LANDSCAPES.

Participants:
State Choir Latvija
conductor Valdis Tomsons
Marta Spārniņa (violin)
Ēriks Kiršfelds (cello)
Aigars Reinis (organ)

Programme: P. Vasks, A. Part, J. Ivanovs, Ā. Skulte

The unique concert program with works by Latvian composers, as well as Arvo Pärt, will reveal landscapes of natural beauty and the human soul, where the choir sings without words and interacts with the organ and strings like an instrument of its own. In Pēteris Vasks' Plainscapes for choir, violin, and cello, human emotions are painted through nature's great processes: the opus is imbued with love for the land of Latvia, culminating in a vision of nature's awakening.

Vocalises by the great symphonist Jānis Ivanovs are uniquely original compositions where Ivanovs rises above the mundane with a rich harmonic language and depth of expression, revealing both a thunderstorm with warm Summer rain and the restless flight of migratory birds in Autumn. Ivanovs' Poem, on the other hand, is a vivid example of the composer’s mastery in combining poeticism with the dramatic power and tension of music. This composition was once performed at the famous contemporary music festival Warsaw Autumn.

Quasi una sonata per coro by the painter of sounds Ādolfs Skulte is a unique and rarely performed work in Latvian choral music, created on commission by Imants Kokars and the choir Ave Sol. The composer reworked an instrumental genre — the sonata — for the choir, virtuously expanding the possibilities of choral sound.

Arvo Pärt’s symbolic and spiritually rich opus An den Wassern zu Babel ("By the Waters of Babylon") for choir and organ is based on the texts of Psalm 137 — even without the presence of words, the music conveys the psalm’s painful story of exile; however,  the choir’s voices bring comfort and hope. Pärt's Mozart-Adagio for organ, cello, and violin, dedicated to Mozart, stands out for its pure sense of beauty, combining Pärt’s characteristic meditativeness with Mozart’s bright melodicism. Meanwhile Trivium for organ marks the transition to Pärt's famous Tintinnabuli style — a simple yet deeply expressive musical language dominated by pure, resonant sounds that mimic the ringing of bells.