The Latvian national recording company SKANi releases a new album “Ivanovs. Symphonies Nos. 19 & 21” by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. The album, recorded at the Riga Congress Hall this year’s January, features the prominent Latvian composer Jānis Ivanovs’ Symphony No.19 (1979) and three movements of the unfinished symphony No.21 (1983).The album (CD, streaming and download format) will be available on October 2, 2026.
The life and work of Jānis Ivanovs represents one of the most vivid and powerful chapters in the still-unwritten history of Latvian music. His oeuvre includes twenty-one symphonies; symphonic miniatures; concerti for violin, cello and piano; instrumental chamber music; several solo songs; piano pieces and a series of a cappella choral works. Ivanovs’ style is distinctive, recognisable and powerful.
His former student Juris Karlsons, who graduated from Ivanovs’ composition class in 1972, says:
“I don’t know of any other Latvian composer with such powerful and dramatic music. It’s music in which there are three points of conflict: fate, faith and struggle. And also a very masculine romanticism. A poignancy that’s never maudlin.”
The list of symphonies by Jānis Ivanovs includes twenty completed works (his twenty-first symphony was orchestrated by Karlsons after his death).
“He later commented on his compulsion to read scores: he did so to avoid any similarities with what had already been created. Regarding Symphony No. 19, he said, ‘Nothing like this can be found in the literature.’ Regarding Symphony No. 20, he said, ‘This is my requiem.’ During his final illness, he said, ‘Inspiration has left me.’” At the time, however, Ivanovs was composing the Symphony No. 21, and he was mistaken – inspiration had certainly not left him.”
These are the words of Leonora Ivanova, the widow of Jānis Ivanovs, in an interview to Imants Zemzaris in 1993. Ivanovs had planned a traditional four-movement symphony but managed to write only three movements. The symphony also remained unorchestrated. The last entry in the score is dated 23 March 1983. Four days later, at 10:00 a.m. on 27 March, Ivanovs passed away.
“The scope of Ivanovs’ oeuvre is difficult to grasp and even harder to describe. The key lies in listening to the music.”,
writes musicologist, journalist, “Great Amber” concert hall artistic director Orests Silabriedis.
The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) was founded in 1926 as the Riga Radiophon Orchestra and began its 100th season in September 2025. The ensemble has gained extensive experience performing in Latvia and abroad with outstanding guest conductors and soloists. Alongside symphonic and vocal-symphonic music, the LNSO dedicates much of its activity to musical events for children and young audiences, and often interdisciplinary musical projects. The LNSO also presents a chamber music series each season and, since 2015, has hosted LNSO Vasarnīca (LNSO Summer Festival), a festival for families and friends held on summer weekends.
Guntis Kuzma is a clarinetist, chief conductor and artistic director of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The winner of the Grand Music Award 2018 for two outstanding performances, winner of many international competitions, he was the conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2022, as a soloist and conductor he also regularly collaborates with other orchestras, including Sinfonietta Riga and Sinfonia Concertante. Guntis Kuzma fears no challenge, has performed in the USA, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Germany and Sweden, is a participant of many Latvian Radio Foundation recordings.
The album (CD, streaming and download format) is available from October 2, 2026. Listen no Spotify and Apple Music:
ej.uz/lnso-ivanovs-1921-spotify
Read more: https://www.lmic.lv/skani180eng
SKANi is a division of the Latvian Music Information Centre (LMIC). Funded by the Latvian Ministry of Culture, its goal is to produce high quality recordings of Latvian classical music performed by both emerging and established Latvian musicians and promote Latvia’s classical music heritage through its distinctive and varied programming. Founded in 2014, it has released 180 recordings and has longstanding relationships with the Latvian Radio Choir, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, State Choir “Latvia”, Sinfonietta Riga, Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and many other soloists and chamber music groups.