About

This exceptional evening of chamber music will feature music by Swiss composers rarely heard Lithuania. The programme will involve renowned performers: the Vilnius String Quartet and the charismatic Guoda Gedvilaitė and the cellist Mindaugas Bačkus.

The programme is truly mysterious, and its contexts reveal the complex twists and turns of the composers’ lives. The composer Joachim Raff can be considered both Swiss and German. His father and teacher fled Württemberg in south-western Germany in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into Napoleon’s army, which was being drafted to fight in Russia. Particularly famous in the last decades of his life, Raff was cited along with Wagner, Liszt and Brahms as one of the greatest composers. Unfortunately, by the beginning of the 20th century, his music, admired by Mendelssohn and Liszt, had all but disappeared from the concert stage. Only now, in the 21st century, is Raff being rediscovered throughout Europe and bringing great joy to those who are lucky enough to hear his music.

The life of composer Paul Juon takes a different twist. This composer of the first half of the 20th century was born in Russia after his Swiss parents moved to Moscow. There he studied violin and composition, then turned to Europe: he was a professor of composition at the Berlin Higher School of Music before moving to Switzerland in 1934, where he lived until his death. His music has elements of Russian and German styles, romanticism and modernism, and folklore. Juon was a renowned composer, frequently performed throughout Europe. It was his Piano sextet in C minor that brought together all the performers in this concert.