The LNSO’s season opening concert will feature the premiere of a new work by Pēteris Vasks, commissioned by the LNSO – a Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra. Created with the support of the Latvia’s Centenary programme, the premiere’s soloist will be the outstanding Albrecht Mayer – a world-renowned solo musician and principal oboe of the Berlin Philharmonic. On the podium – LNSO’s artistic director and chief conductor Andris Poga.
Since the early 1990s, when Pēteris Vasks’ music began to gain increasingly wide international recognition, the composer’s new works have more and more often received their premieres not in his homeland but elsewhere. As a sought-after composer, Pēteris Vasks receives commissions from influential organisations and brilliant world-renowned musicians, meaning Latvia less often has the honour of becoming the birthplace of a new Vasks work. And now such a notable event will take place at the concerts on 5 and 6 October.
About the new work, Pēteris Vasks says: “The piece has three movements: the first is a morning pastorale, the second is something like a festive scene, and the third is an evening pastorale. The course of a single day. A beginning like nature’s awakening, then a realm of songs and dances, and in conclusion nature falling asleep, but with a foreboding of the red streak on the horizon that will again, tomorrow, herald the coming of a new day. This is a bright, vital piece. I have tried to put into it my sense and feeling for nature’s inexhaustible vitality and the enduring vitality of my people. Yes, perhaps in the third movement a more dramatic chord sounds, but afterwards there is once again light and peace.”
Albrecht Mayer has been principal oboe of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1992, a soloist and chamber musician known throughout the world, and a masterclass teacher at major international festivals. His stage partners have included Hélène Grimaud, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt and Thomas Quasthoff. Mayer’s performances have been recognised with ECHO Klassik awards. Albrecht Mayer last visited Riga in May 2013, when he was soloist and director of performance in works by Johann Sebastian Bach at the LNSO’s season closing concert.
Alongside the new work, Andris Poga has placed in the season opening concert’s programme the passionate, life-affirming Pēteris Vasks’ opus Musica appassionata, composed in 2002, along with a work by the giant of Romantic-era symphonic music, Anton Bruckner’s monumental, magnificent and vital Sixth Symphony.
With Pēteris Vasks’ Musica appassionata, the LNSO and Andris Poga will set out in October on a major tour to France, Germany and Switzerland, performing this work in five concerts, one of which will take place at the Paris Philharmonie. These concerts are included in Latvia’s Centenary international cultural programme.
The concert takes place with the support of the Latvia’s Centenary programme.
On 5 October at 6:18 pm the Münster Hall of the Great Guild will host the traditional “Pre-concert Talks” with musicologist Orests Silabriedis, composer Pēteris Vasks and conductor Andris Poga – “Nature’s Cathedral and the Symphonic Temple”. The focus will be on the musical and life views of Pēteris Vasks and Anton Bruckner, as well as the works included in the concert programme. Every visitor to the opening concert is invited to listen to the “Talk” free of charge.
Albrecht Mayer – oboe
Andris Poga