Liepāja Symphony Orchestra Season Opening Concert

Featuring

Daniel Miller-Šott (cello)

Liepāja Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Guntis Kuzma

Programme

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) Concerto for Cello and Orchestra

Juris Karlsons (1948) premiere of “At Sunrise”

Arthur Honegger (1892-1955) Liturgical Symphony

For the opening of its 146th season, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra and its audience will enjoy a pleasant reunion with the German cellist Daniel Miller-Šott, who first performed here at Liepāja's 400th anniversary International Star Festival and played Camille Saint-Saëns's virtuoso First Cello Concerto at the opening concert.

This time, the concert programme includes one of the cornerstones of the cello repertoire, Antonín Dvořák's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

Dvořák long believed that the cello was not suited to a solo concerto. His mind was changed by a performance of Victor Herbert's Second Cello Concerto in New York, which inspired Dvořák to create his own version.

It combines symphonic grandeur, lyrical intimacy, and a dramatic emotional arc closely tied to the composer's personal life. The lyrical episode in the third movement is an emotional tribute to his wife’s sister Josefina, who was gravely ill during the work’s creation and died soon after.

The concerto quickly became a staple of the cello repertoire. It has been recorded by nearly all the great cellists, from Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich to Jacqueline du Pré, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others.

Johannes Brahms, after reading the score, is said to have remarked: “If I had known that it was possible to write such a cello concerto, I would have tried it myself.”

After its romantic breadth, the concert turns to the harsher space of the 20th century, illuminated by the experience of war.

Arthur Honegger's Liturgical Symphony is one of the most powerful symphonic statements of the 20th century, a dramatic, existentially charged work written after the Second World War. Striking rhythms, sharp contrasts, and severe orchestral colors reveal a world at the point of collapse, while the symphony's final movement brings a fragile and hard-won but still genuine hope.

Honegger himself wrote an extensive commentary on this work, clearly pointing to the music's connection with the horrors of war and the desire for peace, which remains relevant to the whole world even 80 years after the symphony was written.

At the symphony orchestra's season opening, Juris Karlsons's symphonic vision for orchestra, At Sunrise, will receive its premiere. As the composer says, the motto of the piece is:

“One ray at a time,

One color at a time.

Then the Sun itself.

Resurrection.”

INFORMATION FOR VISITORS:

The concert uses an extended stage, so in practice row 5 is row 1 of the audience.

Discounts:

Students, people with disabilities, pensioners - 5 euros

Schoolchildren - 50%

Holders of 3+ Family Card - 30%

Accompanying person for a person with disability group I/II - 50%

Groups (10 or more visitors) - 20%

When purchasing group tickets online, please write to sales@lso.lv

When attending the concert, visitors must present a document confirming eligibility for the discount.

Useful:

The concert is accessible to people with hearing impairments, as the induction loop system will be activated during the performance. Based on feedback from people with hearing impairments who have tried this system, the best listening experience is available in the center area of the stalls, from rows 5 to 12, seats 6 to 28.

The concert is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation, and the City of Liepāja.

Tickets: bilesuparadize.lv/lv/event/170691