world, having performed in the largest concert halls – New York’s Carnegie Hall, Vienna music Society and concert hallSalzburg MozarteumAmsterdam Music BuildingLondon’s Royal Albert Hall, Tokyo Suntory and elsewhere. Not only the story of the cellist is special, but also his instrument – Kristaps plays on a very special cello built by Lorenzo Ventapane in Naples in 1836.

The concert will be conducted by the talented and internationally sought-after Estonian conductor Kristina Poska, who since 2019/2020 2021/2022 season is the chief conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra and since 2021/2022 seasons of 2016 – chief guest conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Kristina is a laureate of international competitions and the winner of the prestigious German Conductor’s Award. Estonian newspaper Sickle noted: “Her sense of perfect orchestral balance, fine timbres and details seems innate. Without interrupting the musical flow, she manages to capture the moment and stop time…”.

In the concert program, we will hear the First Symphony of the traditional German romantic composer Johannes Brahms. Brahms ranks among the most important German composers of the 19th century. Brahms was already 43 years old when his First Symphony was premiered. He was undeniably a harsh self-critic and claimed that from the beginning of composing to the final revisions, work on the First Symphony took 21 years. He once told his friend that he would never compose a symphony, because “how can it be done when a giant like Beethoven composed before us?” And yet – today we have both nine excellent examples of Beethoven’s and four examples of the self-critical Brahms symphony genre. The score of Brahms’s First Symphony is undeniably strongly influenced by Beethoven’s music.

With the participation of the excellent cellist Kristaps Berg, the intense Cello Concerto of the most prominent Polish composer of the 20th century, Witold Lutoslavski, will be played at the concert, which was once dedicated to the legendary Msistlaw Rostropovich. Also, for the first time in Latvia, we will also hear the energetic symphonic opus of contemporary Estonian composer Ilo Krigula Chords. Ilo Kriguls is a versatile musician – he was a member of several rock and jazz ensembles, the presence of jazz, post-minimalism and strong sonoristics can be felt in his compositions.

Tickets can be purchased at “Bilešu paradīze” ticket offices and in the online store – https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/lv/event/123077

We invite you to follow the current LNSO events on the LNSO website and on the orchestra’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LNSO.lv.

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