Mozart and polish classics

Polish conductor Zbigniew Graca, well-known to Latvian audiences, is a renowned Mozart expert. Once again he picks up the conductor's baton in front of Sinfonietta Rīga, this time to look for similarities and differences between the works of his compatriots and the masterpieces of the great Viennese classic – the legendary Symphony No. 40, and a few of his lyrical and vibrant romantic arias. The sounds of Poland and the Polish worldview will be brought forth in Witold Lutoslawski's Little Suite with its national colouring; in Mechislav Karlovich's Serenade for Strings, full of romantic ardour, and Tadeusz Baird's Four Love Sonnets, whose medieval mood and Shakespearean passions will reverberate in the bass-baritone voice of another Pole – Jaroslav Brek.

Programme

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Aria Mentre ti lascio, o figlia K. 513, Don Giovanni's canzonetta and Leporello's aria from the opera “Don Giovanni”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
Mechislav Karlovich (1876-1909) Serenade for Strings, Op. 2
Tadeusz Baird (1928-1981) Four Love Sonnets for baritone and orchestra to texts by William Shakespeare
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994) Little Suite

Participants

Jaroslav Brek, bass-baritone
Sinfonietta Rīga
Conductor Zbigniew Graca