On May 14 at 18:00 the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will close its 141st concert season with a magnificent concert, which will be the last concert season for the outstanding Lithuanian conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius in the position of the chief conductor of the orchestra. Our special guest is one of the leading Latvian pianists – Daumants Liepiņš.
At the closing concert of the season taking place in the concert hall “Lielais dzintars” Liepāja Symphony Orchestra conducted by the chief conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius will offer the audience music composed by the grandmasters of classical music – Anton Bruckner and Sergei Prokofiev, whose works are still admired and considered technically extremely complex.
Bruckner's Symphony No.3 is dedicated to the German composer Richard Wagner and is therefore known as the “Wagner Symphony”. This work opens a series of masterpieces in which Bruckner's creativity reveals the composer's monumental abilities.
Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No.2 premiered in 1913 with the composer himself playing the piano, and it is still considered as one of the most technically challenging piano concerts, and only few pianists are able to play this work properly. At the closing concert of the season this challenge is accepted by the outstanding Latvian pianist Daumants Liepiņš.
Maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius has held the position of the chief conductor of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra for five concert seasons so far.
The audience has good memories of his interpretation of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, as well as his reading of Mahler's Symphony No.1 and Symphony No.2. Rinkevičius has also conducted a number of magnificent concerts with the participation of Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Sergei Nakariakov, Vestards Šimkus, Jeronimas Milius and conducted the triumphant concerts of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra in India and Sri Lanka.
Under his direction in recent years Liepāja Symphony Orchestra has recorded two Latvian music albums. Last year the album “The Glittering Wind”, which includes compositions by seven female composers, has won the “Golden Microphone” Annual Latvian Music Recording Award. Again, an album with music by Pēteris Barisons has just been released.
Gintaras Rinkevičius is one of the most outstanding and internationally appreciated Lithuanian conductors, professor of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, founder and artistic director of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. From the year 1996 to 2003 he worked as a chief conductor of the Latvian National Opera, in the year 1996 he was awarded the Grand Music Award. In the past he was the chief conductor of the Malmö Opera and Music Theatre, conducted prominent German, Danish and Russian orchestras. Rinkevičius has conducted opera performances in Salzburg, the Royal Albert Hall in London, and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, as well as in Taiwan and Hong Kong. He frequently visited the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. For many years he has conducted the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra.
Starting from September, the position of the chief conductor of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will be taken over by Guntis Kuzma.
Tickets to the concerts of Liepāja Symphony Orchestra are available in all “Biļešu Paradīze” ticket offices.