"Letters to a Young Poet" is based on the texts of Rainer Maria Rilke, in which he reflects on the nature of artistic work for a young creator: inner discipline, patience, and the ability to trust one’s own voice even when clear answers are not yet in sight. This idea resonates directly with the festival motto "We Live in Different Times": composers, poets, and artists often inhabit a different temporal reality, one that demands prolonged concentration, solitude, and the slow maturation of ideas.

Four new works have been commissioned for this concert, all of which will receive their world premieres. These are not compositions about Rilke in a general sense, but musical dialogues with the letters themselves, whose content will also be heard in spoken form throughout the programme. Lithuanian composer Justė Janulytė is known for her slow processes and gradually unfolding transformations. Latvian composer Rolands Kronlaks is a master of spatial thinking and refined electronic textures. The music of Estonian composer Liisa Hirsch is characterised by precision, transparency, and a sensitive engagement with time and the act of listening, while Krists Auznieks focuses on sonic richness, revealing sound through layered and luminous harmonic fields.

The Latvian Radio Choir stands at the centre of this programme. Under the direction of Kaspars Putniņš, the choir’s finely honed dynamic control, precise intonation, and exceptional ensemble coherence allow Rilke’s texts to be not only heard, but fully embodied on an emotional level. The works will unfold in dialogue with spoken excerpts from the letters and an electronic layer, enabling listeners to follow text and music simultaneously and to perceive their mutual resonance.

Letters to a Young Poet is a concert about the time of creativity – about how a work comes into being, how a voice is formed, and why, at times, the most important thing is not a quick answer but a carefully shaped question. It is also a rare opportunity to experience the birth of new works across the span of an entire concert, in collaboration with the Latvian Radio Choir, one of the world’s most distinguished interpreters of contemporary choral music.

Participants:
Latvian Radio Choir
Conductor: Kaspars Putniņš

Program:
Juste JANULITE (Justė Janulytė) “L'Attente” – world premiere
Rolands KRONLAKS “Darkness” – world premiere
Krists AUZNIEKS “Orpheus” – world premiere
Lisa HIRŠA (Liisa Hirsch) – world premiere of a new work