On Sunday, July 18, Latvian Television will broadcast from Dzintari Concert Hall a special concert by the newly-formed Mariss Jansons Festival Orchestra, conducted by the renowned British conductor John Eliot Gardiner.
The Mariss Jansons Festival Orchestra will perform Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 in C minor, op. 68, and Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54, with eminent Hungarian-born pianist András Schiff.
The orchestra was formed on the initiative of the musicians themselves just a few weeks before the concert. In this way, musicians from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra have accepted an invitation to honour the memory of the great Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons at the festival. With the support of Irina Jansone, Jansons’ wife, the orchestra has been named the Mariss Jansons Festival Orchestra.
The broadcast of the concert will be produced by the cultural programming department at Latvian Television and will be hosted by journalist Eva Johansone and directed by Agita Cāne-Ķīle.
Ieva Rozentāle, head of cultural programming at Latvian Television, comments: “This performance by world-class stars of classical music John Eliot Gardiner and András Schiff, as well as musicians from Europe’s finest orchestras, is a special occasion for Latvia. The opportunity to watch them on television is exclusive. Gardiner’s legendary recordings of Baroque and classical music have set a high standard for conductors around the world, and Schiff’s interpretations of music for piano are admired and studied in music academies. This is the first time Latvian Television will record and broadcast these artists. We expect it will be an unforgettable event!”
The concert will open the second edition of the Riga Jurmala Music Festival, a newcomer on the European summer festival scene that has already become an important event in Latvian music. A documentary film titled Mariss Jansons: A Tale of Four Orchestras is currently being made in a collaboration between the festival and award-winning television producer and director Peter Maniura, with Latvian Television as a co-producer. The film is is expected to be released in early 2022.
“We are moved by how selfless and devoted the orchestra musicians have been in taking the initiative to create a new festival orchestra to honour the great maestro Mariss Jansons. We are looking forward to the new festival orchestra performing on the Riga Jurmala Music Festival stage, and we are delighted that with the support of Latvian Television this event will also be available to those fans of classical music who will not be able to attend the concerts in person,” says Zane Čulkstēna, the executive director of the Riga Jurmala Music Festival.
The Mariss Jansons Festival Orchestra concert will be broadcast live on July 18 at 7 p.m. on the LSM.lv and REplay.lv social media platforms and on Latvian Radio 3 “Klasika”. The television broadcast will take place at 10:10 p.m. on LTV1.
