Founded in 1926 as the Latvian Radio Centre Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) is one of the greatest classical music assets Latvia has to offer. From 2013 until 2021, the LNSO’s principal conductor was Andris Poga (*1980 in Riga, Latvia). In the autum of 2021, Kristiina Poska (*1978 in Türi, Estonia) is the orchestra’s first female chief conductor.
I just came across an old concert program full of notes taken on October 5, 2018 just before my then computer died. The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) played works by Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) as well as Latvia’s most famous contemporary composer Peteris Vasks (*1946), who not only attended the performance at Riga’s Guild Hall but also offered an introduction to his then brand new work Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (2018), commissioned by the LNSO, supported by Latvia’s Centenary Program. The guest soloist performing the oboe part was none other than the German Albrecht Mayer (*1965 in Erlangen), since 1992 the principal oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic. The performance was broadcast live on Latvian radio and TV.
The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) with then chief conductor Andris Poga (bow tie, holding the hand of Albrecht Mayer), guest oboist Albrecht Mayer (at the center in grey-striped suit) and conductor Peteris Vasks (red-grey polo shirt). © LNSO.
Peteris Vasks (*1946) is Latvias leading classical music composer. Born in the city of Aizpute in Courland as the son of a pastor’s family, he was familiarized with music in the local Baptist church, notably through church choir songs.
Peteris Vasks started out as an avant-garde composer using a modernist musical language. He later grew into an idealist artist of the eternal battle between the good and the evil in his large and small-scale vocal and instrumental works. His works present frightening monsters, reflect nature, offer echoes of the composer’s beloved birds as well as of the possibility of catharsis and of the fate of Latvia and humanity as a whole — with a signet in the past, chaos in the present and hope in the future.
On October 5, 2018 the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andris Poga played Peteris Vasks 18-minute composition Musica Appassionata (2002). In 2005, Inara Jakubone described the composition in the CD booklet Symphonia ipsa as a typical example of Vasks’ style: an emotionally intense piece marked by the composer’s spirituality and neoromanticism. Unlike other works by Vasks, Musica Appassionata begins with a dynamically active, powerful message, characterized by sudden mood swings, until the markedly extended finale. In Riga in 2018, the performance of this work for string instruments convinced. From start until finish, it offered great intensity and haunting drama.
Peteris Vasks: Oboe Concerto. Albrecht Mayer, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Andris Poga. Ondine, 2021. Find this CD at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.com.
Sheet music by Peteris Vasks at Sheet Music Plus.
The LNSO with chief conductor Andris Poga (bow tie) holding the hand of guest oboist Albrecht Mayer. Photo copyright © LNSO.
The highlight of the evening was the world premiere of the Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (2018), commissioned by the LNSO. It offered a stark contrast to the first work of the evening. Wind instruments joined the musicians on stage. Peteris Vasks described the oboe as a pastoral instrument. He said that his concerto could be compared with a person’s life, but he prefered the comparison with a cosmogonic day that lasts a hundred years.
The first movement, entitled Morning Pastorale, started pianissimo with string instruments playing in D major. Vasks described it as a slowly unfolding morning in a Latvian landscape in which we can hear songbirds in a restrained jubilant voice. The melodic line is thoroughly explored in the following movements.
The Scherzando intitled second movement is powerful, energetic. It contains an allusion to the Latvian folk song Three Young Sisters as well as to the traditional Ligo song. Vasks described the atmosphere as one inside a kaleidoscope. One house lights up, then another one. Albrecht Mayer shined in the oboe’s monologue, offering lyrical as well as dramatic moments. After the monologue, festive energy overflows. The wind instruments briefly present the folk song I was born singing, grew up singing, as a powerful symbol of our existence, Peteris Vasks explained.
The third movement, Evening Pastorale, is envisioned as attacca, without a pause, the composer explained. It translated his belief that, in old age, we see and understand many things in a different way. Who knows if it is a wiser, more enlightened way. Bit it is more thorough, he added. The ending of the composition is unusually sonrous, like the first ray of light or even the moment before that first, brilliant ray of light that heralds the beginning of another day or another life.
Andris Poga conducting the LNSO. Photo copyright © LNSO.
The October 5, 2018 concert also featured Anton Bruckner’s Symphony no. 6 in A major (1879-81). The orchestra was further enlarged to some 70 musicians. The first movement, Majestoso, offered truly great drama. The LNSO showed its dymanic potentiel a offered a “lighter” Bruckner.
In the Adagio, the strings played warmer, more romantic, but also solemn. The Scherzo was optimistic, forward striving. The sound of the orchestra was very precise. The Guild Hall’s accoustics are unforgiving. After a pastoral moment, the wind instruments increased the volume in an impressive way, just to end abruptly.
Anton Bruckner’s fourth movement, Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell, began calmly. The intensity and tension increased, especially with the wind instruments joining. The changes, variations from calmer to more dramatic moments was impressive. The evening ended with many bravos.
Anton Bruckner sheet music at Sheet Music Plus. Bruckner CD’s at Amazon USA and Amazon UK.
The LNSO under the direction of chief conductor Andris Poga at Guild Hall on October 5, 2018. Photo copyright © LNSO.
Among the sources for this concert review is the concert program of October 5, 2018. For a better reading, quotations and partial quotations in this book review are not put between quotation marks.
Concert review added on January 20, 2022 at 21:37 German time.
