Media information: 9 January 2024.
This Friday, 12 January, at 19:00, the vaults of the Great Guild will resound with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) concert “LNSO, Esenvalds, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak.” Joining the orchestra to delight audiences will be violin virtuoso Daniils Bulajevs and one of the most exciting young Latvian conductors, Aivis Greters.
In the concert’s first half, audiences will hear LNSO’s current season composer-in-residence Eriks Esenvalds’ symphonic fantasy “Clouds,” written in 2002 as a tribute to the memory of the composer’s brother. It is filled with light and all the good the composer perceives in the sky.
Also on 12 January, one of the most popular violin concertos in the world will be performed: Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s sole Violin Concerto. This reading will be given by the talented violinist Daniils Bulajevs, renowned in Latvia and beyond. He has won prizes at many international competitions and gained considerable international concert experience. At the age of five, Daniils first performed with a chamber orchestra; two years later, with a symphony orchestra; and at the age of eight, the musician gave his first solo concert. After winning the Windsor International String Competition, the violinist performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Windsor Castle – a concert attended by the royal family.
The concert programme also includes Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60, composed around 1880, which through its full-blooded, brilliant and powerful symphonic writing shows the highest peaks of the composer’s creative work – Dvorak was an outstanding melodist who held the energetic, rich sound of Czech folk music in high regard, and often drew on it in his works. Alongside the especially popular Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, the Sixth is also one of Dvorak’s greatest achievements in symphonic music.
On the podium will be Aivis Greters, widely praised in the international media as one of the most exciting discoveries from the Baltics. Last season, Greters was appointed assistant conductor at two cultural organisations simultaneously – the Gothenburg Opera and the Orchestre de Paris. In the 2023/2024 season at the Gothenburg Opera, he conducts a wide repertoire, including “Nabucco,” “The Flying Dutchman” and “Tosca.” This season, the conductor also has several debuts ahead, with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Greters began his musical career in 2018 as artistic director and conductor of the youth choir “Kamer…” Under his direction, the choir won the Grand Prix at the Tolosa Choral Contest in 2018 and the Grand Prix at the European Choir Competition in 2019, becoming the first choir in the world to win that competition three times. In early 2021, Greters received the Latvian Great Music Award in the category “Young Artist of the Year 2020.”
Tickets for the concert “LNSO, Esenvalds, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak” can be purchased at Bilesu Paradize box offices and online.