Liepāja Concert Hall Great Amber announces anniversary festival program

This autumn, the Liepāja Great Amber Concert Hall will mark its tenth anniversary with a festival that encourages listening, humanity, and love.

Throughout October and November, these values will permeate five versatile programs, culminating on November 7 and 8 with a long-cherished dream – the performance of Arnold Schoenberg ’s romantic oratorio Gurre-Lieder.

The cultural and urban landscapes of Liepāja can no longer be envisioned without the shape of the Great Amber. It has become a symbol of the city and a magnet for local and international events alike. We will rise to new international heights at the 10th Anniversary Celebration of the Concert Hall together with our friends, strengthening the confidence that Liepāja is one of the best places to be,’ says Timurs Tomsons, Chairperson of the Board at SIA Lielais Dzintars”.

‘With the anniversary program we have selected, we strive to underline the need for love and compassionate exchange of thought, which is so crucial in these times. At the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Concert Hall, we wish to emphasize that, as an independent and (I should like to think) skillful forger of our path, we aim to make the world a better and more colorful place. It is crucial to not get trapped in black-and-whiteness. Oumou Sangaré’s sense of social justice and passionate stance. The joy and liveliness of Carion. Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s brilliant versatility and bright temperament. Gidons Krēmers’ collection of life experiences. The ability to read each cobblestone of Liepāja exhibited by Liepu Tēvs. The despair of human loss and the apotheosis of sunrise in Gurre-Lieder,’ Artistic Director Orests Silabriedis explains the significance of key events at the Anniversary Festival.

On the 11th of October at 6:00 PM, the legendary Malian singer, Grammy Award winner and fiery human rights defender Oumou Sangaré will perform in the concert series ‘The World inside Great Amber’. As one of the most famous singers on the African continent, she promotes the music of Wassoulou, which the audience will have the opportunity to discover at the concert. This tradition is made up of a strong voice, life stories, percussive rhythms and the sound of the six-stringed harp kamele n’goni, but Sangaré has modernised the genre with elements of blues, folk and rock, giving it a new quality. Her powerful voice and feelings about the world can be heard in the songs from her latest, critically acclaimed album Timbuktu.

Sangaré has performed on the world’s most prestigious stages, from the Sydney Opera House to the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and has collaborated with prominent artists like Herbie Hancock, Seal, and P!nk. She has inspired stars like Alicia Keys, Aya Nakamura, and Beyoncé, who used a fragment from Sangaré’s song ‘Diaraby Nene’ for her soundtrack for the 2019 film ‘Lion King’.

On the 17th of October at 11:00 AM and 7:00 PM, everyone who holds Liepāja close to their hearts will have the opportunity to experience a new musical performance for families ‘Tales of the Liepu Tēvs’, which stage designer, director and Liepāja resident Varis Siliņš has created specially for the 10th anniversary of the Concert Hall. Liepu Tēvs sees in Liepāja what others do not notice in their daily rush, so he has written tales about it, where reality and vivid fantasy meet. In the performance, the audience will meet a creature called Svepšķis, the Metalurgs cow will also arrive, and the story of the Chimney Sweeper in Love will crown everything. The actors Maija Romaško-Burkevica and Kaspars Gods will play the roles of the storytellers. Sound effects and the path of linden leaves will be set to music by the experienced composer Jēkabs Nīmanis, and his imaginings will be realised by violist Raimonds Golubkovs, English horn master Aris Burkins and guitarist Harijs Roziņš.

The world-famous violinists Patricia Kopatchinskaya and Gidons Krēmers together with the orchestra Kremerata Baltica are an unusual and powerful combination that audience will experience on the 25th of October at 6:00 PM in Liepāja with a new, absolutely unique and playfully original program. At its core will be Patricia Kopatchinskaya’s arrangement for the orchestra of Franz Schubert’s string quartet Death and the Maiden. A duet of two solo violins will be heard in Luigi Nono’s opus Hay que caminar, alongside Raminta Šerkšnytė’s allusion to Schubert’s ‘Gute Nacht’ from his legendary Winterreise cycle, and Luboš Fišer’s meditatively fascinating opus ‘Crux’. No multi-part opus will be played in order from beginning to end, parts of the pieces will alternate to breathe a new dimension into the narrative.

On the 26th October at 3:00 PM, the long-awaited meeting with the woodwind quintet Carion will come true in the Chamber Hall’s popular concert series ‘Personally’. The Latvian-Danish quintet has a unique culture of stage performances, consisting of playing repertoire without notes, choreographic movements, dramatic elements and various other musical ideas. This is why in recent years it has become one of the leading woodwind ensembles in the world. The ensemble’s musicians have prepared for the audience a stylistically diverse and exciting programme that musically traces a path from ancient Europe to the new America. You will have the opportunity to experience their ingenious interpretation of Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles and their vivid expressiveness in playing ancient Danish folk melodies and various dances from around the world.

The culmination of the anniversary celebrations on the 7th and 8th November at 7:00 PM will bring together more than 250 professional musicians on the Concert Hall’s Great Hall stage. Six soloists, a large mixed choir, three men’s choirs and a grand orchestra will perform Arnold Schönberg’s monumental love story Gurre-Lieder. This is an opus rarely performed in the world and has only been performed twice in Latvia because of its colossal scale. The Concert Hall wishes to celebrate its tenth anniversary with an appreciation for love, as we sometimes lack real human connection in the current era of urgency, intolerance, and ignorance. The Gurre-Lieder is a powerful, touching message about what profound art and passionate feelings can achieve.

Modestas Pitrėnas is the perfect conductor for this music that requires emotional immersion, a good understanding and sense of the human voice, and the construction of an operatic dramaturgy. On the stage of the Great Hall, he will unite the State Academic Choir Latvija, the Rīga Project Choir, the Estonian National Male Choir, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. The powerful love story will be sung by amazing opera soloists – Magdalena Anna Hofmann, Corby Welch, Mihail Chulpaev, Zanda Švēde and Oliver Zwarg. Storyteller – actor Gundars Āboliņš.

The concerts are organised by Lielais Dzintars Ltd. with the support of Liepāja Municipality, the State Culture Capital Foundation and the Uniting Foundation. Tickets are available at the ‘Biļešu paradīze’ box offices throughout Latvia, on the website www.bilesuparadize.lv and at the Concert Hall’s information centre.

For more information please contact

Anita Lazdeniece-Grīnberga
LTD “Lielais Dzintars”
Public relations specialist
E-mail: anita.lazdeniece@lielaisdzintars.lv