On 1 May, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's grand European concert will be broadcast from the Liepāja Concert Hall to more than 30 countries around the world.
For the first time in Latvia, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra together with the outstanding conductor Kirill Petrenko will offer the audience an ambitious "European Concert ", which will herald the unifying spirit of European culture, peace and solidarity.
In this concert, the orchestra will perform with one of the world's brightest opera stars, Elīna Garanča.
Since 1991, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrating the anniversary of its founding on 1 May with a "European Concert" or "Europakonzert" at historically notable cultural landmarks.
This year, the orchestra's 140th anniversary concert was originally scheduled to take place at the Odessa National Academic Opera, but the Russian military invasion of Ukraine forced a change of venue.
At a time when solidarity and a common voice across Europe and the world is of the utmost importance, the selected concert programme is a tribute to Ukraine.
The concert will open with Peters Vasks' tragically moving opus “Musica Dolorosa”. It will be followed by the Italian composer Luciano Berio's Folk Songs, in which the beautiful voice of Elīna Garanča will highlight the diverse musical roots of European and world culture, while the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov's ”Elegie” will proclaim the power of breaking through.
In the second part of the programme, the orchestra's virtuoso performance will reveal the harsh war scenes from Nikolai Gogol's novel “Taras Bulba” by Leoš Janáček.
The programme will conclude with the glorious “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius, transforming the previously expressed feelings of longing for independence into scenes of hope.