Balanas Sisters Recital

Information about the performance: https://www.baroquehall.com/recitals

Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1274434

Balanas Sisters Recital

Information about the performance: https://www.baroquehall.com/recitals

Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1274434

Balanas Sisters Recital

An unmissable Valentine’s Day performance filled with ‘eye-popping virtuosity’ (The Times UK).

Having carved out a reputation as two of the most exciting artists of their generation, Latvian sisters Kristine and Margarita Balanas make their Melbourne Recital Centre debut.

From Australian composer Anne Cawrse’s atmospheric and sublime Sanctuary, right through to Norwegian composer Halvorsen’s mesmerisingly virtuosic take on Handel’s Passacaglia, this thrilling program features Baroque masters paired with contemporary minimalists.

Composed in remembrance of the mystic St Teresa of Avila, a mythologised 16th-century nun who documented her own ecstatic mystical experiences in her autobiography, Pēteris Vasks’ meditative work Castillo Interior takes audiences to a deeply reflective and spiritual place before Ravel’s rich, impressionistic Sonata for Violin and Cello rounds out this hour-long performance of musical light and shade.

https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2025/the-balanas-sisters/

Balanas Sisters Recital

An unmissable Valentine’s Day performance filled with ‘eye-popping virtuosity’ (The Times UK).

Having carved out a reputation as two of the most exciting artists of their generation, Latvian sisters Kristine and Margarita Balanas make their Melbourne Recital Centre debut.

From Australian composer Anne Cawrse’s atmospheric and sublime Sanctuary, right through to Norwegian composer Halvorsen’s mesmerisingly virtuosic take on Handel’s Passacaglia, this thrilling program features Baroque masters paired with contemporary minimalists.

Composed in remembrance of the mystic St Teresa of Avila, a mythologised 16th-century nun who documented her own ecstatic mystical experiences in her autobiography, Pēteris Vasks’ meditative work Castillo Interior takes audiences to a deeply reflective and spiritual place before Ravel’s rich, impressionistic Sonata for Violin and Cello rounds out this hour-long performance of musical light and shade.

https://www.melbournerecital.com.au/events/2025/the-balanas-sisters/

An Australian and Utzon debut from Latvian-born siblings Kristīne and Margarita Balanas, celebrated for their virtuosity and versatility, playing Vasks, Vivaldi, Ravel, Handel/Halvorsen, Cawrse and Hindson.https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/utzon-music/balanas-sisters

Music played between siblings has its own deep magic

In this afternoon of musical kinship, The Balanas Sisters centre a work from a giant of Latvian composition Pēteris Vasks, whose austerely beautiful Castillo Interior — inspired by 16th century mystic Teresa of Avila —finds common aesthetic ground with Maurice Ravel’s yearning sonata, written in memoriam of Claude Debussy. Beginning their recital with a Handel Passacaglia originally composed for solo harpsichord, arranged in the 19th century by Norwegian Johan Halvorsen, they return later to their own arrangement of excerpts from another baroque favourite: light and storm from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, played with sisterly mischief.  And in honour of their Australian debut, the Balanas Sisters have chosen Matthew Hindson’s Always on Time, and Anne Cawrse’s aptly named Sanctuary. We’re rapt to welcome Kristīne and Margarita, who are justly lauded as two of the most exciting artists of their generation — both as soloists, and when playing together in this symbiotic duo.

The dynamo Latvian violin and cello sister duo are bringing a thrilling program of Baroque masters (Vivaldi’s Four Seasons), French impressionists and contemporary minimalists to Canberra as they make their much anticipated Australian debut.

https://snowconcerthall.com/the-balanas-sisters/

Hailing from Latvia, Kristīne and Margarita Balanas have carved out a reputation as two of the most exciting artists of their generation. Combined and individually they have taken Europe by storm, with their biographies already boasting performances with countless first rate orchestras, and appearances in many of Europe’s greatest halls. 

Bringing a thrilling program of Baroque masters, French Impressionists and contemporary minimalists, they make their much anticipated Australian debut performing Vivaldi Four Seasons (arr.), Vasks and Ravel, as well Norwegian composer Halvorsen’s mesmerisingly virtuosic take on Handel’s Passacaglia.

Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks’s Castillo Interior was composed in remembrance of the mystic St Teresa of Avila, a mythologised 16th-century nun who documented her own ecstatic mystical experiences in her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, as well as her books, The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection. A meditative piece commemorating a rare 16th-century woman, published and therefore remembered by history.

Vasks’ deeply reflective and spiritual work is paired with Ravel’s rich, impressionistic violin and cello sonata, written by the French composer between 1920 and 1922 in memory of another French great, Claude Debussy.

Light and storm from the Balanas Sisters’ ingenious arrangements of Vivaldi’s beloved The Four Seasons, as well as the Balanas’ thrilling take on the Halvorsen-arranged Handel Passacaglia rounds this program out into what promises to be a real highlight of Snow Concert Hall’s 2025 season.