On June 18, the national music recording company “Skani” will release Imants Zemzars’ piano album “Another Traveler Fantasy”, recorded by the pianist Diāna Zandberga. The opening concert of the album will take place online on June 18 at 18.00 in Dubulti Digital Concert Hall, but in “Klasika” we are meeting the pianist already now.
Liene Jakovleva: What was your meeting with the composer, this year’s jubilee Imants Zemzars?
Diāna Zandberga: I remember Imants Zemzars from childhood, when we were in the same class in the first grade at Jurjānskola with Andris Dzenītis. Teacher Marina Gribinčika, our wonderful composer, told us about contemporary music – about Pēteris Vasks, about Alfreds Šnitks and including Imants Zemzars. And it remains in my memory.
After that, I remember Imants Zemzar very well when he came to my first solo concert in the Great Guild of Münster and wrote the first review of my life – thank God it was good!
And then quite personally he addressed me at the end of 2017, gave part of Rainis’ motifs, which I will premiere in full all four – at that time there were three. And then little by little he started playing in front of me and giving me more and more manuscripts, and it addressed me so personally …
I can honestly say that after our meetings, when Imants played his music in front of me for several hours, the next day I was always in a high temperature, because it inspired me so much …
There were compositions that even shocked me, it seemed to me that I already knew them, I have always known them, and now that I play in front of my students the same “White Nights” dedicated to the wonderful solstice, the students told me – yes, we we know music, it is wonderful, it seems that it has always been with us. And this is also the reason why Imants Zemzars’ music appeals to me so much. There is a feeling that Imanta’s music has always sounded to me.
Then the question was, how high was the temperature when you wrote this album? It happened in the Great Hall of the Academy of Music, didn’t it?
Yes, we went quite extreme there, because the last recording session took place on the coldest night of this winter – when it was more than 20 degrees cold … Something went crosswise with both electronics and wires, the grand piano had to be adjusted to the temperature graduation changes. The last record, I thought, was 12 hours long.
More and more – in the record.
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