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The concert reflects the heartfelt ties and creative links between Lithuanian and Ukrainian musicians. One of the most striking examples of this is the famous composer Osvaldas Balakauskas. “He came to Vilnius after graduating not from the Moscow or Leningrad Conservatoire, but from the Kiev Conservatoire, where he studied with Prof. Lyatoshinsky. He did not return to his homeland immediately, but after spending some years in Kiev, because during the very first year of his studies at the Conservatoire he became a member of the Ukrainian modernist underground, i.e. informal, dissident composers”, wrote Donatas Katkus. Balakauskas mentions his esteemed professor Lyatoshinsky in an interview as one of the most tolerant of all composition teachers of the time.

The concert therefore features works by both Lyatoshinsky, considered the father of modern Ukrainian music, and Balakauskas. The two opuses are separated by more than 70 years: Lyatoshinsky’s classical, melodic, dramatic Second string quartet, adorned with oriental motifs and impressionistic colours, and Balakauskas’ Third string quartet, the constructive logic of which is elegantly overshadowed by the rhythms, harmony and improvisational element characteristic of jazz.

The concert programme also features works by the romanticist Felix Mendelssohn. In his String quintet No. 2 the Vilnius Quartet shares the stage with the distinguished Ukrainian violist Natalia Kuleba, winner of The 21st Century Art, J. Stankovich and other competitions, principal viola of the National Academic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, now living in Vienna (Austria). She also collaborates with the Vienna Radio (RSO), Tonkünstler and Vienna State Opera orchestras.