The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra announces the autumn concerts of its 145th season at the Liepāja Concert Hall “Lielais dzintars”. The orchestra will open the season with a concert on September 20 at 6 pm, inviting world-famous organist Iveta Apkalna as a special guest, while on October 18 at 6 pm the orchestra will perform with violinist Elīna Bukša.
Together with the artistic director Guntis Kuzma the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra launches its 145th concert season in grand style, presenting a programme that brings together contemporary Latvian music and a masterpiece of early Romanticism.
At the heart of the evening lies the world premiere of the Organ Symphony, commissioned especially for the occasion by Jēkabs Jančevskis – one of the most expressive and sensuous voices among the new generation of Latvian composers. His music is known for its emotional intensity and deep dramaturgy. Jančevskis masterfully blends tradition with a contemporary musical language, creating works that resonate with a broad audience.
The new symphony will be performed by world-renowned Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna, whose unmatched technical mastery and artistic sensitivity bring out the subtlest nuances of musical timbre. Her radiant charisma fills the stage with a vibrant and compelling presence.
In the second half of the concert, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will present one of the most significant works of early Romanticism – Symphonie fantastique: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections, written in 1830 by French composer Hector Berlioz.
In this symphony, Berlioz reveals an unprecedented freedom of musical thought – daring orchestration and formal audacity that shatter the conventions of the classical symphony, resulting in a vivid musical psychodrama.
Telling the story of an artist driven to despair by unrequited love and attempting suicide by opium, this symphony has become one of Romanticism’s most striking masterpieces. Leonard Bernstein famously called it “the first musical expedition into psychedelia”.
In October in Benjamin Britten's Violin Concerto the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will meet with the winner of the Latvian Great Music Prize, as well as the prestigious Windsor International String Competition - violinist Elīna Bukša, who debuted with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra at the age of 12, and since then, her career has flourished across Europe, capturing the attention of critics and audiences alike. Her performances are marked by both technical mastery and emotional intensity, which is also highlighted in prestigious 'Gramophone' reviews: “Elīna Bukša deserves praise, as her performance never disappoints. Her interpretation is full of fierce energy and dazzling passages. The violinist carefully and attentively leads the listener to the thrilling conclusion.”
This concert will be a magnificent fusion of British refinement and German Romanticism, intertwining history, individuality, and the timeless power of music.
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