About

Study of Harmony, Treatise on Harmony, or Teaching Harmony – these are possible translations of the title of Arnold Schoenberg’s Harmonielehre written in 1911. In 1985, American composer John Adams borrowed this title, saying: “My own Harmonielehre is a large three-movement work for orchestra that combines minimalist techniques with the harmonic and expressive world of late Romanticism. The shadows of Mahler, Sibelius, Debussy, and the young Schoenberg are palpable in this strange work. It is a work with a postmodernist view of the past.” The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and its artistic director, conductor Modestas Pitrėnas have chosen this unique, particularly complex work with its dense texture and sparkling orchestration as the closing piece of the concert. The programme will open with Antanas Rekašius’ Muzika styginiams (Music for Strings) No. 2 (1999) – perhaps the composer’s most frequently performed and highly impressive opus, which ironically combines classical musical practice with exaggerated sensuality, temperament, and pseudo-pompous virtuosity.

Rūta Rikterė and Zbignevas Ibelhauptas Piano Duo joins the LNSO in Toccata for two pianos and orchestra, Tabuh-Tabuhan, by Colin McPhee, an American and Canadian composer and ethnomusicologist. McPhee was the first Western composer to take a keen interest in the folklore of Bali and to compose original works influenced by the music of Indonesia – Bali and Java. Composed in 1936, Tabuh-Tabuhan is probably the composer’s best-known opus, combining elements of Balinese and traditional Western music. The title translates as ‘to play the drums.’