Ķeniņš: Symphony No. 1 & 2 Concertos Agnese Eglina, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Guntis Kuzma & Andris Poga

• Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919 - 2008): Concerto da camera No. 1 (Version for Piano, Flute, Clarinet & String Orchestra):
• 1 Concerto da camera No. 1 (Version for Piano, Flute, Clarinet & String Orchestra): I. Moderato con moto 06:49
• 2 Concerto da camera No. 1 (Version for Piano, Flute, Clarinet & String Orchestra): II. Lento cantábile 07:01
• 3 Concerto da camera No. 1 (Version for Piano, Flute, Clarinet & String Orchestra): III. Vivo e marcato 03:36
• Concerto for Piano, Percussion & String Orchestra:
• 4 Concerto for Piano, Percussion & String Orchestra: I. Molto vivace 07:58
• 5 Concerto for Piano, Percussion & String Orchestra: II. Largo quasi una passacaglia 07:54
• 6 Concerto for Piano, Percussion & String Orchestra: III. Presto - Prestissimo 03:32
• Symphony No. 1:
• 7 Symphony No. 1: I. Moderato ma non troppo 07:18
• 8 Symphony No. 1: II. Largo e sostenuto 07:30
• 9 Symphony No. 1: III. Allegro molto 06:57
• Total Runtime 58:35

Info for Ķeniņš: Symphony No. 1 & 2 Concertos

Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919–2008) is a name that is not known to most classical listeners despite of his long international career as a composer. This album presents three orchestral works by one of Latvia’s greatest 20th century composers performed by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Poga and Guntis Kuzma.

Although born in Latvia, Ķeniņš lived most of his life as an exile. He was educated in Paris, where he studied under Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen, and won several awards. Ķeniņš emigrated to Canada in 1951 and became a respected pedagogue and a very influential figure in Canada’s music life. Alongside his pedagogic work he wrote a sizeable catalogue of works, including several symphonies and concertos.

According to Ķeniņš, chamber music was the highest form of art. His Concerto di camera No. 1 (1981) reveals his love for chamber music. The work contains hints of Bartók. The composer himself mentioned Mozart’s concertos as his model when writing the work.

Concerto for Piano, Strings and Percussion (1990) was completed shortly after the composer’s first visit to Latvia since the 1940s. Latvia was struggling to regain its independence and the work has a particularly tense and tragic atmosphere. When the work was premiered in Canada, the composer drew attention to the events unfolding in his home country when describing the work.

Ķeniņš wrote his First Symphony in 1959. This expressive work represents well the element of Latvian folk music in the composer’s work fusing it together with contemporary elements. Upon its premiere, the work received several performances in Canada, including CBC radio broadcasts.

The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra is one of the cornerstones of Latvian national culture, its history spans almost a century. The LNSO is a six-time winner of the Latvian Grand Music Award. Since 2013, the music director of the LNSO is maestro Andris Poga, a conductor sought after by top orchestras from around the world. The orchestra’s most notable former music directors include Jānis Mediņš, Leonīds Vīgners, Edgars Tons, Vassily Sinaisky, Olari Elts, and Karel Mark Chichon. Guntis Kuzma has been the orchestra’s conductor since the 2014/15 season and is the orchestra’s former principal clarinetist.

Agnese Egliņa, piano
Tommaso Pratola, flute
Mārtiņš Circenis, clarinet
Edgars Saksons, percussion
Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
Andris Poga, conductor
Guntis Kuzma, conductor

Agnese Egliņa
winner of many international competitions, earned Latvia’s Grand Music Award 2010 for outstanding work in an ensemble. She collaborates with other musicians in various chamber ensembles and is one of the most sought-after pianists in Latvia. She has premiered over 50 newly written pieces by Latvian composers, including compositions dedicated to her contemporary music trio Art-i-Shock.

Egliņa is a frequent guest-performer at LNSO concerts playing both as a soloist and chamber musician, producing new chamber music programmes.

She has appeared in Promenade at Lusaka, Zambia, at Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, International Montpellier Music Festival, Zakhar Bron Violinist Festival, VII Kremerata Baltica Festival, Moscow Chamber Music Days, among others. She performs regularly and teaches in workshops in Spain, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, and Africa.

Her musical education began in Liepāja and Rīga. From year 2011 to 2013 she received Swiss government scholarship for the studies at Zurich University of the Arts.

Tommaso Pratola
is the principal flute of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra since December 2019. Formerly, Tommaso was a member of the EU Youth Orchestra and Italian Youth Orchestra and the first flutist of the Teatro Petruzzelli Orchestra in Bari. In 2017, he received a scholarship from the Haus Marteau masterclass with Andrea Lieberknecht and an honourable mention at the Società Umanitaria International Competition.

Pratola has been selected as Academist in several renowned music festivals, including the Young Artists Festival in Bayreuth, Pacific Music Festival, and Zermatt Music Festival. He was invited to participate at the Rome Chamber Music Festival in 2012 and 2017. Tommaso substituted for the first flute at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in February 2020.

Mārtiņš Circenis
is the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra’s principal clarinetist since 2015, and solo clarinetist of the Latvian National Opera orchestra since 2006. Since January 2020, Circenis is also the principal clarinetist of the Sinfonietta Rīga chamber orchestra.

Member of the LNSO since 2002, former member of the Riga Chamber Players and the Riga Festival Orchestra, Circenis is Lecturer at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music since 2011. Circenis was nominated for Latvia’s Grand Music Award for outstanding work in an ensemble in 2013. Circenis is laureate of international competitions, including second prize in the Concertino Praga competition. He is also former member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester.

Circenis has partaken in several recordings on the radio and is founder of the woodwind quintet Quintus Anima. Together with Agnese Egliņa Circenis has played a number of programmes.

Guntis Kuzma
was appointed conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra starting the 2014/2015 season. Other appearances include frequent collaborations with chamber orchestras Sinfonietta Rīga and Sinfonia Concertante, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (JVLMA) Symphony Orchestra, and the Latvian Festival Orchestra. Kuzma received Latvia’s Grand Music Award in 2018 for outstanding interpretation of Ādolfs Skulte’s Symphony No. 5 with the LNSO, as well as for his solo in Sebastian Fagerlund’s Clarinet Concerto with Sinfonietta Rīga and conductor Normunds Šnē.

Kuzma is former principal clarinetist of the LNSO (2008–2014) and the Sinfonietta Rīga chamber orchestra since it was established in 2006 until 2015. Kuzma is both lecturer and former Head of the Department of Wind Instruments at the JVLMA Academy. Besides being an active participant in chamber music projects, Kuzma also enjoys performing contemporary music. He has participated in the first performances of numerous new works both as clarinetist and conductor.

The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra
is one of the cornerstones of Latvian national culture, its history spans almost a century. The LNSO is a six-time winner of the Latvian Grand Music Award. Since 2013, the music director of the LNSO is maestro Andris Poga, a conductor sought after by top orchestras from around the world.

The orchestra’s most notable former music directors include Jānis Mediņš, Leonīds Vīgners, Edgars Tons, Vassily Sinaisky, Olari Elts, and Karel Mark Chichon.

The orchestra has participated in music festivals in France, Germany and Switzerland as well as the Bratislava Music Festival. On its most recent tours the LNSO teamed up with world-renowned soloists such as Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, cellist Alexander Knyazev, pianists Nicholas Angelich, Boris Berezovsky, Lukas Geniušas and Lucas Debargue.

Booklet for Ķeniņš: Symphony No. 1 & 2 Concertos