Latvian Radio Choir and Sinfonietta Riga on Good Friday

Members

Latvian Radio Choir
Nora Kalniņa, soprano
Vitālijs Stankevičs, bass
Sinfonietta Riga
Conductor Sigvards Kļava

The Good Friday is the day Jesus died and at the same time the day of atonement for the sins of mankind when we're asked to slow down and listen to inner voice, contemplate eternal questions and pray for world peace.

In his motets on the Suffering of Christ and questions of faith, the genius composer Felix Mendelssohn conveys his ideas with emotional stability and a noble spirit, giving us the strength of trust and light. The remarkable contemporary French composer Pascal Dusapin's choral piece Umbrae Mortis is like a small-scale requiem, giving the audience a glimpse into the nether world. Mārtiņš Viļums' Le temps scintille with lyrics based on the works of Paul Valéry and Rainer Maria Rilke is perhaps the most poetic reflection on death in Latvian music. Everything in it is a dream-like, airy flicker that depicts entering a different time and space beyond the realm of the physical world.

The French organist and composer Marcel Dupré is considered the Paganini of organ music. The inspiration behind his organ opus Le Chemin de la Croix op.29 was the French poet Paul Claudel's poem of the same name, where the poet meditated on the meaning of each Station of the Cross in the lives of Christians. Between readings, Dupré improvised on the organ; this impacted the listeners so deeply that he decided to compose an opus based on the Stations of the Cross.