About

The Vilnius String Quartet, joining forces with one of Lithuania’s most outstanding accordionists, Tadas Motiečius, invites to a musical celebration that is both festive and serene. This atmosphere is captured by the concert’s title, Andante festivo: At a walking pace, festively.

The concert will open symbolically with Andante festivo, a String quartet by the Finnish master Jean Sibelius, which was first performed at the wedding of the composer’s niece.

Like Sibelius, Edvard Grieg made several attempts to compose string quartets but ultimately left only one mature, completed work of this genre. He began writing String quartet No. 1 in G minor in the summer of 1877 while living in seclusion in the Norwegian countryside. “The quartet is not intended to bring trivialities to market. It strives towards breadth, soaring flight and above all resonance for the instruments for which it is written,” the composer wrote to a friend. Today, this String quartet is recognized as one of the finest examples of chamber music closely approaching the sound of a full symphony orchestra.

Next on the programme is Diana Čemerytė’s Jahre ohne Mozart (Years Without Mozart), a reimagining of the piano quintet by the great Classical master Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In this composition, Čemerytė engages in a dialogue with music history, transforming it into her own original work.

The concert will conclude with Ástor Piazzolla’s spirited suite Five Tango Sensations, a cycle of five miniatures conveying five distinct moods.