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On New Year Eve, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and its artistic director, conductor and violinist Sergej Krylov traditionally appear at the Church of St. Johns. Tonight, Krylov will solo in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concertos for violin and orchestra. Bach was not only a renowned harpsichordist and organist, but also an accomplished violinist. He was brought up by his professional violinist father, Johann Ambrosius, who worked in Erfurt and Eisenach, and from whom he acquired a wealth of knowledge and skills. According to Bach’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, the composer played the violin flawlessly from his youth to his old age and had an excellent knowledge of all the specifics of stringed instruments.

There are various legends concerning the unusual format of Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor (Abschiedssinfonie, Farewell). In 1772, Haydn’s patron Prince Esterházy was resident, together with all his musicians and retinue, at his favourite summer palace Esterháza. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians lived in poor conditions – it was cold and many of them got sick. Even Kapellmeister Haydn had no stamina to communicate that to the Prince. He then composed a new symphony and invited the Prince to listen. At the end of the work Haydn enacted a spectacle: after traditionally fast finale the audience heard Adagio during which each musician stopped playing, snuffed out the candle on his music stand and left in turn. So, at the end there were just two violinists left (Haydn and his concertmaster). The Prince seemed to have understood the message: the court returned to the city the day following the performance.

It is one of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society’s oldest New Year’s Eve concert traditions – to bid farewell to the Old Year with Haydn’s Abschiedssinfonie (Farewell). For more than 50 years the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra has been performing the legendary opus in a vanishing candlelight…