The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra is in a critical situation. The decades-awaited reconstruction of the Vilnius Congress Palace may not take place due to bureaucratic obstacles, and in the entire history of Lithuania, not a single concert hall acoustically adapted for a symphony orchestra and classical music performance has ever been built. Artistic director and chief of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. conductor maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius is worried - constant obstacles can deprive the public of the opportunity to finally have a quality concert hall, ruin even plans for several seasons, terminate contracts with international performers and leave the audience without an intensive program of concerts and operas.
Maestro, what significance does the Vilnius Congress Palace reconstruction project have for society?
In the history of Lithuanian culture, we did not have a single hall that was acoustically suitable for a symphony orchestra. The only hall with sufficient acoustics is the National Philharmonic, but the problem is that this hall is too small for the sound produced by the symphony orchestra, not to mention the small number of spectators who can listen to the concerts played there. With other halls, including Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, there is a big problem with the sound quality. The Vilnius Chamber of Congresses can accommodate 967 spectators, and the number of seats would not change after the renovation works. But the sound quality of the hall would be specially acoustically designed for live sound, live performance, not dubbed.
The Vilnius Congress Hall definitely needs repair, because the premises are very worn and do not meet the requirements and standards of today's concert halls. I'm not talking about completely broken chairs - I won't hide it, we have a lot of complaints about the chairs, and I would dare to say that there is a significant part of the audience who do not come to the Vilnius Congress Hall because of the really poor conditions for the audience. Concerts and operas alone are attended by about one hundred thousand listeners per year (Many events are held in the Vilnius Chamber of Congresses, which are also organized by other organizers - author past.), works that have not been played or staged in Lithuania for decades are often performed, and international class performers, soloists and producers come. The quality of their work should match the quality of the building, just as good conditions must be created for the audience, so that while listening to G. Mahler or G. Puccini for three hours, they don't think about sitting on the worst chair in Vilnius and suffocating from the heat, because the ventilation systems in the hall are poorly functioning (air blows a lot for some, and air does not reach others). This is especially felt when it is the warm season or the hall is completely full.
Is it possible for a symphony orchestra to finally sound in the building of the Vilnius Congress Palace built for the Soviet nomenclature?
In order for the reconstruction of the Vilnius Congress Palace to solve the acoustic problem, we hired a top-level German acoustic company from our orchestra's funds. After paying a lot of money and making a detailed, professional study, we were convinced that it is possible to create such acoustics in the Vilnius Congress Hall that would allow the audience to hear extremely professional, high-quality sound. We have made a lot of hikes to create all the conditions to enjoy listening to beautiful music. We are very grateful Ministry of Culturethat we finally received financing for the reconstruction of the concert hall of the Vilnius Congress Palace.
At what stage is the reconstruction of the Vilnius Congress Palace now?
Design work has already started. Unexpectedly, there were problems with public procurement, a process that is constantly complained about. It seems that the aim is to prolong the public procurement to such an extent that we end up losing the financing of the European Union funds for the reconstruction and the reconstruction itself does not take place. Faced with this problem, we learned that such interference with the reconstruction of cultural buildings is happening not only with the Vilnius Chamber of Congresses, but also with other objects of art organizations. Because of this, I am really trying to make sure that all people of good will who deal with this problem respond and start solving it, thinking about the short-term and long-term consequences for more than one prominent Lithuanian art collective.
According to the reconstruction plan, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra must move to other halls in 2019. in February. We have been working on this process for a long time, looking for spaces for rehearsals and concerts. We have no intention of slowing down - we usually prepare about 30-40 repertoire events per year - symphonic, chamber, holiday and summer festival concerts, as well as concerts for children. Since there are no halls suitable for classical music events in Vilnius, it is very difficult to find places where classical music can be performed. At the same time, the National Philharmonic Hall, the National Drama Theater, and the Youth Theater are also undergoing reconstruction, so there are even fewer available seats to continue activities.
As of today, we have a plan on how to carry out the reconstruction of the Vilnius Congress Palace without interrupting the activities of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and the Vilnius City Opera, which cooperates closely with us. However, we found ourselves in an unenviable situation - if we do not sign contracts with the halls where we are preparing to perform in the near future, those halls will already be rented to others in 2-3 months. This means that it will be necessary to temporarily stop the activities of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, as well as the activities of the Vilnius City Opera. Well, if we sign contracts, then we assume the financial responsibility to pay for the rent of those halls as well. In this case, if it suddenly becomes clear in the fall that the reconstruction is stopped, we will be forced to cover the financial losses of those rentals. In addition, we have contracts with international artists with specific dates for their performances, and failure to fulfill those contracts would result in significant financial losses. For 12 years, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra has been cooperating in opera productions with the participation of many outstanding soloists working on the world's most important stages, their schedules are made 2-3 years in advance and their time to come to Lithuania is invaluable, so to leave them in the dark or to terminate their contracts now would be very complicated.
What exactly is being complained about in the public procurement process?
"Litcon" company (this company's last appealed purchases - the purchase of the reconstruction of the Klaipėda Music Theater and the Kaunas Stadium - author past.)also complained about this public procurement due to the fact that we buy everything at once, instead of dividing it into stages (the technical project of the part of the building managed by the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra was purchased, which includes the modernization of the concert hall, other rooms and the engineering systems of the building, as well as the reconstruction works of the concert hall - author past.) The decision of the first instance court was in our favor, but the appellate court changed the decision and decided that the reconstruction should be stopped simply because the procurement documents did not describe enough why we did not divide this procurement into phases. But there is no logic in dividing the reconstruction process into stages. The engineering systems of the building are common, that is, the ventilation system of the hall is common with the system of the entire building, the heating system is also common. In addition, the characteristics of ventilation and heating systems are important not only inside the hall itself - how these systems will work, what kind of noise they will emit throughout the building directly affects the sound heard in the hall.
Perhaps there is a public interest in this place?
I think that there is a huge public interest in not delaying the entire process of reconstruction of the hall of the Vilnius Congress Palace. After all, we are open to everyone - not only our repertory concerts, Vilnius City Opera operas, but also those organized by other event organizers are regularly held in this hall events. When there is such a constant distraction, we cannot do our work and plan our activities professionally. We already need to know where exactly we will be rehearsing and performing from 2019. February
Deividas Soloveičikas, a lawyer from the Cobalt law firm representing the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in the legal process, also commented on the situation.
How do you evaluate this process, Mr. D. Soloveičikas?
The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra carried out an important purchase for the entire society for the reconstruction of the Vilnius Congress Hall, in the Procurement documents it clearly and precisely justified why it is important to carry out one particular purchase, explained that the Procurement aims at a particularly important result - the best acoustics in the Vilnius Congress Concert Hall, and from a technical point of view the breakdown of the Purchase is not possible. However, the Court of Appeal of Lithuania probably did not appreciate that in this case there are objective and real reasons not to divide the Purchase. It is surprising that even after the Purchase Terms and Conditions stated a clear justification for not dividing the Purchase, the Lithuanian Court of Appeal recognized that this was not enough. In this way, it is basically difficult for procuring organizations to use Article 28 of the Public Procurement Act. 2 d. enshrined the right not to divide the procurement object into parts in the case of international procurement.
