Life Celebrated in a Splendid Anniversary Concert at Bauska Castle
Published: 11.01.2018
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Life Celebrated in a Splendid Anniversary Concert at Bauska Castle
On 20 January 2018 at 3:00 p.m., the early music ensemble Trakula will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a splendid concert, “A lieta vita,” at the Bauska Castle Museum.
The concert will be a true celebration, promising both splendid costumes and a diverse glimpse into the world of early music and dance. “Love calls us to a life that is happy and sweet—let us celebrate it!” proclaims a four-century-old song that the musicians of the Trakula ensemble have chosen as the guiding theme for the concert at which they will celebrate their first decade spent together performing and endlessly loving medieval and Renaissance music.
The work of the early music ensemble Trakula is distinguished by the musicians’ ability to take on a wide variety of roles—to be war-fanfare players in knights’ battles, travelling troubadours at medieval festivities, court musicians at early music festivals, and performers of sacred music in churches, as well as occasionally crossing the notional boundary between early and folk music by combining the two in the sound characteristic of Trakula alone.
“We like music to be alive and unaffected. Whenever we perform, we try to imagine how things happened in those distant centuries—how people felt, what they thought, how they lived, how they played, sang and danced in everyday life, at celebrations, at home, in churches, taverns and market squares,” says Māra Āboliņa, who has been performing with the ensemble since its beginnings. “Over these years, we have grown so closely together that we can play with barely a word exchanged. It is a great gift to have people beside you with whom you can journey together through music and conjure up and bring to life a world long since lost.”
A true celebration calls for a large circle of friends and dancing, so Trakula will celebrate together with early-dance enthusiasts from all over Latvia, performing, singing and dancing their favourite medieval and Renaissance pieces at the concert. The presence of dance at the concert is by no means accidental, since Trakula has collaborated with early-dance performers countless times, and the musicians themselves once learned more than a few dance steps so that they could play dance accompaniment with greater understanding.
The venue for the celebration, the Bauska Castle Museum, is also no coincidence, as several memorable concerts have been held here. “We are always delighted to work with the custodians of Bauska Castle, who fill the castle’s rooms with life so enthusiastically and with such historical precision. Performing music here is a pleasure, because you do not even have to close your eyes to imagine yourself in the distant past.”
Performers: the early music ensemble Trakula: Māris Jēkabsons—bagpipes, vocals, percussion; Māra Āboliņa—vocals, recorders; Līga Jeleviča—Renaissance violin, vocals; Kaspars Indrēvics—percussion; and the early-dance groups Galms, Ballare, Calendula and Prebalge.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Bauska Castle Museum ticket office or reserved by telephone at 63923793, 63922280 or by e-mail: bauskaspils@bauska.lv. Reserved tickets must be collected no later than 30 minutes before the event.
Ticket price: 5 EUR
Further information is available on the website: www.bauskaspils.lv.
Information prepared by
Māra Āboltiņa
On 20 January 2018 at 3:00 p.m., the early music ensemble Trakula will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a splendid concert, “A lieta vita,” at the Bauska Castle Museum.
The concert will be a true celebration, promising both splendid costumes and a diverse glimpse into the world of early music and dance. “Love calls us to a life that is happy and sweet—let us celebrate it!” proclaims a four-century-old song that the musicians of the Trakula ensemble have chosen as the guiding theme for the concert at which they will celebrate their first decade spent together performing and endlessly loving medieval and Renaissance music.
The work of the early music ensemble Trakula is distinguished by the musicians’ ability to take on a wide variety of roles—to be war-fanfare players in knights’ battles, travelling troubadours at medieval festivities, court musicians at early music festivals, and performers of sacred music in churches, as well as occasionally crossing the notional boundary between early and folk music by combining the two in the sound characteristic of Trakula alone.
“We like music to be alive and unaffected. Whenever we perform, we try to imagine how things happened in those distant centuries—how people felt, what they thought, how they lived, how they played, sang and danced in everyday life, at celebrations, at home, in churches, taverns and market squares,” says Māra Āboliņa, who has been performing with the ensemble since its beginnings. “Over these years, we have grown so closely together that we can play with barely a word exchanged. It is a great gift to have people beside you with whom you can journey together through music and conjure up and bring to life a world long since lost.”
A true celebration calls for a large circle of friends and dancing, so Trakula will celebrate together with early-dance enthusiasts from all over Latvia, performing, singing and dancing their favourite medieval and Renaissance pieces at the concert. The presence of dance at the concert is by no means accidental, since Trakula has collaborated with early-dance performers countless times, and the musicians themselves once learned more than a few dance steps so that they could play dance accompaniment with greater understanding.
The venue for the celebration, the Bauska Castle Museum, is also no coincidence, as several memorable concerts have been held here. “We are always delighted to work with the custodians of Bauska Castle, who fill the castle’s rooms with life so enthusiastically and with such historical precision. Performing music here is a pleasure, because you do not even have to close your eyes to imagine yourself in the distant past.”
Performers: the early music ensemble Trakula: Māris Jēkabsons—bagpipes, vocals, percussion; Māra Āboliņa—vocals, recorders; Līga Jeleviča—Renaissance violin, vocals; Kaspars Indrēvics—percussion; and the early-dance groups Galms, Ballare, Calendula and Prebalge.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Bauska Castle Museum ticket office or reserved by telephone at 63923793, 63922280 or by e-mail: bauskaspils@bauska.lv. Reserved tickets must be collected no later than 30 minutes before the event.
Ticket price: 5 EUR
Further information is available on the website: www.bauskaspils.lv.
Information prepared by
Māra Āboltiņa
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