Gratitude/ Aigars Reinis 50

Aigars Raumanis (saxophone)
Jazz baroque ensemble:
Jānis Strazdiņš (voice)
Lāsma Meldere-Šestakova (baroque violin)
Jānis Rubiks (double bass)
Aigars Reinis (organ, positive)

Programme: J. S. Bach, M. Durufle, J. Karlsons (premiere), Anna Veismane (premiere), M. Pētersone un F. H. Erlebach in jazz baroque tunes

The Music Director and Organist of Riga Cathedral, Aigars Reinis, invites you to his 50th birthday concert, where he will perform together with his like-minded musical companions.

The concert will feature classical organ repertoire alongside two premieres – "Sun in the Window" for saxophone and organ by Anna Veismane, and "At Sunrise", an organ fantasy by Juris Karlsons. Anna Veismane’s creative work spans a wide range of chamber music, and her compositions are imbued with feminine poetics, subtlety, and flowing expressiveness. In her new piece, metaphors of light and the sun are brought to the forefront. Meanwhile, Juris Karlsons, a master of brilliant orchestration and symphonic scale, has composed his organ fantasy "At Sunrise" as a musical meditation on the threshold between night and day.

Also featured in the concert is composer Madara Pētersone’s 2022 work "Testimony of Time", written for Aigars Raumanis and Aigars Reinis. The composer drew inspiration from lines of poetry by Inga Pizāne: “I wish only spring and peace would begin,” with the piece becoming a symbolic postcard with a drawn heart – a message from Latvia to the world, bearing witness to empathy, humanity, and a longing for peace.

The program will also include the rarely performed Suite for Organ by Maurice Duruflé – one of the most important works in French organ literature. It blends Gregorian melodicism with an impressionist color palette, delicate lyricism with dazzling virtuosity. The ensemble “JazzBaroque” will perform works by Baroque composer Philipp Heinrich Erlebach in a blend of improvisation and jazz styles.