For this evening, Reinis Zariņš has created a special programme featuring Imants Zemzaris’s most significant works for piano, as well as two recently composed pieces that will receive their world premieres.

“Imants Zemzaris is like the voice of conscience. At milestone anniversaries, he has always remained somewhat in the shadow of his colleague Pēteris Vasks, who is five years his senior. Yet Imants has always written—and continues to write—honest music: a message that does not exaggerate its anguish, does not lose itself in beauty, but remains measured and considered. At the piano, he expresses most precisely what he has to say, and his words continue to speak with great force even half a century after they were written down,” says Reinis Zariņš of the composer whose work is close to him.

The directness and humanity of Zemzaris’s music, as well as its avoidance of ostentatious complexity, are qualities that are particularly close to the pianist himself. This is why it is meaningful to him to perform this music specifically at the Imanta Cultural Centre—a place Reinis Zariņš himself visits for folk dance classes.

This solo concert will be Reinis Zariņš’s musical greeting to Imants Zemzaris on his 75th birthday: an opportunity to encounter the composer’s music anew, while also experiencing two new works that will be heard for the very first time on this evening.