Listen - Andrejs Osokins and Katrīna Gupalo congratulate Latvia with the four-handed "Melancholic Waltz" of Dārziņš

The composition was recorded at home, observing all safety measures.

Emil Darzins also liked to play with four hands – together with his wife Maria they played Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”. “Mary’s fancy, light hair, handsome stature and the beauty of music took Emil to her control,” writes Inga Žolude in her story “1904. Melancholic Waltz ”.

His mother’s memories of Emīls Dārziņš’s visit to Jānis Poruks’ family “Lāču” home near Cēsis have been preserved: “At that time, Dārziņš and Poruka sat in the gazebo almost all night. Emil was left alone, he had seen a phenomenon – the Mother of God had appeared in the corner of the gazebo and there were sounds in the air, and in the morning he told Poruk, sat down at the piano and tried to play what he heard at night.

The tragic event of Latvian music was Emils Darzins’ decision to destroy the scores of all his symphonic works after being unjustifiably accused of plagiarism in 1910. Only the “Melancholic Waltz” already printed at that time has survived.

It is significant that Katrīna Gupalo’s parents were baptized in honor of the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence – on May 4, 1991. At that time, not only relatives from Latvia, but also from Ukraine had come to the baptism in the Old Gertrude Church.