YOU AND I ON A WINTER EVENING | Riga Orchestra, Ieva Parša, Beāte Zviedre, Rihards Millers

For a cheerful mood during the Christmas season, the Riga Orchestra and soloists will conjure up a bright retro music concert that will take you back 70 years into the history of Latvian variety music. The intelligentsia of the 1950s and 1960s expressed its worldview through the language of art. It was a time when popular music was subject to ideological restrictions, yet it still managed to create lasting melodies and preserve Latvian identity - the music characteristic of that era is a sparkling testimony to cultural history. The musical legacy of Elga Igenberga and Ringolds Ore has grown together with the foundations of Latvian variety music - these are melodies whose warmth, lightness, and joie de vivre still intrigue people in the 21st century, but these bright melodies are heard especially rarely in an orchestral setting.

The concert story “You and I on a Winter Evening” will make Christmas feelings sparkle in a joyful retro mood.

PARTICIPANTS:

Riga Orchestra

Soloists: Beāte Zviedre (soprano), Ieva Parša (mezzo-soprano), Rihards Millers (baritone)

Conductor Valdis Butāns

PROGRAM:

The Riga Orchestra and soloists will perform arrangements of songs by Igenberga and Ore, created by Ilona Breģe, Vilnis Šmīdbergs, Aivars Krūmiņš, Emīls Zilberts, and Madars Kalniņš.

The concert's musical story will be enriched by texts by Gundars Āboliņš and Daiga Mazvērsīte.