This summer, the Curonian Spit International Chamber Music Festival returns to Neringa for the 28th time. Taking place on August 5–29, this year’s festival will feature eleven events ranging from orchestral concerts to educational afternoons in various venues in Nida and Juodkrantė. The organizers of the festival, the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society and the Neringa Municipality, promise resort residents and visitors alike concerts of outstanding music and a musical respite.
According to Robertas Beinaris, artistic director of the festival and its main ensemble, the Musica Humana orchestra, the festival Curonian Spit, now in its 28th year, has consistently upheld the tradition of presenting superb works from past eras as well as by contemporary composers of the Baltic region to vacationers and tourists visiting the coast. The festival features Lithuania’s most renowned instrumentalists, soloists, vocalists, and ensembles, and also international guests. The programmes, professionally performed by outstanding musicians, attract special attention from audiences and receive favourable reviews from critics. “Our audience is intellectual; it demands quality, but we want to balance that with a touch of summery lightness,” says Beinaris, the mastermind of the festival’s program.
This year’s festival will offer eight concerts and three educational afternoons. The concerts will feature the ensemble Musica Humana, which will expand to an orchestra for the festival, the Vilnius String Quartet, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, and soloists. The concerts will embrace music by Mozart, Vivaldi, Schumann, and other renowned foreign composers, as well as works and premieres by contemporary Lithuanian composers.
The festival will open on August 5 at the Juodkrantė Evangelical Lutheran Church with a concert dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Liudvikas Rėza, a figure of great significance to Lithuania Minor. To mark the occasion, the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society has commissioned two premieres: Giedrius Svilainis’ Meilė už meilę (Love for Love) for soprano, kanklės, piano and ensemble, and Donatas Zakaras’ Smilga vėjyje (A Blade of Grass in the Wind) for soprano, flute, oboe and ensemble. The programme is already generating great interest among the people of the coastal region, who hold Rėza in particularly high esteem. This concert will also honour the memory of Professor Algirdas Vizgirda, the festival’s founder and long-time artistic director, who recently passed away. In addition to the works already mentioned, pieces by other Lithuanian composers will be featured. The programme will be performed by the festival orchestra Musica humana, the women vocal ensemble Neringa led by Rita Rušinskienė, and soloists Dovilė Kazonaitė (soprano), Ieva Kuprevičiūtė (flute), Aistė Bružaitė (kanklės), Inga Gylytė (violin), and Jurgita Kazakevičiūtė (organ).
The programme The Grandeur of Antonio Vivaldi’s Music is scheduled for August 7 at the Nida Community House and on August 8 at the Juodkrantė Evangelical Lutheran Church. “Vivaldi’s body of work is vast, and every year at the festival we perform different opuses,” says Beinaris. Vivaldi’s masterpieces will be presented in Neringa by the orchestra Musica Humana and soloists Ramunė Grakauskaitė (violin), Toma Bandzaitytė-Puplauskė (violin), Robertas Beinaris (oboe), and Andrius Puplauskis (bassoon).
Families vacationing at the resort are invited to enjoy the programme Disney Soundtracks, scheduled for August 9 at the Culture and Tourism Information Centre Agila in Nida. Performed by the ensemble Musica Humana and soloists, this programme, which draws audiences like a magnet, has been presented many times at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall and promises to be just as captivating in Neringa.
At the concerts on August 11 and 12 in Juodkrantė and Nida, audiences will have the opportunity to meet the Vilnius String Quartet, which is appearing at the festival for the first time. Together with Canadian pianist Ilona Beres the ensemble will perform an exquisite programme of music by Robert Schumann and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, featuring many well-known melodies.
On August 14, at the festival’s closing concert in the Liudvikas Rėza Cultural Centre, the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Guntis Kuzma, will make its debut at the festival. Robertas and Laurynas Beinaris, father and son, will perform as solo oboists with the orchestra. The programme will feature classical music dedicated to the 270th birth anniversary of W. A. Mozart.
On August 29, the festival will be crowned with a concert Post scriptum featuring soprano Gunta Gelgotė, saxophonist Artis Sīmanis, and organist Kristīne Adamaite. The programme has a Latvian flavour not only because of the performers but also because it will feature works by Latvian composers.
For several years now, the festival program has been significantly enriched by educational events that are attracting growing interest. These educational activities will continue this year as well. On August 7, in the square next to the Nida Community House, on the 8th at the Juodkrantė Stone Sculpture Park, and on the 9th in the square next to the Nida Culture and Tourism Information Centre Agila, starting at 16.30, the educational afternoons will be held where musicians participating in the festival will interact with curious visitors.
For more information on the festival events please visit the website nationalphilharmonic.lt. Tickets can be purchased online at kakava.lt and nationalphilharmonic.lt. One hour before the start of the concert, tickets are sold at the concert venue and only for that concert.
LNPhS inf.
