The motto of the concert Portrait of the Orchestra is “Let’s get acquainted with the orchestra up close”. This is a tradition cherished by the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra for many years, when a whole group of talented orchestra artists appear on the Philharmonic stage. In this concert, LNSO musicians perform as string and wind ensembles.

In addition to opuses by Viennese classicists – W. A. ​​Mozart’s playful Serenade for Winds No. 11 and L. van Beethoven’s lively String Trio No. 3, the programme features one composition performed by the French horn quartet – Horniada (2019) by Lithuanian composer J. Tamulionis. Arrangement for a brass quintet lends unexpected flavour to A. Bruckner’s motet Christus factus est, a masterpiece of romantic choral music. In addition, the concert programme offers two octets by German romanticists expressively presenting the string players of the LNSO. One of them is an Octet for Double String Quartet in E flat major, composed by sixteen-year-old F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Critics emphasize the youthfulness, clarity and brilliance of this work, and often label it “one of the wonders of the 19th-century music”. After almost a hundred years, this work inspired M. Bruch to compose Octet for Strings, which turned to be his very last work, written in the year of his death (1920) and published only in 1996. Tonight Bruch’s dramatic and touching Octet is followed by the cheerful song by King Henry VIII Pastime with Good Company, arranged for brass instruments. The Jerusalem of Lithuania, music for Grigorijus Kanovičius’ drama Smile Upon Us, Lord!, ending the concert sounds akin to the Requiem for its composer Faustas Latėnas, who left this world in 2020.

PUBLISHED: 2021-03-05

PERFORMERS: LITHUANIAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MUSICIANS