The youth choir "Kamēr..." continues the tradition of the "Mierīgs vakars" concert, this time inviting the audience to Riga's Old Church of St. Gertrude, moreover, in the last hours before Advent - on November 28 at 6:00 p.m.
This evening will be a dividing line between the experience of the past and Advent - a moment to give thanks and make room for hope. After a bright concert season with an Asian concert tour and having just returned from Turin, the choir will meet its listeners again in Riga, offering a personal and thought-provoking program. Various spiritual traditions, beliefs and personal searches for faith will be encountered in it. Brilliant cheers will mingle with silent prayer, mystical wonder and poignant human experience. Through these moods, the interplay of music, light and church space will lead towards a bright conclusion and peace.
The center of the concert will be Edith Štejna, a philosopher of Jewish origin and a Carmelite nun, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Her life story combines relentless search for the truth, deep faith and tragic experience of the 20th century history: in 1942 she was killed in Auschwitz and later recognized as a holy martyr by the Catholic Church. Parts of Pavel Lukaszewski's cycle Hommage à Edith Stein ("Dedication to Edith Stein") will unfold during the concert as moments of prayer, allowing us to return again and again to this personality and her spiritual legacy.
In Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" (Chichester Psalms), the ancient Hebrew text will meet the composer's sparkling sense of rhythm and bright musical language. Along with joy and tenderness, you can also hear the restlessness of the world and longing for harmony. On the other hand, Benjamin Britten's cantata Rejoice in the Lamb ("Rejoice in the Lamb") will open up a unique, mystical world in which all living things praise God. It is based on fragments of the 18th-century English poet Christopher Smart's poem Jubilate Agno, written while he was in a psychiatric institution. In Smart's poetry, the experience of suffering and exclusion coexists with unusual attentiveness to creation - even a cat, a mouse and flowers become witnesses of the divine presence.
The concert will end with Morten Lauridsen's O magnum mysterium ("Oh, the great mystery") - a meditation on the miracle of Christ's birth. This evening, its clear, calm sound will become a gratitude for the past time and a hopeful introduction to Advent.
The artistic design of Jurģs Cābulis and the lighting solutions of Ivars Vācers will form the story of the concert, allowing the music and the architecture of the church to unfold in changing moods. "Quiet evening" will be an invitation to stop for a moment and listen - to yourself, to your fellow human beings and to the light we are waiting for.
Youth Choir "Until..."
Jurģis Cābulis – artistic director and chief conductor
Aigars Reinis – organ
Reinis Tomiņš – percussion
Elizabete Gulbe - harp
Ivars Vacers – light
