The Latvian national recording company SKANi releases a new album “Maija Einfelde. Organ Music” by the Latvian organist Ilze Reine. The album, recorded at the Riga Cathedral in 2025-2026, features compositions written in between 1987 and 1999 by one of the nowadays most recognized and prominent Latvian women composers Maija Einfelde. The album (streaming and download format) will be available worldwide on July 17. The CD format will be reaching its listeners in September.
Maija Einfelde blossomed slowly, travelled a difficult road of non-recognition, and, in her mature years, experienced a spectacular wave of recognition, which has not subsided even until this day. Her earlier works were destroyed without pity; only a few have been preserved. Famine and post-war poverty – difficult childhood was also a part of what created her as a composer. The Composers' Union only accepted Maija Einfelde as a member thirty years after graduating from the Latvian Conservatory.
“Maija Einfelde’s music is deep and authentic. At times, it’s very poignant and painful; at other times, it’s infinitely poetic and lyrical. It’s ever-changing and unpredictable. It reveals stories that evoke the scents of Latvian nature, transport one to enchanted fairytale forests, touch the listener with folk motifs, make one ache and struggle and persevere. Yet it also helps us preserve a glimmer of hope. Einfelde is very sparing with her dynamic markings, but this gives the performer great freedom and responsibility in choosing registration colours. I cannot imagine a more wonderful instrument than the Riga Cathedral organ to bring this music to life,”
says organist Ilze Reine.
Ilze Reine is a versatile organist whose repertoire places special emphasis on Baroque and Romantic organ music. A significant aspect of her artistic work is devoted to the music of Latvian composers. She has extensive experience in premiering contemporary Latvian music, performing works for solo organ, organ duet, and various chamber ensembles, most notably combinations of organ and trumpet. In recent years, she has released four CDs featuring music by Latvian composers, including recordings of works by Pēteris Vasks, Rihards Dubra, Imants Zemzaris, Aivars Kalējs, and others. The artist regularly collaborates with Latvia’s leading soloists and professional ensembles, including the Latvian Radio Choir and the State Academic Choir Latvija. She also performs Baroque music with the chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga and the ensemble Bach d’Amour.
Since 1996, Ilze Reine has served as organist and choir director at St. John’s Church in Riga. She has taught improvisation at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and currently teaches at the Ventspils Secondary School of Music and the Jāzeps Mediņš Riga Music Secondary School. Ilze Reine has performed in the Baltic States, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, and Israel, earning recognition for her musical excellence, stylistic versatility, and her contribution to promoting Latvian organ music internationally.
This album has been recorded using the Riga Cathedral organ, one of the most valuable organs in the world built in the Romantic era. It was built by E. F. Walcker & Co in 1883/1884. The organ has 124 registers, 4 manuals, a pedal and 6718 pipes placed on 26 wind-boxes. At one time, the Riga Cathedral organ was the largest in Europe and, for more than a century, it has inspired performers and composers and has enchanted listeners. The organ specifications can be found at doms.lv.
Read more about the album HERE.
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 more than 170 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.