JACQUES IBERT

French composer Jacques Ibert has composed works of all genres: operas, ballets, symphonic music, entertaining and melodic vocal and instrumental works, as well as music for theatre, cinema and radio. His compositions display the qualities of French music – clarity and elegance, and are technically refined, witty and extremely colourful. The stylistic features of neoclassicism and impressionism naturally merge in Ibert’s music. The buoyant and prankful Divertissement for orchestra is one of his most popular compositions. The work is a compilation of  Ibert’s incidental music for Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (The Italian Straw Hat), the farce by the 19th-century playwrights Eugène Labiche and Marc-Michel. The comedy is full of misunderstandings, hide-and-seek, deceptions and frauds. Divertissement masterfully incorporates blues and jazz, waltz, cancan and even a quote from Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. The work was premiered in Paris on November 30, 1930.

The six-movement symphonic score is performed by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas.