On September 19, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will open its 146th concert season at the concert hall “Lielais dzintars” with Guntis Kuzma at the conductor’s desk. The ambitious season-opening concert program will be crowned by the premiere of a newly created symphonic vision by Juris Karlsons.
At the opening of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra season, Juris Karlsons' symphonic vision for orchestra "At Sunrise" will premiere. As the composer says, the piece has a small motto, which is also the key to its sound:
“One ray at a time,
One colour at a time.
Then the Sun itself.
Resurrection.”
“Juris Karlsons is a personality with an endlessly broad cultural horizon, wit and relentless interest in the world of music. His music always contains a bright idea – a grain, an impulse, a story. In my opinion, very often symphonic thinking organically merges with a sense of the stage, freedom of fantasy and vision create the flow of dramaturgy. It is no coincidence that vision has become almost a personal genre for Juris Karlsons – from “Evening Glow” and “Visions of Joseph” to “The Mysterious Garden…” and now “At Sunrise”. The short motto of the work concisely outlines the progression from one ray and one color to the radiance of the sun and the sign of resurrection,” says Guntis Kuzma, artistic director of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra.
The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra's collaboration with Juris Karlsons has been developing over many years. The orchestra premiered the Ninth Liepāja Concerto "Gliese 581", later, at the orchestra's suggestion, a suite from the ballet "Antonija #Silmači" was created, followed by the recording of the author's album "Dances of Life and Death".
At the first opening concert of the season, when Guntis Kuzma took over as the chief conductor of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, “El Cid. Dances of Life and Death” were performed, but the next significant stage of cooperation was the symphonic vision “The Mysterious Garden…”. “At Sunrise” is a continuation of this creative connection. The work was originally written as a fantasy for organ, but at the invitation of the orchestra, the composer created a new symphonic version.
At the opening of the 146th season, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will also perform one of the 20th century’s most powerful symphonic statements – Arthur Honegger’s Symphonie Liturgique. It is a dramatic, existentially charged work composed after World War II. Striking rhythms, sharp contrasts, and austere orchestral colours reveal a world on the brink of collapse, while the final movement brings a fragile, hard-won—yet unmistakable—sense of hope.
Honegger himself wrote an extensive commentary on the symphony, explicitly pointing to the music’s connection with the horrors of war and the longing for peace—an aspiration that remains urgent worldwide even 80 years after the work was composed.
Meanwhile, a pleasant reunion awaits the orchestra and the audience with German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, with whom the orchestra will perform Antonín Dvořák's magnificent cello concerto.
The world-renowned German cellist, who regularly performs with the world's leading orchestras and is known for his brilliant technique and expressive interpretations, won the love of our audience and the musicians of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra at the Liepāja 400th International Star Festival, when he performed Camille Sensāns' virtuoso First Cello Concerto at its opening concert.
This time, Daniel Müller-Schott's delicate cello playing will be enjoyed in one of the cornerstones of the cello repertoire – Dvořák's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, which combines symphonic breadth with lyrical intimacy and a dramatic emotional arc closely linked to the composer’s personal life. The lyrical episode in the third movement is a moving memorial to his wife’s sister, Josefína, who was gravely ill while the concerto was being written and passed away shortly thereafter.
The concerto quickly became a mainstay of the cello repertoire. It has been recorded by almost every great cellist—from Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich to Jacqueline du Pré, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others.
Tickets for the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra concerts can be purchased at “Biļešu paradīze” ticket offices.
The Concert is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and the Liepāja City.
