Vilnius Festival 2017
VILNIUS FESTIVAL 2017
21st festival
Gardens of Harmony
5–22 June, 2017
Having concluded its 20th annual cycle of events last year and embarked on a new one – its 21st – the Vilnius Festival set out to embrace the entire world, in the words of Lord Yehudi Menuhin, “to bring peoples closer together and unite them in the spirit of music”. The Vilnius Festival has been carrying out this mission since 1997, each time offering audiences a unique opportunity to hear the most widely acclaimed performers, while also showcasing new works by Lithuanian composers commissioned by the festival and premieres of major foreign musical works. This year’s festival promises harmony – after all, it is something longed for not only by the world of music but also by everyday life, every community, and every person. The harmony of content and form is also reflected in the festival’s motto – “Gardens of Harmony”. There will be ten original programs, including Baroque masterpieces performed by “Il Giardino Armonico”, the renowned early music ensemble from Italy that inspired the festival’s motto. Incidentally, several festival concerts are imbued with the spirit of Italy – including a concert by the remarkable cellist Maria Brunello and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, which will feature the premiere of a work by Justė Janulytė, a Lithuanian composer living in Italy; Ezio Bosso, a composer and pianist beloved by our audience, returns to Vilnius with a new program featuring the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra; opera lovers will enjoy the premiere of Vincenzo Bellini’s “The Capulets and the Montagues”, staged by an international team of producers.
As always, the festival covers a wide range of musical experiences – a global star, the Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanča, and the legendary Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder invite you to take a stroll through the gardens of harmony, ambassadors of the musical life of Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region – the Westdeutsche Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra – and Hayo Boerema, professor of improvisation at the Rotterdam Conservatory, who enriches the festival with new accents of organ music. The works of Osvaldas Balakauskas, to be performed by the Lithuanian Ensemble Network and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra in honor of the composer’s 80th birthday, will offer an opportunity to be inspired by their unparalleled stylistic purity and to experience the harmony of intuition and imagery. This year’s festival will culminate in a Japanese dance and percussion show featuring the ensemble “Dadadadan Tenko”. With passionate rhythms and movements, almost like rituals, they are able to dispel evil spirits and foster harmony and unity.
We hope that the music resonating at the festival will blossom like gardens, delighting us with colors never seen before, and bringing optimism and harmony with ourselves and the world.