Reunion joy in Riga. Conversation with conductor Andri Poga / Article

“The more years go by and I don’t get any younger, so to speak, the more I appreciate the fact that you can go back to the people you know, who know you, and there’s a lot of things that are just built in – you can rely on to the fact that you will be understood more from half a word than maybe in another place where you make your debut,” admitted Poga.

Of course, this also comes with a great responsibility – to be in shape and to do what you do better and better every time you meet with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.

“Obviously, we each expect quite a lot from each other. I think the musicians expect quite a lot from me, at least I hope so, and so that responsibility only increases. The fact that lately I’ve been taking more and more risks conducting the pieces that I never conducted before in my conducting career, is challenging,” said Poga.

The conductor has flown to Riga from Stavanger in Norway, which he currently calls home because he works with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Poga has recently held a concert in Norway, the program of which echoes to some extent the musical event to be held in Riga – the Stavanger Orchestra also performed the works of composer Lili Boulanger and composer Witold Lutoslavski.

In Riga, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Pogas will perform Lili Boulanger’s composition “Spring Morning”, Witold Lutoslavsky’s Piano Concerto and Anton Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.

“Each of these pieces has its own very interesting history. The whole program is framed in such a conditionally 100-year frame. The oldest composed piece in the program is Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony – unfinished. If I’m not mistaken, 1896 was the year he finished this symphony, and it is also the year he died. So he never heard that symphony played,” Poga said.

Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony remained unfinished and is played in three movements in concerts. Although the composer worked on the symphony for almost nine years, when he passed away, its finale remained only in sketches.

The concert will start with Lili Boulanger’s “Spring Morning”, and Boulanger’s music can be found in almost every one of Poga’s recent programs.

“It has happened because Lily Boulanger’s music has been experiencing a real renaissance in the world in recent years. Her untimely death at the age of less than 25 prevented her from leaving more symphonic music. In fact, she has only one symphonic composition, and it is not the one we will be playing on the 25th. in April, because the piece “Spring Morning” was originally composed for violin and piano, it was rearranged for orchestra, but she composed it herself, and it is a piece composed in the last year of her life,” said the conductor.

With Reina Zariņa as a soloist, the concert will also feature the Polish ensemble Witold Lutoslavski’s Piano Concerto – a musical legacy from the 80s of the last century. Poga and Zariņa have already performed this piece together once – 11 years ago in Cēsis.

“It was Reinas’s first encounter with this music, my encounter with this music. Even then it was clear that we wanted to play it again, and hopefully also for the audience of Riga. It was probably not in the plans at the time that such a long period of time would pass – 11 years, but I am very happy that it is possible now,” said Poga.

Poga did not hide that the concert season is full of busy work for him – before the concert in Stavanger, the conductor also performed in Hamburg, Germany, but right after the concert in Latvia, he will go to different parts of the world – to Monaco, Berlin and in the middle of May also to Dallas in the USA.

“America is to some extent a new direction, because after the Boston orchestra, when my work as an assistant conductor ended there, I have had a couple of concerts in the United States during these 10 years, but not very regularly and not with “top” orchestras. Dallas, of course, is one of America’s great orchestras, and I am very happy that they have trusted me and invited me to a joint program with them,” admitted Poga.