About festival
Early music festival
The International Early Music Festival is the most charming, posh and smartest cultural event in Latvia. The concerts are homed by Rīga churches and concert halls, as well as by the Rundāle Palace – the most outstanding Baroque palace in Latvia. The Rundāle Palace was built by Italian designer Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1736–1768 as a summer residence for Ernst-Johann Karl Oskar, Prince of Courland. The Rundāle Palace has just been restored (the restoration took 50 years, 1972–2014); Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli had also designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg.
The festival is reviving the masterpieces by Percel, Vivaldi, Telemann, Gluck, Handel et als Baroque masters. There are gorgeous garments, authentic instruments and the Baroque architecture and interiors present. The closing concert at the Rundāle Palace Park has been always attended by thousands – and there has always been the fragrance of the rosario there.