Press information, 21 October 2024, Riga. On Friday, 25 October, at 19:00 at Hanzas Perons, the orchestra’s principal guest conductor Kristiina Poska will perform together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO), joined by violinist Georg Sarkisjan, the LNSO’s longtime concertmaster from 2015 to 2022, who will be soloist in a performance of Johannes Brahms’ famous Violin Concerto. The concert will also feature Lithuanian composer Juste Janulyte’s work “Confluere,” and one of the most outstanding works of academic music – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 40th Symphony.
In the 25 October concert we will hear Georg Sarkisjan as soloist in Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto. From 2015 to 2022, Georg Sarkisjan was LNSO concertmaster, while simultaneously performing with various German orchestras and chamber ensembles. He currently serves as deputy concertmaster of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra. He has been nominated twice for the Great Music Award – in 2016 for “Outstanding Achievement in Chamber Music,” and in 2021 for “Outstanding Interpretation,” with the jury recognising his brilliant performance of Aram Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto together with the LNSO and conductor Kristiina Poska. Now they will meet again on stage!
Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto became, in a sense, the fulfilment of a prophecy by another famous German composer, Robert Schumann. In 1853, in the journal Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, he had said: “Johannes Brahms’ destiny is to express in music the highest spirit of our times. He carries within him every sign proclaiming that he is the chosen one.” Twenty years later, Brahms composed his only Violin Concerto, which has firmly established itself in the golden repertoire for violin. It was dedicated to the outstanding violinist of his time, Joseph Joachim, and is still considered one of the most technically demanding works for violin.
On the podium will be Kristiina Poska, who since the 2019/2020 season has been chief conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, and since the 2021/2022 season has been LNSO’s principal guest conductor. Interestingly, the programme includes a work dedicated to her – Lithuanian composer Juste Janulyte’s “Confluere” (“To Flow Together”). The piece is intended to be performed immediately before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 40th Symphony, creating a unique interplay between the musical languages of two very different eras.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 40th Symphony is one of the most legendary and celebrated works in the history of world music, its opening theme recognisable to almost everyone. The symphony was composed in 1788, when in the space of just a couple of months Mozart created his last and most brilliant three symphonies – No. 39, No. 40 and No. 41.
Tickets for the concert are available at “Bilesu Paradize” sales points and online. To follow the latest LNSO news, please visit the LNSO website and the orchestra’s Facebook page.