The festival gala will feature a performance of the vividly colourful and orchestrally impressive Don Quixote, a tone poem by the giant of Romantic music Richard Strauss, where Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, lead by conductor Andris Poga, will join the German cellist Maximilan Hornung and Latvian cello diva Kristina Blaumane.

Genre-wise this piece by Strauss is described as ‘Fantastic Variations on a Theme of Knightly Character’. The title character of the tone poem is, of course, borrowed from the famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes, and Richard Strauss is being unashamedly programmatic here, in that his music distinctly paints scenes from the book. In a sense, this is a symphonic animation film. The character of the knight errant is embodied in the tone poem by Soltani’s cello.

But Ottorino Respighi Adagio with Variations for Cello and Orchestra will be performed by Latvian cellist Kristina Blaumane.

Maximilian Hornung, cello, Germany

Kristine Blaumane, cello, Latvia

Latvian National Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Andris Poga