Trio Fabel

Everyone knows it from the cinema: how images are inextricably linked with sounds. Film music is often perceived only as an additional element, as a soundtrack, for example, as the thundering backdrop of Hollywood blockbusters. But it is much more than that: it is an art in its own right, capable of evoking its own images in the listener. Yes, it enables each of us to conjure up our own "film" before our eyes. As we want to show in our concert, this also applies to other music - if only it is imaginative enough. For some pieces, we have invited the photographer and video artist Roman Drits to accompany the music with his visualisations; the other pieces we leave entirely to your imagination.

Let yourself be surprised by our "Cinema reflections", light, playful and contrasting chamber music programme in which the master of film music Nino Rota meets the romantic Gabriel Fauré, the meditative Ēriks Ešenvalds meets the ironically sarcastic Andris Vecumnieks, who paraphrases melodies from Latvian and international films.

The trio for clarinet, cello and piano "Reflections in Water" by Ēriks Ešenvalds was premiered in 2008. Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of Latvia's leading vocal musicians and is also known far beyond his country's borders. About his trio, he notes:
"Reflected on the surface of the lake is a still and fragile image, rocked by the wind and dominated by the sky. Whether they are the walls of a monastery, a flock sleeping on a hill, or waterfowl - they are reflections carried on the shoulders of the water."
The piece takes the listener on a meditative flight of sound, as it were, using clarinet, cello and piano, and ocarina and bells.

Gabriel Fauré's Trio op. 120 is a late work, premiered on the composer's 78th birthday when he was half-blind and almost deaf. All the more striking is the sound-painting means Fauré uses, how he creates the "impression of floating and unlimited freedom" (Claus-Christian Schuster) and opens up associative spaces. 

In Fabel Cinema Fantasy, Andris Vecumnieks plays with diverse associations, both to Latvian and international cinema, and draws inspiration from classical music models. With his mix of styles, he creates an inimitable acoustic scenery that sets no limits to the audience's imagination. Ironic-sarcastic, mysterious!

Nino Rota is, of course, best known for his excellent film scores for Visconti, Coppola and especially his friend Federico Fellini. But he also wrote concert music. Admittedly, he never made a distinction between the two. For some music critics, this was a provocation. They were outraged by the outrageous catchiness of his works. Rota's clarinet trio is also not stingy with highly melodic, almost operatic phrases and conjures up some of the craziest scenes from Fellini's films in the humorously overwrought finale.

Three composers, three epochs - connected by the ideal of singing, the attempt to make instruments "sing" as well. Beethoven uses a popular tune of his time, Brahms uses wide-ranging melodies. The third in the group, Georgs Pelēcis, comes from Latvia, which fought for independence by singing. In his "Lyrical Triptych," Pelēcis draws on folkloric themes, giving Trio Fabel a fantastic opportunity to show off its Latvian roots.