The Quadra Piano Quartet are "admirers of rare and very good music" (LR "Klasika") who consistently offer musical interpretations that are both subtly felt and powerful. They will be joined by two great masters — clarinetist Guntis Kuzma and percussionist Guntars Freibergs. This concert will feature one of the most notable recent works written for this ensemble — Andris Dzenītis's "Towards the vastness the clocks fall asleep" for clarinet and piano quartet. It is a work "inspired by long, far hikes along the Latvian seashore, and the experience of changing scenery, moods and textures in a patient progression," says the composer.

The new works for this concert are written by Santa Ratniece, one of the most outstanding Latvian composers of our time, and Oļesja Kozlovska, who writes music with an elegant poetic expression. Ratniece’s work is for all six musicians, while Kozlovska’s will be performed by a string trio and percussion ensemble. We will also hear the work "Walking Through the Three Points" by the young Lithuanian composer Dominykas Digimas and "Longing for Darkness" by the highly acclaimed Estonian composer Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes.
Dominykas Digimas is one of the most prominent composers of the younger generation of Lithuanians, and his music has received numerous accolades and awards. The emotional palette of his works has been described as "inward-looking and self-reflective", Digimas's music evoking a sense of "soaring melancholy", where transparency and intention meet. In a few words, Digimas's music could be described as a warm vapor captured in a photograph against a cool background. His compositions sometimes bring together live electronics and video art as well as pre-recorded sound with sound created live in concert.
In her music, Tatjana Kozlova-Johannes "captures an impressive array of sounds – some startling, some eerie, some incredibly beautiful." (bachtrack.com) The composer has been repeatedly successful in the International Rostrum of Composers, and she has been awarded prizes at the new music courses in Darmstadt. She has also collaborated with significant ensembles such as Klangforum Wien.
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About the festival:
Since 2021 “Baltic Music Days” has been organized by the Composer Unions of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Each year the festival takes place in a different Baltic country. The first festival, organized by the Estonian Composers Union, took place online. The second festival was hosted in Kaunas, the 2022 European Capital of Culture. This year, 2023, the festival will take place from March 18-31 in Cēsis and Rīga, Latvia. Nine concerts are planned for the festival, including the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra performing at Cēsis Concert Hall, the State Chamber Orchestra “Sinfonietta Rīga” performing at the Great Guild Hall in Rīga, and the Latvian Radio Choir performing at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music.
A particularly special highlight of the festival will be a performance by the world-famous percussion ensemble “Les Percussions de Strasbourg” on March 19, at Cēsis Concert Hall.
The festival as a whole will include 11 world premieres by Latvian composers.

This year, the festival’s overall theme is “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”.

We have borrowed this theme from the title of Czech/French writer Milan Kundera’s well-known novel. We came to this idea at the war’s start — a war, which unfortunately has not yet ended. A war, which has seeped into our daily lives, into our subconscious; a war, which makes us shiver in compassion and demands that we help as much as possible.

Amid the war and the empathy, life and music continue, offering opportunities for sensitivity and joy. It is unbearably heavy and light at the same time. We have asked the festival’s composers to reflect in their new compositions: is heaviness truly terrible, and lightness wonderful? Is lightness positive and heaviness negative? For the moment, it is only clear that the opposition of heaviness and lightness is the most mysterious and meaningful of all opposites.