With
Gidon Kremer, violin
Andrei Pushkarev, vibraphone
Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra

Georgs Pelēcis “Flowering jasmine”
Modest Mussorgsky “Pictures from the Exibition”
Philip Glass "The American Four Seasons"

The programme is designed as an allegorical picture of our globalised world. It starts with the Latvian composer Georg Pelēcis’ romantic composition Flowering Jasmine for violin, vibraphone and strings.

The audience will also hear the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky arranged for string orchestra by Jacques Cohen. The performance will be supplemented with the newest Kremerata Baltica project related to music and visual arts at the same time. Works of art by the great Russian painter, writer and philosopher Maxim Kantor are at the core of it and bring exceptional classical music performances together with – not necessarily classical – visualizations. Supported by Kremerata Baltica, both – Gidon Kremer and Maxim Kantor – do see in this joint venture a possibility to speak not just a special, very emotional language combining music and visuals, but mainly a possibility to reflect on our times and our social attitudes. The problems of the contemporary confrontation with different sets of ethical values between the West and the East are the theme of the project.

Philip Glass’ Violin concerto No.2, which was inspired by Vivaldi’s classic, The Four Seasons, for its part, represents American culture with its liberalities, starting with the listener’s freedom to decide which movement of the piece represents a specific season of the year. “There will be no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall might appear in the new concerto – an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener,” says Philip Glass.

The piece is supplemented with video projections by Jonas Mekas (1922) – a filmmaker, poet and artist of Lithuanian origin who has often been called “the godfather of American avant-garde cinema,” Rimas Sakalauskas – youngest generation video artist from Lithuania, Adam Magyar – a prominent figure in media arts, and Pingo van der Brinkloev – a digital artist from Denmark.  

One of the world's leading violinists, Gidon Kremer, was born in Riga in 1947. In the course of his career he has established a world-wide reputation as one of the most original and compelling artists of his generation.

In 1997, Kremer presented a brand new orchestra, Kremerata Baltica comprising of young players from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. An educational project with a long-term vision, Kremerata Baltica was Kremer’s 50th birthday present to himself: a way of passing on his wisdom to young colleagues from the Baltic states.

Tickets are available on the webpage of the Philharmonie Luxembourg.