The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and its artistic director and principal conductor Modestas Pitrėnas will bring their intense 85th symphonic concert season to a spectacular close with a performance of the programme Nights in the Gardens of Spain at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall on May 15. The LNSO will be joined by soloists Petras Geniušas (piano) and Renata Marcinkutė-Lesieur (organ). The musicians will treat the audience to works by Manuel de Falla, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Joseph Jongen, compositions not so often heard on the National Philharmonic’s stage, adding Spanish, Hungarian, and Belgian flavours to the symphonic season finale.

For the opening of the concert, the LNSO will offer Sinfonische Minuten (Symphonic Minutes) by the Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi. A composer with a turbulent life story, Dohnányi belongs to a generation that connected two worlds: having played for Johannes Brahms in his childhood, having lived through two world wars and the dawn of the space age, and having witnessed the dissonances and avant-garde trends of the 20th century, Dohnányi, like Richard Strauss, Max Reger, Max Bruch, Sergei Rachmaninov, remained faithful to the ideas of late Romanticism. Sinfonische Minuten, composed in 1933, consists of five short movements, each lasting just a few minutes. This unique gem of Hungarian symphonic Romanticism is one of Dohnányi’s most popular works.

The centrepiece of the concert will be the LNSO and pianist Petras Geniušas’ musical stroll through the exotic gardens of Spain: Manuel de Falla’s Noches en los Jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain), or more precisely, the gardens of Andalusia, where the composer was born. In 1909, while living in Paris, Falla began working on this work as a collection of nocturnes for solo piano, but pianist Ricardo Viñes suggested that the composer include an orchestra as well, and thus the piece Noches en los Jardines de España for piano and orchestra, considered a gem of symphonic music, came into being.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Manuel de Falla’s birth, thus the performance of Noches en los Jardines de España will be a tribute to one of the most prominent Spanish composers of the past two centuries. 

The king of instruments, the organ, will enhance the rich voice of the LNSO in the last composition, Joseph Jongen’s Symphonie concertante (Concert Symphony) for organ and orchestra. The Belgian composer and organist Jongen represents the Walloon school and is considered a successor to the traditions of César Franck, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel. is the Symphonie concertante for organ and orchestra, composed in 1926, is Jongen’s best-known work. The soloist –  organist Renata Marcinkutė-Lesieur, a loyal partner of the LNSO. 

Orchestral music concert Nights in the Gardens of Spain. LNSO, Petras Geniušas, Renata Marcinkutė-Lesieur, Modestas Pitrėnas will take place on Friday, May 15 at 19.00 in the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall. For the events organised by the LNPhS please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.lt  LNPhS 85th concert season is sponsored by NORFA.

LNPhS inf.