Iveta Apkalna Presented by Liszt Academy

Iveta Apkalna, one of the most significant concert organists today, has been artist in resident of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg since its opening in 2017. In her multihued programmes the Latvian musician blends past with present, keeping in mind that this instrument with a past of several hundred years should appear as a modern medium, providing audiences with an auditive experience only the organ is capable of delivering. In the first half of the concert we have two fine compositions from the pen of Bach as well as a work by Johann Gottfried Müthel, the last student of the Baroque master and a composer who spent most of his life in Riga. Furthermore, there is a Mendelssohn sonata associating Bach traditions with Romantic ideas. Apkalna, as musical-cultural ambassador for her country, performs two compositions by world-famous Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks, one of which is a brand-new work commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic on the centenary of the formation of the orchestra. This exciting programme demonstrating the timbre and character of the organ closes with a work by another Latvian composer, Alfrēds Kalniņš.