Liepāja Symphony Orchestra Proves That Even Dead Composers Can Create New Works If They Have Friends to Help

Liepāja's "Great Amber" proved that music is the only field where even death is not an obstacle to a creative career. At a concert dedicated to Agris Engelmanis' 90th birthday, the composer's works were performed - works he himself hadn't managed to finish, but which are now complete thanks to modern composers.

Ēriks Ešenvalds took fragments of Engelmanis' unfinished Requiem and created a new movement "In Paradisum". While Riga composers are still wondering whether they have the right to supplement classical works, Ešenvalds simply went ahead and did it. "Agris told me in a dream that everything was fine," says one concert attendee with a smile.

Andris Vecumnieks, meanwhile, created a completely new "Sun Symphony" using Engelmanis' poetry lines. It's the world's first symphony that is simultaneously new and old, alive and dead. After the concert, listeners could be found on Pētera Street still trying to figure out whether they had just heard Engelmanis, Vecumnieks, or some new hybrid composer.

"This is a revolutionary precedent," says local music critic Jānis Skaņenieks. "Now all dead composers can continue working. We simply write in their name, and everything's fine." The concert could also be heard on live radio, so even those who weren't at the "Great Amber" could experience this postmodern miracle.