#Photo #week #Star #Festival #played #jazz #Mozart #Vaska #music
On the evening of Friday, March 15, jazz lovers enjoyed the performance of the Latvian “Trio ELPO” with the experienced American saxophonist and clarinetist John Ruoko.
On Saturday, March 16, festival visitors experienced the performance of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Finnish maestro Juhas Kangas, together with the virtuoso German violinist Katrina ten Hagen and one of the most outstanding oboists in the world in the last ten years, the French artist Céline Mounet.
At Friday’s concert, the Latvian jazz trio “ELPO” (pianist Edgars Cīrulis, double bassist Jānis Rubiks and percussionist Rūdolfs Dankfelds) delighted the audience both with their original music and the compositions of the concert’s special guest – jazz musician John Ruoko, who was born in the USA but lives mainly in Belgium.
This seasoned musician is one of the last to play with many jazz legends such as Tut Thielmann and Dizzy Gillespie.
The orchestra’s concert program on Saturday brought together the timeless elegance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the loving harmonies of Pēteris Vaskas.
The concert featured Vaska’s work “Musica serena”, which he dedicated directly to his long-time friend – the conductor Juh Kangas, and the fantasy for violin and string instruments “Vox amoris” with Katrina ten Hagen’s solo.
In this concert, the listeners could enjoy the Six German Dances, the emotional Hafner Symphony and the Oboe Concerto, which is considered one of the most important pieces in the oboe repertoire, with a solo performance by the outstanding Frenchwoman Celine Mounet, from the unfathomable breadth of Mozart’s works.
The Star Festival with performances by domestic artists and international stars will take place in Liepāja until March 23. Two more concerts are expected in the last week of the festival.
On March 21 at 7 p.m., pianist Aurelija Šimkus will give a solo concert, with whom piano lovers will be able to experience an exquisite journey through time and get acquainted with wonderful pieces by Philip Glass, Sergei Prokofiev and Frederic Chopin.
On the other hand, at the grand finale of the festival, on March 23, at 6 p.m., the great Italian opera genius Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem” will be played – a monumental piece of spiritual vocal-instrumental music, in which the composer has put all his talent as a genius melodist and a great master of dramaturgy of musical forms.
The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Atvars Lakstīgalas, will perform in front of the audience with its long-time partner the State Academic Choir “Latvija” and soloists – Polish soprano Joanna Zavartko, Slovenian mezzo-soprano Monika Bohinec, Ukrainian tenor Oleksandrs Čuvpilas and Latvian National Opera bass Rihards Mačanovskis.
