LNSO, Tarmo Peltokoski, and Latgale Embassy GORS announce the programme of the LNSO Summer Festival

Informācija plašsaziņas līdzekļiem, 2023. gada 6. februārī

Press release, 6 February 2023

LNSO, Tarmo Peltokoski, and Latgale Embassy GORS announce the programme of the LNSO Summer Festival

The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) has launched ticket sales for the concerts of the ninth LNSO Summer Festival, which will take place on 19 and 20 August at Latgale Embassy GORS. The orchestra will be accompanied by Tarmo Peltokoski, Music and Artistic Director of the LNSO, both at the conductor's podium and, for the very first time in Latvia, as a soloist at the piano. The special guest of the festival will be the extravagant pianist from London James Sherlock. As usual, the organisers have also taken care of the younger audience by preparing a special programme for children and teenagers, as well as providing a children's room during the concerts. On both festival days, the residents of the capital city are offered a special round bus trip Riga–Rēzekne–Riga.

"The LNSO Summer Festival offers academic and non-academic music and inter-arts programmes to families and friends. The idea behind the festival is to get away from the capital city and closer to the audiences of other concert halls around Latvia. The festival has previously delighted audiences in Cēsis and Ventspils, and this year it returns for the fourth time to Rēzekne, the city in the heart of Latgale. Families, friends, LNSO regulars, and everyone who is looking to be enchanted by exquisite music and culture are welcome to the LNSO Summer Festival.

The festival begins on 19 August at 4 PM at the Great Hall, where the youngest audience members and their families will be welcomed by the children's dear friend – LeNeSOn the puppet – introducing them to Princess Aurora, fairy godmothers, and the prince charming in an exciting concert performance of fragments from Peter Tchaikovsky's ballet The Sleeping Beauty. The LNSO and conductor Jānis Stafeckis will be joined on stage by actor Artūrs Putniņš and dancers from Riga Ballet School (choreography by Regīna Kaupuža). The LNSO LeNeSOn concert cycle for children is produced by a creative team of merit: director Paula Pļavniece, playwright Klāvs Mellis, and artist Evita Bēta.

On 19 August at 6 PM at the Small Hall, the audience is invited to experience Igor Stravinsky's unique chamber music work The Soldier's Tale. The opus brims with Stravinsky's favourite rhythm games, allusions to various dance genres – ragtime, tango, and waltz – it is full of theatricality and, in this case, Faustian morality. The story will be narrated by the beloved comedian and New Riga Theatre actor Jānis Skutelis. Together with him and conductor Raimonds Gulbis, the LNSO musicians clarinettist Mārtiņš Circenis, bassoonist Jānis Semjonovs, trumpeter Jens Emil Holm, trombonist Artūrs Hrustaļovs, violinist Ilze Gulbe, double bassist Oskars Bokanovs, and percussionist Ernests Mediņš will take the stage.

The final and central event of the first day is the concert Peltokoski, Sherlock, and LNSO String Quartet that will take place at 8 PM at the Great Hall. The audience will have a unique opportunity to see Tarmo Peltokoski, Music and Artistic Director of the LNSO, at the piano for the first time on Latvian stage. He will be accompanied by the LNSO String Quartet: violinists Sandis Šteinbergs and Darja Smirnova, violist Pēteris Trasuns, and cellist Dace Zālīte-Zilberte. In the second part of the concert, Peltokoski will be joined by the brilliant London pianist (and conductor) James Sherlock. The concert programme includes Robert Schumann's one and only Piano Quintet, which is one of the most distinctive examples of Romantic chamber music, as well as works for two pianos by Johannes Brahms and Francis Poulenc.

On the second day of the festival, 20 August, at 2 PM, the Small Hall will host the dance performance for the youth In the Net. It is a story about how increasingly difficult it is for young people to determine their selfworth, as the pressure of social media makes you feel as though liking yourself is not enough, you have to be liked by others as well. It is a source of tension and fertile ground for different insecurities. The protagonists of the performance are two young people trying to win such external validation. They meet a benefactor who helps them earn popularity, but, as it turns out, the benefactor is pursuing his own interests, and the quest for popularity sets the two youngsters on a dangerous path. The LNSO musicians will take the stage with dancers Alise Bokaldere, Ģirts Bisenieks, and Artūrs Nīgalis. In the Net was premiered in August 2022 at the LNSO Summer Festival in Ventspils.

At 5 PM at the Great Hall, the ninth LNSO Summer Festival will close with a grand symphonic music concert. Under the baton of conductor Tarmo Peltokoski, the LNSO will perform Rainbow by Latgalian composer Jānis Ivanovs, Richard Strauss' symphonic poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Johannes Brahms' imposing Second Piano Concerto with solo by James Sherlock.

The LNSO Summer Festival is organised by the LNSO in collaboration with Latgale Embassy GORS. The concert is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia.

Tickets are available at Biļešu paradīze outlets, ticket offices of Latgale Embassy GORS, and online at https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/en/custompage/3501?page=1

Festival attendees have the opportunity to buy a special ticket for two evening concerts: https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/en/event/126172

Half an hour before the start of the concerts The Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky, Peltokoski, Sherlock, and LNSO String Quartet, the dance performance for the youth In the Net, and the closing concert of the festival LNSO and Tarmo Peltokoski, children aged 3 to 7 years will have access to a children's room. It is free of charge. Please apply in advance by calling +371 64633303

The residents of the capital city are invited to go to the concert on a special LNSO Summer Festival 2023 bus, providing a round trip Riga–Rēzekne–Riga on both days of the festival. Tickets are available here: https://www.bilesuparadize.lv/en/custompage/3501?page=1