“4 Preludes” Pianist Eva Doroszkowska

Garūta’s piano preludes stand as a testament to Latvian resilience and artistry. Born in 1902, her music combines traditional motifs with Romantic influences, mirroring her nation’s turbulent past. Pianist Eva Doroszkowska, visits Garuta’s historical home observing her workplace and examines the expressive harmonies and rhythmic intricacies that define Garūta’s work.

Rainis and Aspazija’s poetry in the music of Lūcija Garūta

2015 will be the year of Rainis and Aspazija’s 150th birthday. Valuing the work of both writers highly and actually even confessing their love for it, “Mūzikas Saule” wants to contribute to honoring both masters. Here is the text of the first swallow – the granddaughter of Lūcija Garūta’s sister, sculptor Daina Pormale, about the creative dialogue between Garūta and Rainis.

Lūcija Garūta. Letters.

Lūcija Garūta wrote a lot. Especially if there was a distance, there was something to be told, there was a entanglement or something special to say.

Composer, Pianist, Teacher

“Starry—that’s what I call Lūcija Garūta in spirit. Her music takes you from the earth, it lifts you towards the stars and the sun. Her music has the power of tenderness that cleanses and explains.” (Z. Mauriņa).

Oļģerts Grāvītis, Lūcija Garūta’s Piano Concerto (1956)

In just over a century of independent Latvia’s development of music history, 4 names of female composers already stand out. The first is Marija Gubene (1872-1947), (author of many tasteful arrangements of folk songs), a graduate of the organ class of the Moscow Conservatory, later joined in the 1920’s by graduates from the Riga Conservatory […]

Dreamy, sorrowfull , holy. The loves of Lūcija Garūta.

Oratorio “God, thy earth is aflame!” is the most notable work of Lūcijas Garūta, which made him widely known in Latvia and the world. However, thanks to her outstanding talent as a pianist and long-term cooperation with singers, she has also composed many songs that can be seen as pearls of vocal chamber music. The most popular of them, “Svētā mīlā”, is a masterpiece in the genre of Latvian solo songs, which experienced its climax precisely in the interwar period, because in the following Soviet years, intimate lyrics were largely denied. The story of this song reveals to us not only the troubled personal life of the young composer, but also changes in her ideas about love.

Liene Jakovļeva about cantata “God, Your Earth Is Burning!”

Her music takes you from the earth, it lifts you towards the stars and the sun. There is in her music the power of gentleness that cleanses and clarifies.” As a composer, pianist, music theorist and pedagogue Lūcija Garūta was told by the writer Zenta Mauriņa.

Master Of Improvisation

Numerically, there is a small group of Latvian musicians who graduated from both composition and piano classes at the Latvian Conservatory, often playing their works in concerts – Arvīds Žilinskis, Lauma Reinholde, Pēteris Plakidis. And, of course, Lūcija Garūta, because it was her concert activity in Latvia between the wars that was the most active and the most extensive, giving both solo concerts and performing the duties of concertmaster.

Lūcija Garūta, the apple tree of Latvian choral music.

Even as a child, I used to read the last pages of the book as the first. Over time I’ve chalked this up to a greater interest in causes rather than solutions – I’m a stickler for the retrospective, which also correlates well with an interest in music history.