July 15, 2024, 20:00
Great Hall
Opening of the Jūrmala Festival. Rhapsody in Blue, Ravel’s Tzigane and Carmen Fantasy
Artists:
Kristīne Balanas, violin
Julian Joseph (UK), piano
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Guntis Kuzma
Programme:
Gerónimo Giménez Intermezzo from zarzuela La boda de Luis Alonso (“The Wedding of Luis Alonso”)
Maurice Ravel “Tzigane”
George Enescu “Romanian Rhapsody No. 1”
Pablo de Sarasate “Carmen Fantasy”
Leonard Bernstein “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story”
George Gershwin “Rhapsody in Blue”
The opening concert on 15 July will feature the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, conductor Guntis Kuzma, violinist Kristīne Balanas and pianist Julian Joseph. The programme will include opuses from 20th-century American golden classics, as well as works inspired by Spanish, Romanian and Gypsy folk music, composed by the great authors of European academic music.
Maurice Ravel’s brilliant and hot-blooded rhapsody for violin, The Gypsy, and Pablo Sarasate’s Fantasia on the Themes of Carmen, which is considered one of the most technically complex compositions in the violin repertoire, will be performed by Kristīne Balana. In this fantasy, Sarasate is inspired by the themes of Georges Bizet’s famous opera, where the spirit of Spanish music is most vividly revealed.
The great British jazz pianist Julian Joseph will play the popular Rhapsody in the Blues by George Gershwin. Gershwin has referred to the early idioms of ragtime and blues forms here, creating a heady and optimistic musical kaleidoscope of America. Meanwhile, Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from the legendary musical West Side Story are a vibrant pop theatre with Latin American rhythms, bebop melodies and the pace of 20th-century American life. The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and conductor Guntis Kuzma will also perform the lively dance rhythms of George Enescu’s First Romanian Rhapsody, and the playful Interludes from the Wedding of Luis Alonso by Spanish master of the zarzuela Gerónimo Giménez.
Approximate duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
Kristīne Balanas
ViolinA musician of “eye-popping virtuosity” (The Times), Latvian violinist Kristīne Balanas is a 3rd prize laureate of the 66th International ARD Music Competition, 2018 Young Artist of the Year in the Grand Music Awards of her home country, and recipient of the Fundacion Excelentia Young Talent Award from Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain.
Soloist with some of the world’s leading orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, countless others), with frequent guest appearances at the Berliner Philharmonie, Southbank Centre, and Carnegie Hall. Her head-turning transformation from a street musician and Rock-n-Roll singer in Latvia to a graduate with honors of the Royal Academy of Music where she studied under György Pauk, and Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, under Kolja Blacher, in demand for her “savage, bold, dramatic” (The Strad) playing, marks her as an entirely idiosyncratic presence on the stage.
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra
Liepāja Symphony Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in the Baltic States. It was started in 1881, when the first Philharmonic in the Baltics was established. In the repertoire politics special attention is paid to Latvian music – the orchestra has repeatedly premiered and commissioned new works. In recent seasons all the 12 monumental opuses of Liepaja concert series initiated by Liepāja Symphony Orchestra have been submitted to public and specialist evaluation. They have been released by such record labels as “Odradek Records” and “Skani”. Orchestra has two times received the highest national music award – The Great Music Award, as well as numerous Latvian Recordings Awards. The season 2022. / 2023. welcomes Guntis Kuzma as its artistic director and chief conductor. The orchestra regularly tours concert halls in Latvia, and goes on tours abroad.
Guntis Kuzma
ConductorSince 2022/2023 year season Guntis Kuzma is the chief conductor and artistic director of the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra. The winner of the Grand Music Award 2018 for two outstanding performances: the interpretation of Ādolfs Skulte's Symphony No.5 at the “Grand Concert of Latvian Symphonic Music”, conducting the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, and the performance of Sebastian Fagerlund's Clarinet Concerto as a soloist. He is the winner of many international competitions.
Julian Joseph
PianoJulian Joseph is one of the finest, most influential, and highly respected musicians in British jazz today. Devoting his career to championing music across the UK and into the far corners of the world, he has forged a reputation beyond his formidable skills as a performer and composer to become universally recognized as a highly knowledgeable and engaging broadcaster, musical ambassador, and cultural advocate .
