Colleagues, friends and talent lovers came to greet him. “Just like in the title of the concert” You have to wish! “, Everything went exactly the way I wanted,” says V. Aivars after the solemn event.
The composer’s birthday is on June 10, the anniversary concert takes place a day later. On his semicircular anniversary five years ago, as he says, he recklessly promised a new program, and now he is glad that “I do not do it as the government”, but he has also fulfilled what he promised.
In the concert “Need to wish!” 10 new songs have been played, the titles of which, especially in strings, even make up a verse. “It came out completely by accident,” says the composer.
He has composed both melodies and lyrics for the songs, and they have been created creatively to fill the time of the household. “I am preparing for the concert in time, a year in advance. I think about how it will be, ”reveals V. Aivars, using the experience gained in the theater as well.
“My vision was that there had to be songs of a different nature to have development, a culmination and something to make sense of it all.”
Next to the new compositions, we can’t do without the already favorite ones in the audience, because V. Aivars knew that “without them I wouldn’t have been let off the stage”.
Although being a concertmaster is a burden, the composer believes it should be done. Because no one else knows his lyrics better than himself.
The dialogue with the audience was natural and unforced for V. Aivars. “It’s not that I come in, apply, bow down, I always try without all this sterile, of course, a lot of improvisation. There was stuff that didn’t come true as planned, but you can’t do without it. ”
The men’s vocal ensemble “Dziedonis” conducted by V. Aivars took part in the concert, its sound was enhanced by the mixed choir “Lauma” (conductor Mirdza Paipare) and the attractive Rucava country chapel “Paurupīte”. The soloists with whom the composer brought his life many years ago – Andris Kristons, Gunārs Borgs and Edgars Pujāts also performed.
The greetings wished the composer many good words, gave flowers, which in the end formed a whole lap. At the solemn event, V. Aivars was also presented with a Letter of Recognition awarded by the Minister of Culture Naurs Puntuulis for his lifelong contribution to the promotion of choir and vocal music, the formation of the musical life of the city of Liepaja and the preservation of the Song and Dance Festival tradition.
“I have nice like-minded people, nice children, family, I’m not a nasty person either. If there are 70, then it is already a record, ”says the composer, smiling, who is invited to say a wish on the big anniversary of his life.
Speaking about Monday, whether the joy of creating has not disappeared and something new will become, V. Aivars replied with lines from “Skroderdienās Silmači”: ” If there is a need, then everything will be the same. I’m really not an inspiration, an idea rarely comes out of space. ”
As the concert was “the main thing to be completed”, the composer will now enjoy the summer. “My son has a manor about 20 kilometers from Liepaja. There is so much to get from nature, from space, that maybe there will be an idea working there. If the hands and feet are moving, then the brain is already working than when sitting at home for four days. ”
V. Aivars is the author of more than 300 songs and has composed music for about 40 theater performances. In 2012, Valdis Aivars received the Latvian National Defense Foundation’s “Lāčplēsis” award – an honorary badge for his long-term work at the Liepāja Theater with an ensemble of singing actors, creating patriotic programs during the Awakening, as well as for active multiple participation in Latvian men’s big concerts dedicated to Lāčplēsis Day.
