10/30/2015

Also part of TÊTE-À-TÊTE 2015 - the Latvian Radio Choir’s 75th anniversary opening concert

At 19:00 on 6 November, St. Peter’s Church will host "Canticum Canticorum" or "The Song of Songs", the opening concert of the Latvian Radio Choir’s 75th anniversary celebrations, which will include renditions of new works, as well as folk music and improvisations from the Middle East. Participants in the concert will include: the Latvian Radio Choir, the "Sarband" ensemble (Germany/Middle East) and conductor Kaspars Putniņš.

The concert is not only the opening event of the choir’s anniversary celebrations, but has also been included in Boris and Ināra Teterev’s arts programme TÊTE-À-TÊTE 2015, and also marks the conclusion of the "Arēna" new music festival.

As Latvian Radio Choir conductor Kaspars Putniņš explains, "Canticum canticorum is a concert programme lovingly nurtured over the course of several years, in which we - a professional choir of Northern Europeans, four musicians from the Middle East and five composers who represent these two regions - have created a painting of sounds, integrating the traditions, sound and music-making principles of Western professional music and Middle Eastern music, At the centre of the work are fragments of the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament, which Christian, Jewish and Muslim cultures are founded on. We have also chosen the Song of Songs, because this poem is an unsurpassed masterpiece of love poetry, which addresses each and every human being personally."

In November the Latvian Radio Choir will celebrate its 75th anniversary, offering listeners four stylistically varied programmes, which can be heard from 6-28 November in Riga, Jurmala, Cesis and Rezekne.