On Friday, 6 November at 7.00 p.m., the Riga Congress Hall will host the symphonic music concert LNSO, Ibert, Bartók and the Italians. Under the baton of Italian conductor Michele Gamba, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) will perform Ottorino Respighi’s suite Ancient Airs and Dances, revealing the composer’s fascination with early music, and Béla Bartók’s landmark Concerto for Orchestra. In Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto, the orchestra will be joined by flautist Tommaso Pratola as soloist. The programme will also be presented the following day, 7 November, at the Latvia Concert Hall in Ventspils.

Although the works by Jacques Ibert, Ottorino Respighi and Béla Bartók featured in the programme are markedly different, they are united by the era in which they were composed, a period when Europe was undergoing dramatic upheavals. Perhaps for this reason, all three composers sought inspiration in musical traditions of the past, transforming them into vivid, innovative and timeless works of art.

The Italian composer Ottorino Respighi wrote three suites entitled Ancient Airs and Dances (1917, 1923, 1931). The concert on 6 November will feature the first of these, in which Respighi, paying tribute to the musical heritage of earlier centuries, arranged lute works by Italian Renaissance composers Simone Molinaro, Vincenzo Galilei and two anonymous authors. Here, history meets the modern symphony orchestra: Respighi created a refined neoclassical score that invites listeners on a journey into the world of early music.

The eclectic French composer Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto is one of the cornerstones of the flute repertoire. Dedicated to the legendary flautist and pedagogue Marcel Moyse, it is a technically demanding work that is equally captivating for both performer and audience, combining virtuosity with musical substance. Ibert’s eclectic talent is on full display: the first movement brings together elements of the avant-garde and neoclassicism, the second evokes the atmosphere of Impressionism, while the third can only be described as a musical fireworks display, featuring an intricate and virtuosic flute part, brilliant yet transparent orchestral colours, and exhilarating rhythms.

The soloist will be Tommaso Pratola, Principal Flute of the LNSO. Having studied in Italy and Switzerland, he is a prize-winner of numerous international performance competitions and currently serves as Principal Flute of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland in Koblenz, Germany.

Among the greatest symphonic achievements of the twentieth century stands Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, composed in New York in 1943. This five-movement work declares the entire orchestra, rather than a single instrument, to be the soloist, significantly expanding the horizons of the concerto genre. Its masterful treatment of the orchestral sections makes it one of the most outstanding examples of orchestration in twentieth-century music. Modern yet immediately accessible, the work demonstrates Bartók’s exceptional command of form within the often complex musical language of the twentieth century. A distinguished ethnomusicologist, Bartók combined the traditions of Western European symphonic music with principles drawn from Eastern European, and particularly Hungarian, folk music.

The musical direction of the 6 November concert has been entrusted to Italian conductor Michele Gamba, whom the LNSO and Latvian audiences first encountered last year at Marina Rebeka’s solo concert in Cēsis dedicated to Andrejs Žagars. His international career began after serving as assistant to the legendary conductors Antonio Pappano and Daniel Barenboim, and he is now regarded as one of the most versatile conductors of recent years. Gamba has collaborated with Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Semperoper Dresden, and numerous other opera houses. He is particularly active in the symphonic repertoire and has a strong interest in contemporary music. He has conducted the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Milan Symphony Orchestra, Divertimento Ensemble, the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and many other ensembles. Gamba also continues to pursue an active career as a pianist.

Tickets for concerts in the LNSO’s 101st season are available at: bilesuparadize.lv/lv/organizer/283.

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