LITHUANIAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
(artistic director and principal conductor Modestas Pitrėnas)
LITHUANIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
(artistic director and conductor Sergej Krylov)
NICO Ensemble
(artistic director and conductor Gediminas Gelgotas)
Vilnius City Municipality Choir JAUNA MUZIKA
(artistic director and conductor Vaclovas Augustinas)
Soloist FRANCESCO TRISTANO (piano, Luxembourg)
Conductor GEDIMINAS GELGOTAS
GEDIMINAS GELGOTAS – Vertigo (Joseph–Nicholas–Pancrace Royer’s pieces for harpsichord Le vertigo re-composition for violin and chamber orchestra
MICHAEL NYMAN – Trysting Fields from Peter Greenaway’s film Drowning by Numbers, version for violin, viola and chamber orchestra
PETER GREGSON – Bach Recomposed: Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prelude, VI. Gigue, for cello and chamber orchestra
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH – Concerto for harpsichord and orchestra No. 7, in G minor, BWV1058 (with Francesco Tristano cadenza)
FRANCESCO TRISTANO – Pastoral for piano and chamber orchestra; La franciscana for piano and chamber orchestra
GEDIMINAS GELGOTAS – Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean for choir and symphony orchestra; Praisedance for choir and symphony orchestra; Vilniaus sarabanda (The Sarabande of Vilnius) for choir and symphony orchestra (text by Kristina Sabaliauskaitė)
The Vilnius Festival will conclude with a powerful joint concert featuring the renowned Luxembourg pianist and composer Francesco Tristano, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, the NICO Ensemble, and the Vilnius City Municipality Choir Jauna muzika, conducted by the charismatic Gediminas Gelgotas, who will also be part of this concert as a composer.
The main highlight of the Vilnius Festival closing concert will be guest artist Francesco Tristano from Luxembourg. He combines seemingly distant and unrelated contexts in his music in a highly conceptual and original way.
The pianist’s big break came in 2011 when he signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon, which released three of his albums. In 2017, Tristano began collaborating with Sony Classical, focusing not only on his performing career but also on his work as a composer. In his music, different historical and cultural contexts, various musical experiences, and historical periods merge into coherent, conceptual musical canvases.
Following performances of original works by Tristano, classics of contemporary music, and other compositions by G. Gelgotas, the closing concert of the Vilnius Festival will be symbolically crowned by The Sarabande of Vilnius, a piece dedicated to the 700th anniversary of Vilnius. “In this music, it was important to me not so much to create the sound of Vilnius as to convey it as I hear it when walking through my city, its Old Town, narrow streets, and squares,” says the composer, Gediminas Gelgotas. The piece’s co-author, writer Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, explained that she sought to choose Lithuanian words so that every European would have some understanding of what the piece is about: “so that the Lithuanian words would sound like magical incantations that do not overwhelm the music.”
