ONLINE BROADCAST AVAILABLE HERE
Tickets here.
Set of three LNSO season’s closing concerts here.
Elīna BĒRTIŅA – piano
Conductor Andris POGA
Programme:
· Sergei PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto no. 1
· Anton BRUCKNER Symphony no. 9
Regarding his farewell concert as the music director of the LNSO, Andris Poga says: “Conducting Bruckner is always a challenge, but at the same time it brings extraordinary, even otherworldly joy. Rather than resembling an easy, well-trodden path surrounded by familiar landscapes, it is more comparable to space exploration in the sense of finding answers to age-old, existential questions about the nature of things. Bruckner’s Symphony no. 9 represents one of the highest peaks in the symphonic repertoire. It is like Mount Everest, which is hard to climb, yet if you manage to reach the top, beware of getting blinded by the sun.” A fine pianist will shine alongside this Everest – the award-winning master of the instrument Elīna Bērtiņa whose virtuosity will be revealed in Prokofiev’s no. 1, which brought its composer the Anton Rubinstein Prize. Despite defying conventions and confusing critics who said it must have been written by a madman, the work did become one of the most characteristic opuses of the 20th century and its author, Sergei Prokofiev.