The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra’s (LNSO) centenary concert series continues with concerts LNSO, Iveta Apkalna and Maestro Casadesus on Thursday, 8 October at 7 p.m. at the Riga Congress Hall and on Saturday, 10 October at 5 p.m. at the Latgale Embassy GORS in Rēzekne. Under the baton of French maestro Jean-Claude Casadesus, the LNSO will perform with one of the most distinguished organists of our time, Latvian-born Iveta Apkalna. The programme features French symphonic music: Hector Berlioz’s Le Carnaval romain Overture, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 and Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. These concerts mark the beginning of Iveta Apkalna’s artistic residency with the LNSO during its 101st season.
Iveta Apkalna is one of the world’s leading concert organists, internationally acclaimed for her virtuosity, artistic charisma and significant contribution to the promotion of organ music. Since 2017, Apkalna has been the principal organist of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, becoming the first musician to hold this prestigious position. It is a great honour for the orchestra that Apkalna has agreed to become its artist-in-residence during the LNSO’s 101st season. Over the course of the season, she will perform with the LNSO in two symphonic concerts and will also present a special chamber music programme to audiences in February.
The concerts on 8 and 10 October will be conducted by charismatic French maestro Jean-Claude Casadesus, a regular guest conductor of the LNSO. He is one of France’s most distinguished conductors and a legendary figure in European musical life. In 1976, Casadesus founded the Orchestre National de Lille, which he led for more than 40 years, developing it into a prestigious and highly accomplished symphony orchestra that has also attracted international recognition. As a guest conductor, Casadesus has collaborated with many leading orchestras and opera houses across Europe, Asia and North America.
The programme opens with Hector Berlioz’s vibrant concert overture Le Carnaval romain. Berlioz’s mastery of orchestration is attested by his treatise on instrumentation, published in 1844, which remains of both historical and professional value today. Berlioz put his theories into practice in Le Carnaval romain, which was premiered around the time of the treatise’s publication and serves as a vivid example of the colourful, captivating Romantic orchestration described by the composer.
The concert will also feature Camille Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3, distinguished by the inclusion of an organ part and therefore also known as the Organ Symphony. Dedicated to the memory of Franz Liszt, who died shortly after the symphony’s premiere, the work was composed in 1886, at the height of Saint-Saëns’s career. With his Third Symphony, Saint-Saëns helped restore the symphony as a major genre in France, and its first performance in Paris—the world premiere had taken place in London—was met with sensational success.
The full splendour of the organ will be heard with Iveta Apkalna as soloist in Francis Poulenc’s Organ Concerto. The concerto was commissioned from the composer in 1934 by Princess Edmond de Polignac (née Winnaretta Singer). Poulenc had not previously composed works for organ, and in creating this piece he studied the works of German Baroque masters Johann Sebastian Bach and Dieterich Buxtehude. The influence of Baroque music is vividly reflected in Poulenc’s score.
Tickets for the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra concerts are available at “Biļešu paradīze” sales points and at bilesuparadize.lv/lv/organizer/283.
Information about events at the Latgale Embassy GORS can be found on the concert hall’s website: latgalesgors.lv/lv.
For the latest LNSO news, we invite you to follow the LNSO website https://www.lnso.lv/ and the orchestra’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LNSO.lv.