Christmas Festival. Spanish and Gypsy Music.

Performers: Kristīne Balanas (violin), Marlēna Keine (vocal), Agnese Egliņa (piano).

As Gioachino Rossini’s ‘La Danza’ says, ‘The hour is beautiful for dancing, anyone in love will not miss it.’ We invite you to a passionate dance under the sun that combines a longing and an interminable vigour in the Spanish and Gypsy Music concert programme, which, last season, brought much praise both from the audience and from the critics. Spanish violin virtuoso Pablo Sarasate wrote down Gypsy melodies and brought Bizet’s Carmen passion to his instrument; Maurice Ravel, the French composer with Basque roots, created a free and exotic fantasy in his ‘Tzigane’ (‘Gypsy’) for the violin.

The listeners will have an opportunity to discover Spanish composers such as Barbieri, Obradors, Montsalvatge and Chapí, as well as the Spanish musical theatre tradition of zarzuela. Marlēna Keine’s brilliant and powerful soprano will colour the cançons, romances and southern poems. The energy of virtuosic Gypsy music and the beauty of melody will be heard in the violin performance of the young and talented musician Kristīne Balana. The Spanish rhythms and harmonies, the rattle of the castanet, and the jingling of the tambourine will be accompanied by the pianist Agnese Egliņa, in her masterful performance full of colourful details.