“Artemis Quartett” in Beethoven and Wax music in Dzintari Concert Hall / LR3 / / Latvian Radio

Artemis Quartet – Vineta Sareika and Sujoena Kim (violin), Gregors Zīgls (viola) and Hariet Kreiga (cello) – at the opening concert of the Autumn Chamber Music Festival in Dzintari Small Hall with Ludwig van Beethoven’s 15th String Quartet in Laminor 132 and Pēteris Vasks Sixth String Quartet.

Artemis Quartet is one of the most outstanding quartets in the world, in which Latvian violinist Vineta Sareika has been playing since 2012. This autumn, the ensemble celebrates the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven with a concert tour. Among the concerts in Stuttgart, Essen, Brussels, Cologne and Schwecingen, the musicians have the opportunity to come to Latvia to perform on October 2 in Liepaja’s “Big Amber”, and on October 3 in Dzintari Small Hall.

Pēteris Vasks’ Sixth String Quartet was inspired Artemis musicians, inviting the composer to pay tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven in his new work. Its four parts herald farewell, looking back, leaving and meeting – also with Beethoven’s own transcendental music. Ludwig van Beethoven 15th Quartet Op. 132, written in the penultimate year of his life, marks the highest peak of the composer’s creative path.

“I think a lot about how to include a great master who is 250 years old, how I could include him in my music, simple and quite emotional,” says Peter Vasks in the program “Kultūras rondo”. “I listened to all of Beethoven’s quartets, I think – maybe something from a piano, a motif of the ‘Moonlight Sonata’ that everyone knows?”

“I was fascinated by the third part of Beethoven’s last, 15th Quartet, where there is one such choir,” the composer continues. “My whole concept led me to the fact that the first three parts are an absolutely personal conversation with myself, with musicians, with listeners. And where in that conversation Beethoven … The third part, which ends with a kind of departure from this world, but life already continues, in another dimension. I imagine that there could be such an incredible encounter in that new dimension, one 21st century Latvian composer from a small European country would dare to meet Ludwig van Beethoven. I composed the last part of Beethoven’s chorus, quoting a bit with my own music. “

The live broadcast was hosted by Inta Pīrāga, who invited violinist Vineta Sareika, composer Pēteris Vasks and violinist Anti Kortelainen to a conversation during the concert.

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