On March 19 at 7 p.m. in Riga Cathedral, Andres Mustonen will conduct Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion performed by chamber orchestra „Sinfonietta Rīga”, Kädy Plaas (soprano, Estonia), Mati Turi (tenor, Estonia), Helen Lokuta (mezzo soprano, Estonia), Viesturs Jansons (tenor, Latvia), Jānis Mišiņs (bass. Latvia) and Latvian Radio Choir. Concerts will take place also on March 20 at 7 p.m in Tartu St. John’s Church and March 21 at 7 p.m in Tallinn St. Charles’s Church.
Andres Mustonen has graduated from Tallinn Conservotoire in violin performance and improved his skills in the field of early music in Austria and Netherlands. In 1972, Mustonen founded early music ensemble Hortus Musicus that has made over 30 sound records and gained international appreciation. As a early music pioneer in Estonia, he called into being a baroque music festival and started several concert series. Mustonen conducts music also from other historical periods through contemporary music. Frequent collaboration binds him with Lihuanian and Latvian national orchestras, Finnish and Swedish city orchestras, mixed choir „Latvija” and Latvian Radio Choir.
„Sinfonietta Rīga”, founded in 2006, consists mostly of young musicians. Orchestra’s repertoire is ranging from the baroque period to the contemporary music. Their work is characterized by the readiness to experiment in both academic and non-academic musical directions. Their programmes inlude notable amount of premieres of new music. The chief conductor of „Sinfonietta Rīga” is Normunds Šnē. From among Estonian musicians, Tõnu Kaljuste has been the orchestra’s guest conductor.
Latvian Radio Choir was founded in 1942. Starting from 1992 the choir has been conducted by Sigvards Kļava and Kaspars Putniņš. Their repertoire varies from Renessaince period till contemporary music. On a regular basis, the choir commissions works from Latvian composers. Latvian Radio Choir gives ca 60 concerts in a year, performs often in new music festivals (“Klangspuren” festival in Austria, “Time of Music” in Finland, “Tenso Days” in Germany and France) and is frequent guest also in Estonia. For its activity, the choir has been awarded the Latvian Music Grand Prix for four times.
Mariliis Valkonen