Rīgas festivāls. Egils Siliņš un Latvijas Nacionālais simfoniskais orķestris

Pēteris Vasks composes music when he cannot keep quiet, and he seeks to talk about global and transcendental subjects such as life and death, hatred and forgiveness, harmony and dissonant chaos.  These are topics that interweave through his expressive and emotional range of sounds.  The music can be described as an example of neo-romanticism, of “new spirituality,” “new simplicity,” or a sense of mission – asking the audience to listen to a warning and to the gradually disappearing sounds of nature, calling on people to purify their souls from accustomed carelessness about the world, their motherland and their future.  This belief is heard in Viatore, which was composed for a string ensemble.  It speaks about a traveller and eternity.  There is also Credo, which confirms faith and light.  Similar topics are brought to light by a “spiritual relative” of Vasks, the Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, a master of concentrated spirituality and silence whom the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin once described as an ascetic with the temperament of a maximalist and a controlled Mount Vesuvius.  Kancheli complete work on his major composition, Don’t Grieve, shortly before the catastrophe of 9/11 in the United States, and the opus ends with the words from the title – don’t grieve.  The composition was dedicated to the distinguished Russian baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky, and at the Rīga Dome Cathedral it will be performed by the distinguished Latvian vocalist Egils Siliņš together with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Māris Sirmais.