On Good Friday. Stabat Mater

Performers: Gunta Gelgote (soprano), Kacper Szelążek (countertenor, Poland), baroque orchestra Collegium Musicum Riga, Riga Cathedral Boys Choir, conductor Mārtiņš Klišāns

Programme: 

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) Stabat Mater

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) Stabat Mater

Concert duration ~ 1 hour 20 minutes

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:

RIGA CATHEDRAL BOYS CHOIR 

Riga Cathedral Boys Choir is a unit of young and talented musicians, rich in ways, popular in Latvia and abroad, that is able to express themselves in whole spectrum of music field and always the choir’s performances are of high quality. The choir was first established in Latvia in 1950. It consists of a very well musically educated treble singers and a professional male group. Since 1994 the boys have been a part of the Riga Choir School. It consists of 45 treble singers (SA) and 15 professional male singers (TB). Concert staff minimum- 40 singers SATB.

In 2001 the choir received the Great Music Award. In 2009 the choir was nominated again for the Great Music Award for the performance J. S. Bach “Christmas Oratorium” in December 2008. In March 2010 the musical performance - oratorio “Joan of Arc at the Stake” by A. Honegger, where the boys choir participates, also received the Great Music Award.

On the 6th of June 2010 Riga Cathedral Boys choir under conductor Mārtiņš Klišāns performed in the White House in honour of renovation of Ford Theatre where the President Barack Obama and the first lady Michelle Obama organised the reception.

MĀRTIŅŠ KLIŠĀNS, conductor

Graduated from Emīls Dārziņš Music School and conducting class at Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music under Prof. Imants Kokars. Improved his vocal skills at the Stuttgart Bach Academy under Prof. Bruce Abel. Sang in Riga Vocal Group and chamber choir Ave Sol. As a vocalist, participated in several Baroque opera and oratorio plays, including G. F. Handel’s Messiah, J. S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, H. Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, as well as Dido and Aeneas. For the last one, he received the Grand Music Award. In 2009, he received his Master’s degree at the Latvian Academy of Music, in the conducting department. Works as a lecturer in JVLAM.

Klišāns has worked as a conductor for the mixed choir Juventus of the University of Latvia, mixed choir Beverīna and the winner of International competitions - chamber choir Sacrum. Elected as the general conductor of the XXIV and XXV Latvian Song Festival.

Since 1998, Mārtiņš Klišāns is the conductor and artistic director of Riga Dome Boys’ Choir. The last eighteen RDBC CDs were recorded under the leadership of M. Klišāns. During the active participation of M. Klišāns, RDBC received the Grand Music Award; the choir was nominated several times, as well as its records have been nominated for the Annual Music Recording Award.

KACPER SZELAZEK, countertenor

Kacper Szelążek graduated in 2016 at the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the singing class of prof. Artur Stefanowicz.

He debuted in 2013 in the part of Nerone in the Coronation of Poppea by Monterverdi, which he performed with great success at the Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw and in 2015 at the Salle Franc Martin Auditorium in Geneva.

In 2013, as the best young musician of the year, he received a proposal from the Polish Radio to record Szymanowski's songs and to represent Poland at the EBU Young Talents Competition in Bratislava (International Forum of Young Performers New Talent).

From that moment he performed among others at the Theatre des Champs Elysses in Paris, Opera de Versailles, Amsterdam Opera, Opera de Dijon, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Festivals such as Ambronay in France, Enescu in Bucarest, Dramma per Musica in Warsaw, National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Teatro Ristori in Verona, Teatro Thalia in Lisbon, the Concert Hall of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, at the National Opera in Warsaw, the Warsaw Chamber Opera, the Polish Radio Concert Hall in Warsaw, Stanislawowski Royal Theatre in Warsaw.

His repertoire includes such roles as Nerone in the Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi, Nerone in Agrippina, Bertarido in Rodelinda, Ariodante in Ariodante by Handel, Gilade in Farnace by Vivaldi, Eliogabaldo in Eliogabaldo by Cavalli, as well as oratorio and cantata parts.

In 2016 he received the Carlo Maria Giulini Award at the International Vocal Competition Moniuszko in Warsaw.

In the 2017/18 season the artist performed among others at the Opera in Amsterdam in La morte d'Orfeo by Landini under Christophe Rousset and with the orchestra Les Talens Lyriques, as well as at the National Polish Radio Hall in Katowice with recital of baroque opera arias, at Dramma per Musica Festival as Gilade in Farnace by Vivaldi.

Season 2018/19 includs the performance of Farnace by Vivaldi in the Stanislawowski Theater in Warsaw, the tittle part in Giulio Cesare by Haendel at the Grand Theater in Poznan under the direction of Paul Esswood, debut at the Boston Early Music Festival in the newly discovered opera by Agostino Steffani Orlando generoso in the part of Medoro (opera will be recorded for Erato), the part of Eunuco in La Finta Pazza by Francesco Sacrati at the Opera Dijon under the direction of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon with further performances in Geneva and Versailles.

The Season 2019/20 the artist performed as Narciso in Agrippina and Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare by Haendel in the productions of the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques under direction by Christophe Rousset in Theatre des Champs Elysées in Paris and at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, as Swan in Carmina Burana by Orff in National Opera House in Warsaw under Lorenzo Passerini, In the production of the ensamble L’Arpeggiata “Himmelsmusic” under Christina Pluhar in Leipzich and Bydgoszcz.