On June 6, the Vilnius Festival audience will be treated to a musical journey through the world of French genius Maurice Ravel. On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) and soloists will perform his works, including the incomparable "Bolero". The symphony orchestra will be accompanied by stars of exceptional brilliance - Gabrielė Bukinė (soprano), who burst onto the opera stage like a meteor, and maestro Viktorienas Vanoosten, who has enchanted the audience, and who will also appear as a pianist.
"I enjoy it when I manage to convince others to do something beautiful together, to show the path we can all pursue. I am my own biggest critic and I put pressure on myself because I don't want to disappoint the musicians. I do the same everywhere I go. Especially in Vilnius. And, I am sure, every work is stronger, more impressive when we perform it with love, with an emotional connection," said French pianist and conductor V. Vanoosten in an interview, who has been the principal guest conductor of the LNSO for a whole year and has prepared impressive concerts of romantic music.
In this Vilnius Festival concert, V. Vanoosten, together with the LNSO and soloist G. Bukine, who has stormily invaded the theater and concert stages, will survey the horizons of France through the prism of M. Ravel's work. Writer Romain Rolland, who also became famous as an authoritative music historian and critic, called M. Ravel the greatest artist of French music, mentioning his passing alongside Jean-Philippe Rameau and Claude Debussy. Ravel, a younger contemporary of Debussy, had no less bold ideas, extremely rich imagination, and impeccable compositional technique and artistic taste.
If one had to describe the composer M. Ravel and his creative legacy in one word, it would be colorfulness. The impressionistic sense of touch, the variety of timbres in orchestrations and the intimate sound of each instrument, inspiration from both the work of the old masters and his friendship with George Gershwin, the use of Spanish folklore (his mother was of Basque origin), and the attraction to the dance genre speak of a truly colorful personality and a diverse creative world.
Examples inspired by the dance genre will also be heard on the stage of the Vilnius Festival. The audience will hear not only the famous "Bolero", but also the first suite of the ballet "Daphne and Chloe". In fact, the composer called "Daphne and Chloe" a "choreographic symphony", not a ballet. The orchestra in this "choreographic symphony" reveals itself as an extremely rich palette of colors, which is also reflected in the suite prepared according to the ballet music.
Conductor V. Vanoosten will also appear as a pianist on his journey through the world of Ravel and French music - he will play a bright and sunny A concert for piano and orchestra in G major (1931), dedicated by the author to pianist Marguerite Long. “Why be a second-rate Ravel when you can be a first-rate Gershwin?” is probably one of M. Ravel’s most quoted phrases to George Gershwin. The Piano Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which will be performed, is also a testament to their friendship and mutual influence. concert. In it, one can recognize echoes of G. Gershwin's work from "Rhapsody in Blue" and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in F major. M. Ravel's concerto is playful, like a divertissement. As the author himself said: "A concerto can be fun and ingenious, it does not need to try to be deep or seek dramatic effects. It is said about some of the great classical composers that their concertos were written not for the piano, but against it."
Ravel's music is often accompanied by exotic motifs. His song cycle "Scheherazade" that will be performed at the concert is considered one of the first experiments in orientalist harmony in the composer's work, and accents of oriental sound can be heard in it. In this cycle, M. Ravel's orchestration seems to create an orientalist landscape for the wandering soloist and opens a travel diary. The extraordinarily colorful solo part of "Scheherazade" will be performed by G. Bukinė, who was awarded the title of Opera Soloist of the Year this year.
Vilnius Festival concert “French Horizons with Maurice Ravel. LNSO, Victorien Vanoosten, Gabrielė Bukinė” will take place on Friday, June 6, at 19 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. All festival concerts are announced on the website www.filharmonija.lt. The festival is organized by the Lithuanian National Philharmonic and the Public Institution “Vilniaus Festivaliai”, supported by Vilnius city municipality, Juozas and Laima Magelinska, Artis Centrum Hotels.
