🎼 24 – 27 August 2023

For the fourth year, Zuzeum Art Centre and chamber orchestra Sinfonietta Rīga invites the audience to spend a few velvety warm August nights in the company of wonderful music and friendly atmosphere. For a long weekend, let’s enjoy chamber music masterpieces from various eras, presented by the brilliant soloists of Sinfonietta Rīga, and not yet think about the autumn for a little while.

This year’s concert guests will be presented a new experience of the ‘Summer Night Chamber Music’ concerts – musical experience will take place in the Great Exhibition Hall.  As a part of the concert programme, a special selection of paintings from the Zuzāns Collection will be exhibited. In line with the  diverse musical programme of the four evenings, the selection will consist of art created from the 19th century to the present day – modern references to luxurious baroque, classical and industrial romanticism. In this interaction of music and art, every concert guest will have the chance to find their own associative connections. 

This year the four concerts of the Summer Night Chamber Music 2023 will take us on a journey from the Baroque era to the present.

  • On 24 August we will have a rare chance to dive into the lesser known world of French Baroque.
  • On 25 August we will encounter contemporary music from Northern Europe, including new works by Estonian composer Pärt Uusberg and Latvian composer Platons Buravickis, written especially for this festival.
  • On 26 August we will traverse the bridge leading from the wistful mists of the Romantic era to the babel of the 20th century.
  • Finally, on 27 August we will witness the never-ending railroad tracks intersecting with the vortices of eternal movement.

The concerts will be narrated by music journalist Orests Silabriedis.

Entrance — from 19.00, concert starts at 20.00. Before the concert you can explore the exhibition and enjoy drinks on the Zuzeum Rooftop Terrace. Please, arrive early to get the best seats – they are available without prior reservation.
Tickets – Zuzeum.com  and bilesuserviss.lv.
More information Sinfoniettariga.lv

Programme: 

24 August at 20.00
Masterpieces of French Baroque

Michel Pignolet de Montéclair Cantata La Mort de Didon for soprano, violin and bc

Jean-Joseph de Mondonville Trio-Sonata in D, Op.5 for flute, violin and bc

François Couperin Trio-Sonata Les Nations. Francoise for flute, violin and bc

Jean-Baptiste Barrière Sonata in G minor, Op. 1 for cello and bc

Louis-Nicolas Clérambault Cantata for tenor, violin, flute and bc

Jean-Philippe Rameau Pièces de clavecin

Dārta Liepiņa – soprano
Ansis Bētiņš – tenor
Agnese Kanniņa – baroque violin
Vita Rozēna-Gaļicka – transverse flute
Māra Botmane – baroque cello
Ieva Saliete – harpsichord

🎭 The celebration of French Baroque: candles and lace, velvet and turquoise hairpins, passionate affairs and brilliant intrigues, graceful and elaborate musical compositions. Along with the well-known Couperin and quite popular Rameau, on our stage we will welcome a few other, infrequently heard guests – the less productive, but always innovative Montéclair, the highly-regarded protege of Madame de Pompadour, Mondonville, the virtuoso Barrière, who passed away prematurely, admired by his contemporaries, and last, but not least, the court darling Clérambault, a grandmaster of cantatas.

25 August at 20.00
IT IS NOT FUN TO BE HAPPY

I part

Erkki-Sven Tüür Dedication for cello and piano

Pärt Uusberg New work (Premiere)

Platon Buravicky New work (Premiere)

Māris Kuģis – oboe
Māra Botmane – cello
Johan Randvere – piano

II part

Pehr Henrik Nordgren String Quartet No. 3, Op. 27 

Magnus Lindberg Clarinet Quintet

Mārtiņš Circenis – clarinet
Antti Kortelainen – violin
Signe Šteimane – violin
Ineta Abakuka – viola
Madara Norbūte – cello

✨ This diverse parade of Nordic music features the rather austere String Quartet No. 3 (1976) by Finnish ancient folklore expert Pehr Henrik Nordgren, Dedication (1990) by Erkki-Sven Tüür, a work from the younger years of the world-famous genius from Hiiumaa island, and the Clarinet Quintet (1992) by the weaver of magical, shimmering soundscapes Magnus Lindberg. We eagerly anticipate also the new works of Estonian master of sound and silence Pärt Uusberg and our own industrial romantic Platons Buravickis.

26 August at 20.00
Black Angels

Franz Schubert Death and the Maiden. String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D 810

George Crumb Black Angels

🎻 Sinfonietta Rīga string quartet:
Agnese Kanniņa – violin
Kristiāna Krūskopa – violin
Artūrs Gailis – viola
Kārlis Klotiņš – cello
Normunds Šnē – sound engineer

🎩 In his string quartet Death and the Maiden Franz Schubert invokes a scene befitting the Romantic age, in which Death becomes the lover of the Maiden. The young maiden yearns to live, but Death declares then in his arms she will enjoy the sweetest sleep. George Crumb wrote Black Angels impacted by the Vietnam War, and intended it to be a parable of our troubled times. From the harmonic ideals of Schubert’s era, the audience is thrown into the post-Babel world of fallen angels, numerology and confusion, into which Crumb has woven also the motif of Schubert’s quartet. This is going to be a surreal adventure that ties into our current reality.

27 August at 20.00
Steve Reich and Gérard Grisey

Steve Reich Different Trains

🎻 Sinfonietta Rīga string quartet:
Agnese Kanniņa – violin
Kristiāna Krūskopa – violin
Artūrs Gailis – viola
Kārlis Klotiņš – cello
Normunds Šnē – sound engineer

Gérard Grisey Vortex Temporum

Egija Sproģe – flute
Mārtiņš Circenis – clarinet
Liene Neija-Kalniņa – violin
Ivars Brīnums – viola
Kārlis Klotiņš – cello
Agnese Egliņa – piano
Conductor Normunds Šnē

🛤️  American maestro Steve Reich’s string quartet Different Trains was inspired by the composer’s frequent childhood train journeys between New York and Los Angeles. It could be called a musical documentary – the string instruments speak to us in human voices, we hear the sounds of the 20th century war and post-war America, the conversations and railway noises that impact us on a deep emotional level. In his turn, Gerard Grisey’s masterpiece presents a dazzling interplay of currents and vortices of sound and tempo. The result is compelling and otherworldly.

More information: Sinfoniettariga.lv
Tickets: Zuzeum.com un Bilesuserviss.lv. 

Concert tickets are available in several price categories:
Standart concert ticket: 22 EUR
Concert ticket with discount (students, seniors): 11 EUR
Concert series subscription (all four concerts): 55 EUR

Tickets are limited. Purchased tickets cannot be refunded or exchanged.

The entrance doors are opened at 19.00. The concert starts at 20.00. Free car parking is available in the event area, but the number of parking spaces is limited. Seats at the event are not numbered, so we invite you to arrive on time to take the most comfortable place!

Zuzeum Cafe and Bar will be opened at the event. Entrance with food and drinks purchased outside the Zuzeum is prohibited. 

*By attending this event, you agree to have photos or videos of you or your children taken for Zuzeum marketing purposes. You can refuse to be photographed or filmed by informing the photographer or camera person