Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s symphony-cantata Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise) for soloists, choir and orchestra is one of the composer’s most impressive and original works in terms of its grandeur, religiosity and majesty. Composed in 1840, it celebrated a milestone in mankind’s intellectual progress – the 400th anniversary of the invention of the movable type printing system by the 15th-century printer Johannes Gutenberg. “Everything that can make people happy and ennoble them”, composer Robert Schumann commented on Lobgesang. Mendelssohn himself wrote that the score was “very close to my heart”. Lobgesang consists of a 3-movement orchestral Sinfonia and ten vocal movements based on psalms and other texts from the Holy Bible.

Mendelssohn’s opus is performed by a large number of Lithuanian and foreign soloists as well as Lithuania’s main collectives: Agnė Stančikaitė (soprano), Justina Gringytė (mezzo- soprano), Adam Zdunikowski (tenor, Poland), the Kaunas State Choir and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Modestas Pitrėnas. This festive work crowned the 81st concert season of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society.