Autumn Chamber Music Festival. Latvian Radio Choir. Schubertiade

There are various genres of concerts – a symphonic concert, choir music concert, opening concert, concluding concert, gala concert – and there is also a very peculiar concert genre – Schubertiada. It was created in the 1920s – this was the name that the friends of the composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828), who used to relish at good company, called the musical evenings when Schubert himself sat down at the piano as a concert master or a member of a chamber ensemble. Such gatherings were held about once a week in some large enough and hospitable apartment. There was not only playing music, there were talks, discussions (of course, about art), refreshing drinks, and dancing. In 1821, Johann Huber, Schubert’s flatmate, wrote to his bride that he was granted the honour to be invited to a “Schubert evening” (Schuberts Abend) in which the master himself and fourteen his friends had participated. Until 10 p.m, Schubert had played music and sang his songs. After that they had drank punch and rejoiced until 3 a.m. Huber acknowledged that he had spent the evening in brisk and smart talks, which reminded him of the study years. Approximately half-a-century after Schubert’s death, Schubertiada became a full-fledged concert genre. Since 1997, regular Schubertiadas have been held also in Latvia – in Cēsis Castle, Cēsis Exhibition House, Ungurmuiža, and now – also in Spīķeri where the unrivalled chamber soprano Ieva Parša will do homage to Schubert, as well as the flexible Radio Choir and the confirmed Schubertist Aldis Liepiņš, who will be joined also by the jaunty Laima Jansone with kokle and the virtuoso Kaspars Zemītis with a guitar.

Programme

Franz Schubert

Participants

Ieva Parša, mezzo-soprano
Latvian Radio Choir
Laima Jansone, kokle
Kaspars Zemītis, guitar
Aldis Liepiņš, piano
Conductor Sigvards Kļava