On 7 December, Maestro Modestas Pitrėnas and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the 80th anniversary of Giedrius Kuprevičius, a composer forever young by virtue of his music, with an evening of symphonic music at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall. The premiere of the jubilarian’s Keturi barono Miunhauzeno sapnai (Four Dreams of Baron Munchausen) will feature Javier Comesaña Barrera, winner of the Jascha Heifetz Competition in Vilnius, and the LNSO. The concert will also include Kuprevičius’ Symphony Without Piano as well as works by Edvard Grieg and Einojuhani Rautavaara.

The highlight of the symphonic music concert Between Reality and Dream, dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Giedrius Kuprevičius, a recipient of the Lithuanian National Prize, the Government Prize and other important prizes, versatile personality, composer, pedagogue, essayist and polemist, will be the new four-movement Concerto for violin and orchestra Keturi barono Miunhauzeno sapnai (Four Dreams of Baron Munchausen), which has not been performed in Lithuania yet. This opus should remind us that Kuprevičius’ music is moderately modern, and that many of his works are dominated by an improvisational element, as well as strong links to literature and the visual arts.

“I came up with the idea of a dreaming Munchausen. After all, the dream form allows escaping from being too literary, and for the audience, all of whom probably know Munchausen’s stories by heart, it helps to go into subconscious fantasies of imagery, without me having to put my finger on the Baron’s specific stories. The chosen dream times (dawn, afternoon, slumber, night) are also realms of different states. In fact, it is quite different to sink into dream in the middle of the night and at dawn” says the composer of the idea for the work, which was inspired by his creative colleague, violinist Boris Livschitz.

Javier Comesaña Barrera, a young violin virtuoso born in Seville, will solo in Keturi barono Miunhauzeno sapnai (Four Dreams of Baron Munchausen) with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. For his achievements, the violinist has received a diploma from Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain. He is also the winner of the 1st prize at the Jascha Heifetz Competition in Vilnius, as well as the recipient of Prinz von Hessen-Preis award from the Kronberg Academy.

As an introduction to Dreams of Baron Munchausen and the whole concert, the Symphony Without Piano, written by G. Kuprevičius in 2018, will be performed. This symphony is an orchestral version of Sonata No. 2 for piano (1970).

Alongside G. Kuprevičius’ opuses the concert programme will include magnificent music works inspired by nature and literature. Audience will be treated to the well-known excerpts from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt suites, as well as one of the most distinctive works of Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, the Concerto for birds and orchestra Cantus arcticus, in which the composer used recordings of the voices of Arctic birds made in the Lapland and Liminka wetlands, electronically altering their songs to blend with the orchestral sounds, with the wind instruments also imitating the birds.

Orchestral music concert dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Giedrius Kuprevičius Between Reality and Dream. Javier Comesaña Barrera, winner of the J. Heifetz Competition, with the LNSO and Modestas Pitrėnas will take place on Saturday, 7 December at 19.00 at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall. On 6 December at 18.00 the same programme will be performed at the Kaunas State Philharmonic. For full information about the LNPhS concerts, please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.lt. NORFA is the patron of the LNPhS 84th season.

LNPhS inf.