The Baltic Orchestras Festival speaks of creative friendship. Her on February 17. will be embodied by a unique gathering of string instruments in the "100 Strings" concert. During it, string players from three orchestras - the Latvian National Symphony, the Liepaja Symphony and the Lithuanian State Symphony - will gather on the stage of the Vilnius Congress Palace, conducted by maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius. In total, we will see and hear about 100 stringed instruments on stage.
At the epicenter of the concentration is Arnold Schoenberg's early masterpiece
The program of the hundred-bar orchestra includes works by three composers. The axis of the program is 1899. wrote the string sextet (version for string orchestra) "The Clear Night" by the German composer Arnold Schoenberg.
The music community knows A. Schoenberg as the founder of the dodecaphonic technique, but even before he began to "break" the tonal system, he had already written a considerable amount of valuable music. His sextet "The Clear Night" proudly stands out among it, which is called the most important example of A. Schoenberg's early work. It is known that the composer himself learned to play violin and cello, so the specifics of stringed instruments were well known to him. Two things inspired him to start a sextet - the expressive verses of the poet Richard Dehmel and his love for Matilda, the sister of the composer's teacher, Alexander von Zemlinski. The one-part work reflects the creator's strong emotions, a breath of late romanticism aesthetics.
"Pragiedrēšii naktis" is also called by musicologists one of the first program works for chamber ensemble, because the plot inspired by the literary text is reflected in the instrumental music. The story is about a woman who tells her lover that she is expecting another child - she sees the meaning of life only in the birth of another life. The man who fell in love with her assures her that their love is so strong that the stranger's child will always become his own.
Sounded for the first time in 1902. The string sextet "Pragiedrējui naktis" eventually became especially loved by the audience. Although compared to other works of this author, the sextet is the most pleasant to the ear, but some specialists also highlight its historical significance - it is the first work of A. Schoenberg, which already aimed to "break out" of the framework of the tonal system.
For the first time, the version of "The Clear Night" for string orchestra, by the way, arranged by the composer himself, sounded back in 1924, and the musicians of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra led by maestro G. Rinkevičius have also already performed this piece. "This is great music!" - said the maestro himself in a recent interview.
The work of a Lithuanian genius will also sound performed by hundreds of strings
The program of the "100 Strings" concert also focuses on Lithuanian music, which will be represented by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis' String Quartet in C minor, Part I.
"Sometimes it is said that the unity of the Baltic countries is overestimated. However, we see how important such international meetings, discussion of performance experiences, conversations during concert breaks or receptions after concerts are. Sharing information is vital. We know too little about the cultures of neighboring countries, and there's even an old-fashioned saying that it's a shame not to know what's going on around us," Indra Lukina, director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, said about the need for cultural cooperation. By the way, she was also one of the initiators of the Baltic Orchestra Festival.
String quartet is a genre that requires exceptional elegance and professionalism. The first work of this genre in the work of Lithuanian authors was born precisely at the desk of MK Čiurlionis. XNUMXth century The composition commemorating the first year was created while the artist was studying at the Leipzig Conservatory, where the premiere of the quartet took place. To this day, only three of the four parts of the quartet have survived, full of the early spirit of Čiurlionis' music, romantic aesthetics, but retaining the classical form introduced by the strict teacher Carl Reineckes.
At the end of the concert, a "candy" was chosen for the audience - Piotr Tchaikovsky's "Serenade" for string orchestra, op. 48. This is one of the most frequently performed pieces in the string orchestra repertoire, about which the composer himself has said: "I wrote this piece out of an irresistible inner urge, straight from the heart."
Last year, the United Baltic Orchestra already performed for the Latvian audience - then they presented the program in Riga. "We have a wonderful opportunity to play in Vilnius. I think it will be extremely impressive concert. In any case, the most important thing is that the name of the Baltic Orchestras Festival is heard in one form or another in all the capitals of the Baltic States", said the director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra.
The concert "100 Strings" of the Baltic Orchestras Festival will take place on February 17. in the Vilnius Chamber of Congresses. Conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius. You can buy tickets at Tiketos, Teatrai.lt and Vilnius Congress Palace ticket offices.
