Latvian Culture, Music & Dance

The Latvian Natl Library is a fantastic place. More like the Lib of Congress; you can read but not borrow and they get two copies of books, one of which goes in the archives.
As M said, Birkerts worked under Eero Saarinen (IAD, Gateway Arch) but was his own man. He was much rooted in Latvian folklore: the Castle of Light was a poem that alluded to the gain, loss and regaining of freedom, wisdom, etc. The Glass Mountain was another folk tale that described achievement thru persistence. Both applied to the 1990s resurrection of Latvia and now embodied in their library.
This was Bikerts swan song; he died in 2017, not long after the opening. But this was not the 1st national library. Another exisisted about 3 Km away. How to get the books from the old to the new? A "Chain of Book Lovers" 15,000 strong, moved the books hand-over-hand from the old library to the new.
The wall of books seen from the foyer came from a national appeal: "Special Books for Special People", where folks inscribed a volume with what made it special and sent it to the library.
As we saw in the afternoon there was not much left of either the Ghetto or the Jewish population. Thanks to the Soviets (removal of leaders) and the Nazis (removal of non-aryans) the number of Jews left in Latvia was close to zero. The museum has a long, long way to go.
Supper was at a Latvian cuisine risto, Petergailis (Peter the Rooster), and there were gallo's everywhere. We had a delightful server, a Latvian country girl who had studied in Spain and the UK.
Lastly, when Glasnost came, the saying here was, "Gorbachev made the chain longer and now the dog can bark as much as it wants".
Tomorrow: On to Vilnius!
Ps. The zither-like instrument is a "Kokles", pronounced korkles.Read more