Say goodbye to Edgars Račevskis, the chief conductor of the Song Festival

“We had a huge galaxy of them, unfortunately for the most part – it was because, I think, they kept each other with their positive mastery competition. Everyone in a row – Kokari, Dūmiņš and Račevskis, can be called and called, Derkevics … And Rachevsky was the most sparkling in his eyes on the whole pleiades, in that sense of excitement, Gido was also very sparkling, but a little different. .

His passion is inherited in many of us, and I hope so [pārmantosies] also in the coming,

because its school of Latvian choral conductors is simply excellent, and I am happy that I had the opportunity to conduct and communicate with him, talk and learn a lot from him. It is a pity that it is no more, but there will always be memories, “said conductor Ints Teterovskis.

Jānis Baltiņš, head of the Choir Conducting Department of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, said:

“His love for the song, which has been instilled in students and younger fellow conductors, his perfectionism, professionalism, musicality are the things we will appreciate all the time.

And in that sense, he was ruthless and sincere, also teaching the new conductors, teaching us, rebuking us. These were fatherly tips that are also useful to us. And that will be the invaluable legacy that will remain of him as a Maestro. And, of course, the phenomenal “Our Father in Heaven” he interpreted at the previous Song Festival, it’s just a masterpiece, the most emotional moment for the audience, for all the singers, its catharsis. We need to experience such moments, and we really need them. “

Conductor Mārtiņš Klišāns emphasizes the values ​​that are important for generations of conductors:

“Everything a conductor needs in a set – energy, joy of life, ideas, friendship and, of course, the desire to honor our one of the best traditions at all times.

Its service to the Song Festival, service to tradition, work with choirs all the time. All this was for the Master, he was such a generator of ideas even when he was no longer in the center of the arena. [..]

He always had ideas, there were always mountains of sheet music, there was always a piano, and he was always very open. “

The singer of the men’s choir Visvaldis Lācis met Rachevski back in 1965 as a first-year student: “Since then, I must say that singing has become a lifelong hobby for me. , to all else… All respect to the Master. “

“The greatest value is himself, who has taught us a lot, but

one special thing that we, the whole nation, had at the song festival, when “Fatherland” was first heard, when we all sang together, we realized that we are united that we have no greater intimacy together than this song, and through the song we are there we met.

And he was the one who led it, and after Harald Mednis’ “Castle of Light”, this seems to me to be the next brightest moment in my life as a musician and conductor, “said conductor Arijs Šķepasts.

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