About

Robertas Šervenikas, recipient of the Lithuanian National Culture and Arts Prize, conductor, and Professor at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, is celebrating his anniversary. The maestro is the artistic director and principal conductor of the Kaunas State Choir and the second conductor of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, which he has been conducting for over 30 years. For a decade, Šervenikas was the music director of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. The conductor is particularly appreciated for his intensive and diverse creative work – premieres of symphonic works by Lithuanian composers as well as impressive and mature interpretations of contemporary and classical music. The maestro has performed in almost all European countries and on other continents, collaborating with the world’s most famous soloists.

The concert will feature Beethoven’s overture Egmont, music composed for Goethe’s drama. Contemporaries recall that Beethoven cherished the idea of writing music for Faust until the end of his life.

The Concerto for cello and orchestra in D minor by Édouard Lalo, the son of a Spanish exile and one of the most prominent French instrumental music composers of the second half of the 19th century, will be performed by Marcel Johannes Kits. One of the most promising Estonian cellists, he has won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition in Brussels, first prize at the George Enescu Competition in Bucharest, and has already given a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. 

German composer Brahms is often called the last of the famous ‘B trio’ (Bach-Beethoven-Brahms), and he was one of many who felt Beethoven’s influence for a long time – after all, he was constantly fascinated by Beethoven’s genius, especially his symphonies. Brahms spent more than twenty years writing his First symphony in C minor (a rare occurrence in music history!), refining it with precision, and finally completing it in 1876.

Concert partner – PI „Menų jungtys“