Sinfonietta Rīga and Ksenija Sidorova set out on the Latvian Centenary tour

To honour the centenary of Latvian proclamation, Sinfonietta Rīga and internationally acclaimed accordionist Ksenija Sidorova will perform at three top concert halls in Sweden - on 21 November in Malmö Live, on 22 November in Göteborgs Konserthus and on 24 November in Örebro Konserthus. The conductor's baton will be wielded by the orchestra's artistic director Normunds Šnē. The programme includes works of Linda Leimane, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Joseph Haydn.

 

Sinfonietta Rīga artistic director Normunds Šnē came up with the idea of a concert tour dedicated to Latvian Centenary three years ago. Already then it was clear that there will be an abundance of festive events in Riga and Latvia, and therefore it was decided to look further, behind the borders of Latvia and offer a quality concert programme to Latvian expatriates and friends.

On the idea of the concert tour, Normunds Šnē says:

"I believe that Latvians are driven not just by our work ethics, invoked time and again, but much more by passion and need to create and experience beauty, ingrained in our souls by the nature. The rolling autumn mist, the resplendent midsummer meadows, the deep, dark spruce forests, the waves of the Amber Sea. Beauty, just like love, cannot be expressed by loud slogans, speeches or adverts. We express our belonging to Latvia, the Baltic States and Europe in music. That is our sincerest and most valuable Centenary gift to our country and our listeners here and across the Baltic Sea."

 

The concert programme includes three compositions, each in its own way characteristic to the identity of Latvian people, expressing our belonging to the European cultural space as well as our individuality and Nordic mindset.

Viennese classicism is one of the musical keystones of Sinfonietta Rīga. Therefore we have "invited" its grand-master Joseph Haydn 1732-1809) to take part in our Centenary festivities. This time we will perform his Symphony No. 104.

Our neighbour, Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür (1959), is a frequent guest to the orchestra's repertoire as well. His 2007 concerto for accordion and orchestra "Prophecy" is dominated by rhythmic waves of energy and fair share of Nordic mysticism and enigma.

 

Chamber symphony "Guesstimations", composed in 2014 and first performed on 8 November of the same year in the Great Guild Hall, is described by its author, younger generation Latvian composer Linda Leimane (1989) as synthesis of intuition and rationality in music. In Sinfonietta Rīga's Centenary tour this is the newest composition by the date of its creation, underlining the importance of Latvia's Centenary by looking forward into the future. At the same time it also highlights one of Sinfonietta Rīga's creative priorities - promotion and development of chamber symphony genre in Latvian music. With the help of Latvian National record label SKANI, Linda Leimane's chamber symphony has been recorded and released as a CD in May 2018.

 

Sinfonietta Rīga concert tour in Sweden is an official event of the Latvian centennial programme abroad and is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. The concerts in Malmö and Göteborg will be followed by a reception organized by the Embassy of Latvia in Sweden and the Honorary Consulate of Latvia in Göteborg in honour to the Centenary of Latvian proclamation. The receptions are part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia centennial public diplomacy programme; the representatives of the local Latvian diaspora and other guests will be in the attendance.

On the week when the national celebration will reach its zenith, the orchestra will visit the audiences in Estonia and Latvia. On 16 November in Tallinn House of the Blackheads and on 18 November in Krustpils Culture Centre, Sinfonietta Rīga musicians will perform music of Joseph Haydn, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Emīls Dārziņš and Pēteris Plakidis. Clarinetist Ints Dālderis will join as a soloist, conductor of the programme is Normunds Šnē.

“Superbly subtle and virtuosic,” writes the top British arts journalism website “The Arts Desk” about the performance of Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova. The musical and stylistic spectrum of her repertoire is wide and varied - from traditional music and jazz to classical repertoire. The virtuoso musician has performed together with Latvian and European orchestras, participated in festivals in France, Switzerland, Italy, UK, Norway and other countries, and continues to conquer new stages and hearts of audiences across the world.

Among the stage partners of Ksenija Sidorova are guitarist Miloš Karadaglić, tenors Juan Diego Flórez and Joseph Calleja, violinists Nicola Benedetti and Thomas Gould. Her collaboration with master  mandolinist Avi Avital and percussionist Itamar Doari deserves a special mention - with their musical project “Between Worlds” the trio has performed at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, as well as  throughout Germany and the USA. Ksenija Sidorova is among the musicians selected by the charming French-Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón to visit his show “Stars von Morgen” in the European culture channel TV ARTE.

In London, Ksenija Sidorova has performed in both Wigmore Hall and Royal Albert Hall. In 2012 she became the first International Award winner of the Bryn Terfel Foundation, as well as recipient of the Latvian Grand Music Award in the category "Outstanding Performance".

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