Liepāja Symphony Orchestra Latvia Tour 2025

Conductor: Guntis Kuzma

Under the leadership of chief conductor Guntis Kuzma, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will take listeners on a captivating musical journey during its 2025 autumn concert tour. This journey will feature Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's piano concerto, known for its melodic beauty and Nordic character, and Ludwig van Beethoven's grand Seventh Symphony, which will amaze with its monumental strokes from the Viennese classical period.

DANIILS MICKEVIČS graduated with distinction from the Emīls Dārziņš Music School under the tutelage of Ilze Treija and is currently continuing his studies at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music with Professor Sergejs Osokins.

Daniils Mickevičs is one of the brightest young pianists, whose talent has been recognized both within Latvia and beyond its borders. He is a multiple international competition laureate, including the winner of the Jāzeps Vītols International Piano Competition in 2023.

He has furthered his knowledge in masterclasses with outstanding pianists such as Yefim Bronfman, Peter Jablonski, and Matti Raekallio at the Juilliard School, Eva Kupiec at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Anna Malikova at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, among others.

Daniils Mickevičs's playing is characterized not only by technical mastery but also by a deep musical understanding and the ability to reveal the emotional world of a piece, taking the audience on a vibrant musical journey through various artistic epochs.

The pianist actively performs both in Latvia and abroad, giving concerts as a soloist, as a soloist with an orchestra, and collaborating with excellent musicians in various chamber ensembles, such as violinist Daniils Bulajevs, singer Daniils Kuzmins, and others.

LIEPĀJA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (LSO) has been sharing its love of music with audiences in Latvia and beyond for over 140 years.

In 2010, LSO gained national orchestra status, becoming an important cultural ambassador for Latvia worldwide, delighting audiences with classical music masterpieces and paying special attention to Latvian composers and promoting their work — the orchestra participates in premieres and commissions a significant number of new works.

All pieces from the monumental cycle of 12 “Liepāja Concerts” initiated by LSO have been presented for public and specialist evaluation. In the Symphony Cycle of Latvia's Centenary, symphonies by Latvian composers such as Rihards Dubra, Imants Kalniņš, Andris Vecumnieks, and Jānis Lūsēns have been performed, while in 2019, Rihards Dubra's opera "Suitu Saga" was created at LSO's initiative.

LSO has received the Latvian Grand Music Award several times and has won the Latvian Music Recording Award “Golden Microphone” six times. The orchestra has also received other significant honors.

LSO's mission is to create a meaningful connection between music and people, making music accessible and enjoyable, so that each concert celebrates our rich cultural heritage with beautiful music. 

Since autumn 2022, LSO's chief conductor and artistic director has been Guntis Kuzma.

EDVARD GRIEG is the most significant and renowned Norwegian composer. He aimed to create a new art form based on Norwegian folk music scales, drawing inspiration from folk songs and their various rhythms. Grieg used Norwegian folk music and gave it a new and precise individual expression in tone, rhythm, and sound.

At the same time, in most of his music, he avoided direct quotes, preferring to find less obvious ways to create Norwegian melodic contours, including in his piano concerto.

“I am convinced that my music tastes like cod,” he once ironically remarked.

The Liepāja Symphony Orchestra's 2025 autumn Latvia tour program includes Grieg's Piano Concerto (1868), featuring the young piano virtuoso Daniils Mickevičs as the soloist.

Grieg composed his piano concerto at the age of just 24. After the birth of his daughter on April 10, 1868, the composer spent a pleasant and productive summer with his family in a cottage in Denmark, experiencing a creative surge that resulted in the piano concerto, full of love and joy.

Although the concerto was popular from the outset and considered Grieg's greatest large-scale achievement and the most complete musical embodiment of Norwegian nationalism in romantic music, Grieg himself was never fully satisfied with it, and he continued to revise both the orchestral and solo parts throughout his life.

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN is an eminent representative of all the main genres of classicism, perhaps excluding opera, a genius symphonist who expanded and deepened the aesthetic and social expressions of the symphony genre. A principled innovator who broadened the artistic possibilities of almost all genres and their resonance in society.

Beethoven's SEVENTH SYMPHONY (1812), dubbed the “apotheosis of dance” by Richard Wagner, gained wide resonance.

When Beethoven began composing his Seventh Symphony, Napoleon was planning his infamous campaign to Russia. After Beethoven's Third Symphony (and possibly also the Fifth Symphony), the Seventh Symphony seems to be yet another of his musical confrontations with Napoleon, this time in the context of the European liberation wars from Napoleon's dominance.

The premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place at the University of Vienna on December 8, 1813, during a charity concert for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau. The composer himself took the conductor's podium, revealing in his speech that he considered the Seventh Symphony one of his best works. The second movement “Allegretto” received such acclaim that the audience demanded it be repeated.

The concert program also included the patriotic piece “Wellington's Victory,” celebrating the victory of the combined British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces over Napoleon's France.

Composer and conductor Anthony Hopkins (1921-2014) said the following about Beethoven's Seventh Symphony: “The Seventh Symphony perhaps more than any other gives us a sense of true spontaneity; it feels as if the notes fly off the page while we are swept along by a flow of inspired creativity. Beethoven himself spoke warmly of it as “one of my best works.” Who are we to dispute that?”
Program:

Gundaris Pone (1932-1994) Overture "The Beautiful Venetian"

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Piano Concerto

I. Allegro molto moderato

II. Adagio

III. Allegro moderato molto e marcato

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Seventh Symphony

I.  Poco sostenuto – Vivace

II. Allegretto

III. Presto – Assai meno presto

IV.Allegro con brio