Liepāja Symphony Orchestra to Close 145th Season with Balinese Rituals and Metal Banging

While Riga orchestras close the season with some tedious Mozart playing, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra will prove on May 16th that our city knows how to surprise even after 145 seasons. The Great Amber Hall will feature a world premiere — Andris Dzenītis' "Southern Concerto," where the main hero will be Guntars Freibergs with metal percussion instruments.

Composer Dzenītis says he worked on this piece for almost a year, searching for ways to translate Balinese gamelan music for Liepāja residents. The result is a concert where each of the four movements is dedicated to a Balinese tradition — from the gamelan ensemble leader's instrument to the famous fire dance. One local music enthusiast comments: "Good thing we don't have to burn demon statues like in Bali — it's enough that in winter we burn half our salary on heating."

Guntars Freibergs, who has taken on the challenge of banging metal instruments for a full half hour, admits the feeling is like being at some gamelan festival in Indonesia, where instrument sounds mix with everyday noise. Here though, the everyday noise is Liepāja wind, which even in St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Cathedral can create its own compositions when Baltic Sea coldness blows through the ornate doors.

The program will also feature Brahms' First Symphony, which the composer worked on for twenty years — almost as long as Liepāja promises to renovate any given building. But our orchestra will play it in one evening, proving that Liepāja residents can be more efficient than German composers themselves.