Raimonds Melderis, the programme’s creator and a member of the LNSO second violins, says the idea of combining a string quartet with an electric guitar came to him after the LNSO played Kristaps Pētersons’s symphony “Sleep” at the 2016 “Grand Concert of Latvian Symphonic Music”, a performance in which the composer himself “had a fine old time with an electric guitar above the stage”. Being busy, Kristaps has not yet written a piece for string quartet and electric guitar; instead, at Raimonds Melderis’s invitation, three well-known figures from outside the academic world have written new works for this line-up: Mārcis Auziņš, Kārlis Lācis and Raimonds Tiguls.
Mārcis Auziņš says: “This is the first time I have written music for string quartet, and one source of inspiration here is the American exponent of ostinato minimalism Steve Reich. The new piece is called “Awakening”, and the story is perhaps about the relationship between two people – how it begins, how it takes shape, how it develops.”
Kārlis Lācis describes the impulse behind his First String Quartet like this: “It was an autumn afternoon, I went out onto the balcony for a smoke, the sun was low but shining brightly and giving a little warmth. Five floors up, the wind carried a newspaper that had burned in a fireplace but had been blown up the chimney and kept its shape. The paper fluttered gently, now and then catching on the internet and electricity cables strung criss-cross between the houses. Every so often a fair-sized flock of birds flew past, and in the middle of it all, in a tree in the distance, coloured maple leaves shimmered and fluttered. I decided that this idyll would be my first string quartet. Exactly that unfashionable and that simple!”
Raimonds Tiguls says: “This is perhaps the world’s first piece for string quartet and hang. The two newly written miniatures are called Flashback I and Flashback II. It is up to the listener to imagine whether this is about visions, a cinematic glance into the past, or something else entirely. Without the hang, the string quartet will also play my “Madrigal”, premiered at the LNSO’s 2016 summer festival “Vasarnīca”.”
Alongside the new works we will hear two examples from the classics of ostinato minimalism: Philip Glass’s String Quartet No. 2 Company and Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, a formidable test for any guitarist – and on this occasion we will have the chance to appreciate the playing of Jānis Ruņģis, a striking talent of the younger generation.
At the suggestion of the quartet’s first violin, Ilze Kirsanova, the concert opens with the energetic, invigorating first movement of the Concerto for Chamber Orchestra by the Estonian composer Jaan Rääts (Rääts, 1932), in an arrangement for string quartet.
It is also worth noting that in the programme “Electrominimalism” the LNSO will work for the first time with the company Reflector Audio, which will enrich the sound with unique loudspeaker systems whose uses are wide-ranging – they can serve as monitors in recording studios, carry the sound of electric guitars and bass guitars, amplify small instrumental ensembles, and deliver music of the very highest quality at home.
Representatives of the company say: “Alongside these uses,ReflectorAudiois developing an entirely new way of amplifying classical instruments, in which the loudspeaker is placed close behind the players, so that it works both as a monitor for the musicians and as a sound system directed at the audience. This unique application is possible because the system has linear acoustic phase and frequency amplitude as well as a wide dynamic range. Thanks to these parameters, microphones can be placed close in front of the system without it feeding back.”
After the first rehearsals with LNSO musicians both sides were highly satisfied with each other – the players liked the sound, and this encourages Reflector Audio to go on developing this unusual technique for amplifying contemporary classical music.
ReflectorAudio‘s experience in the classical field is so far fairly limited, and relates mainly to classical music as one of the benchmarks for judging quality while developing loudspeaker systems. To date the most significant Reflector Audio classical amplification project took place at the end of 2016 in the Viennese concert hall Odeon, where a solo violin and classical guitar were amplified at a concert by the youth symphony orchestra led by Daniel Muck (Muck).
Reflector Audio is a young company – its first major presentation took place in the Czech Republic in March 2016, and last year brought two further important presentations in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The company’s products have been appreciated by customers mainly in the USA, England, Latvia and Germany, though the market as a whole is geographically unlimited.
Ilze Kirsanova, Raimonds Melderis, violin
Liene Beitāne, viola
Ainārs Paukšēns, cello
Mārcis Auziņš, Jānis Ruņģis, guitar
Raimonds Tiguls, hang