Pianist Liene Circene’s Concert Story “Half a Century. Myth or Truth?”

Ten pieces of music. Ten chapters of a life. One question: where does myth end and truth begin?

“Half a Century. Myth or Truth?” is not a traditional anniversary concert. It is an open and self-ironic concert story in which each piece of music becomes one chapter of a life, and music and words become a single dramaturgy: from the first breath and the wonder of childhood to choices, love, and the ability, after everything experienced, to say yes to life.

Arvo Pärt’s silence, Mozart’s playfulness, Sisask’s two skies, Katsarava’s humor, Glass’s flow, Chopin’s choices and Cowell’s voice of rupture will lead to Beethoven’s untamed life force, Liszt’s love and the dazzling Tarantella, from the first, barely audible sound to a breathtaking finale.

The concert hall will also become a co-creator of the story: both Dāvids Kļaviņš’s single-string Una Corda and the Steinway concert grand will be heard, and at one point the piano will sound even without keys, by touching its strings directly.

In this story, everyone will be able to recognize something from their own life, choices and doubts, losses and new beginnings, laughter and love. To experience it, you do not need to know the history of music, only to be alive.

Liene Circene is a laureate of the Grand Music Award and international competitions, including second place in the Eurovision Young Musicians competition. She rarely performs solo concerts; in her everyday work as a répétiteur she helps bring other people’s stories to life, but this time it will be her own. Foreign critics have singled out the unusual poetry, subtle sensitivity, and astonishing technical mastery of her playing: “You can never predict where she will take the listener.”

Because life is not something to take for granted. Life is a gift.

If you had to tell your life in ten pieces of music, what would be truth and what would be myth?