The jubilee 30th concert season of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra is coming to an end. "It seems that a special season for our symphony orchestra has just started, and already on May 16. we will invite you to the end of the season a concert, which will take place in the Vilnius Congress Palace, before the reconstruction closes," said the orchestra's artistic director and chief. conductor G. Rinkevičius.For this occasion, the maestro chose an extraordinary piece - the Third Symphony of the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler.
Could you tell the listeners more about this piece?
It is very symbolic that at the end of the anniversary season we will play G. Mahler's Third Symphony, the finale of which is called "What is love talking about". I think this is very important - however, love must be the engine of life and no matter what, we must love people, nation, music, love beauty. Therefore, G. Mahler's Third Symphony is very suitable for the end of our orchestra's 30th season. It ends with a great hymn to love, in which love is raised to the greatest heights, literally cosmic.
The symphony itself consists of six movements, and all of them are very different. The first part "Pan wakes up." Summer is coming" covers many different sides of the world: from military march to mournful music and high poetry. The second part is called "What the flowers tell me about", the third part - "What the animals tell me about". The fourth part, "What does man talk to me about" is a philosophical text by F. Nietzsche about man's place in the world. The fifth part "What the angels are talking about" is like a bridge to G. Mahler's fourth symphony; this part features women's and boy's choirs. However, the main moment of the symphony, which crowns everything, is the finale about love.
You are called a "painter" of Lithuania. What is G. Mahler's work close to you in general?
I think that G. Mahler is simply a special composer, all of whose symphonic works are the highest compositional achievement, revealing the world in the best and most versatile way.
After the end of the concert season, the orchestra will invite you to the 10th LVSO summer festival in the open air. Could you give a brief introduction to his program?
June 7 we will start the summer festival with the tenth "Rock Ballads" - this project is so successful that currently only standing tickets are left for the concert. June 14 On the occasion of the Day of Mourning and Hope, we will perform "Requiem" by WA Mozart in the courtyard of the Ministry of Interior. And on June 20 the festival will be closed by "Mysterious Stories of Tango and Flamenco" with Ieva Prudnikovaite and flamenco dancer Marina de Flamenko - those who did not manage to buy tickets for their premiere performance in December can do so now.
May 13 the orchestra starts selling tickets for the concerts of the new season. What interesting awaits listeners in the first half of the year?
Although our 30th season was decorated with truly special concert programs, I am sure that the 31st season will be no less gray. We will start the season on September 27. already at the Palace of the Lords, where we will perform the oratorio "A Child of Our Time" by the British composer M. Tippett. Mr. Tippett began to write this work on the day of the beginning of the Second World War, shocked by the pogroms of Jews carried out by the Nazis, especially on Kristallnacht. He was a pacifist and thus expressed his deep political and moral concerns. "A Child of Our Time" is one of the most beautiful choral pieces, and it also features African-American spirituals, a kind of freedom anthem.
From the concerts of the new half-year, I would like to single out JS Bach's Mass in B minor - it has not been performed in Lithuania for a very long time, so I decided to take on this work, which I really want to show to the audience. We will perform JS Bach's Mass on December 13. In the House of Lords.
In the new half-year of concerts, we will also perform with world-famous artists Nikolay Luganski, Asmik Grigorian, Sergej Nakariakov, and we will have four festive concerts "Litexpo" in the center of exhibitions and congresses, so listeners will definitely have something to choose from.
What would you wish for yourself and the orchestra you lead in the future?
I think that we are needed by the audience and that we will play many more beautiful works in the newly reconstructed hall of the Vilnius Congress Palace. The audience will definitely hear how those pieces sound in a hall with good acoustics. I just want the reconstruction stage to start as soon as possible and then the audience will have the opportunity to listen to G. Mahler, D. Shostakovich, A. Bruckner, L van Beethoven and other wonderful world works that bring peace and harmony to the human soul. The more a person gets to know high and true classical or romantic music, the more he understands, the more beauty he feels, and the more beautiful life becomes.
Author: Ieva Bačiulytė
The end of the 30th anniversary season of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra concert will take place in 2019 May 16 in the Vilnius Chamber of Congresses. Conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius. You can buy tickets at Tiketos, Teatrai.lt and Vilnius Congress Palace ticket offices.
