SYMPHONY OF METAMORPHOSES

Sinfonietta Rīga (Latvia)
Artistic Director & Conductor Normunds Šnē

Grammy Award–winning, internationally acclaimed orchestra, “Sinfonietta Rīga”, renowned for its conceptual programmes and outstanding artistic quality, comes to Vilnius with a new programme dedicated to the international strand of Music Autumn’s programme “Baltic Music Days”, organised in collaboration with the Baltic Contemporary Music Network.

The festival’s closing programme will feature works by composers from all three Baltic countries (including two premieres!), each exploring different transformations of meaning: walking as a spatial operation that becomes the basis of musical structure; the influence of the inner world on the distorted perception of external impulses; a Grisey-inspired search for organically intertwining temporal proportions with sonic spaces, using the metaphor of a rainbow; and a work inspired by the practices of art restoration, where the traces of time in tempera become part of a sonic transformation.

Concert program

Jonas Jurkūnas

Walk the Walk

(2025, premiere)

Commission by LCU.

A comprehensive sonic exploration of the concept of walking, unfolding the bouquet of meanings of this word across different compositional levels. The musical gesture acquires the qualities of a journey, and vice versa. Walking, as a spatial operation, becomes a fundamental principle of composition.
Jonas Jurkūnas

Marianna Liik

(Estonia)

False Reflections

(2025, premiere)

„False Reflections (Valepeegeldused)”. The first impulse for the piece comes from M. K. Čiurlionis’s painting “Ramybė” (Serenity). The reflected image of the mountain depicted in the painting can appear like a monster in the water. This led my thoughts to my own psychological landscape, where the inner world often reflects external impulses in a distorted way, creating a world of false reflections.
Marianna Liik

Linda Leimane

(Latvia)

Ray-bows

(2019)

„Ray-bows” is a multi-layered, rainbow-arch-shaped composition that references Gérard Grisey’s “Vortex Temporum” and “Périodes”. The outer thirds of the arch are driven by intensely subjective impulses, shaped by seven guiding muses. In contrast, the apex of the time-arch – symbolising cold objectivity – is marked by the red hue of the rainbow spectrum. Inspired by Grisey’s work, the piece aspires to an organic interweaving of temporal proportions and sonic spaces – seven quasi-spectra echoing the seven colours of the rainbow.
Linda Leimane

Ruta Paidere

(Latvia)

Tempera

(2012)

For string orchestra.
“Over the centuries, the perception was gaining ground in restoration of paintings that the traces of time–patina, changes in the intensity of colour, or even some cracks, decisively support the authenticity of the artwork and therefore shall not be made invisible. Many works of art of the past have been covered by paint so often that nothing is left of the brushstrokes of the old masters. These considerations have significantly shaped the atmosphere and the basic idea of “Tempera”. The orchestra in “Tempera” is divided into four groups, one tuned up a quarter tone. The sounds overlap increasingly until the difference between the tunings is no longer noticeable. Tempera itself is a precursor of oil paint, which has the advantage of drying slowly. Yet, it is a complicated paint as well since it is subject to optical changes over time.”
Ruta Paidere

In 2012, the composition “Tempera” was nominated for the Latvian Great Music Award as the Best New Composition of the Year.

Performers

Sinfonietta Rīga

Sinfonietta Rīga, the Grammy-winning Latvian State Chamber Orchestra, has been led by artistic director and chief conductor Normunds Šnē since its founding in 2006. The ensemble combines mastery of Baroque and Viennese classics with a bold curiosity for 20th–21st century and new music, regularly commissioning works from Latvian composers and collaborating with leading international soloists and conductors.

The orchestra has performed at major European venues including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kölner Philharmonie and Lincoln Center New York, and is a frequent guest at prominent festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, Baltic Sea Festival and Pärnu Music Festival. Its extensive discography includes recordings on ECM, Ondine, Wergo and Alpha Classics, one of which – Arvo Pärt’s Adam’s Lament – earned the ensemble a Grammy Award.