From March 16 to April 7, a unique and special event, rare in Lithuanian musical culture, will take place in the "Organum" hall - the first international vocal chamber music festival "Dainos menas / Art of Song", dedicated to vocal chamber music and artistic song. This year, 6 performers from Lithuania, Germany and Ukraine are participating in the 14 concerts of the festival. Their concert programs present the world heritage of Lithuanian, German, French and Ukrainian song art, contemporary creativity and new interpretation trends.
The concerts will feature both 19th century. romantics, as well as modern Lithuanian interwar and contemporary 20th - 21st century. music. The thematic and stylistic diversity of the song genre is impressive: it is a two-part Lithuanian program, a classical program of the German Lied, an evening of Ukrainian romance, a French program and two conceptual recitals, which open up limitless possibilities for the cultivation of artistic song.
March 16 "To crown dreams". The festival will be opened by a world-famous baritone of British origin Konrad Jarnot together with pianist Gust Raudounis. The concert program follows the German one song along the path of tradition, from L. van Beethoven and R. Schumann to R. Strauss and A. Berg's songs and their cycles. "Working with K. Jarnot, I discover a completely new approach to music, I refuse such clichés as "historically correct interpretation"; the boundaries between "possible" and "impossible" fade, doubts are replaced by courage, the only goal remains: for music to live here and now, as it responds to our hearts," says the pianist.
March 20an evening of Ukrainian romances "My soul swims." This genre vividly represents Ukrainian professional music and poetry, containing the great spirit of the nation, folk creativity, nature and love lyrics. The most famous 20th century the series of romances of the country's composers and poets will be performed by soloist of the Ukrainian National Opera Kseniya Bakhritdinova-Kravchuk and pianist Viktoriia Shvets. The singer successfully debuted at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater last year.
March 24 concerts "Forgotten Songs" Soprano Lina Dambrauskaitė and pianist Justas Čeponis, well known to Lithuanian audiences, will perform masterpieces of vocal and piano music by Claude Debussy. Formed in the 19th century, the French mélodie genre is rather described as the art of proposal, rather than a direct expression of feelings. Its origins lie in French folk tunes, but it draws on the texts of poets of the time and uses a more complex musical language. "I am almost certain that if C. Debussy lived nowadays, he would write songs for Lina Dambrauskaita, because every song seems to be written specifically for her and specifically for her voice. This is, in my opinion, the strongest side of this concert: the listeners will undoubtedly be enriched by the light and impressions of these songs, which only Lina Dambrauskaitė can provide", says J. Čeponis.
March 27 singer Elena Sverdiolaitė and pianist Jonas Šopa will perform a thematic recital "To perish in the whirlpool of pleasures". His idea was born from the research of the famous XIX century. The personality of the Parisian courtesan Marie Duplessis, who inspired G. Verdi to create the opera "La Traviata". "This woman, who lived for only 23 years, left a clear mark in the memory and imagination of the artists and public figures who surrounded her - she says. E. Sverdiolaitė. - Among them are Alexander Dumas, Ferenc Liszt, and Giuseppe Verdi himself. In literature and music, we see a portrait of this courtesan through the eyes of men - and how did she understand and evaluate herself? That's what I was concerned about. I want to share Marie's true story with the listeners through her own lips, and the songs of Liszt and Verdi's arias in the program will complement and illustrate it."
April 3 baritone Tomas Kildišius and Dutch pianist Hans Eijsackers will present a conceptual program at the concert "Dreams of people, fairy tales of animals." "To me, performing a song is about telling stories, and presenting them through singing is a beautiful and powerful way to express the emotions hidden in the lyrics. In this way, listeners can understand and feel the essence of the text, even if the text is in an incomprehensible language," says the pianist. The concert will feature songs by F. Schubert, M. Ravel, Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans and excerpts from Felix Bajor's "Fairytale Suite". "It is not usual for a baritone to sing the "Sakmių suite", this piece is intended for a high voice. But I've been dreaming about Sakmes since I was in school," shares T. Kildišius.
April 7 at the end of the festival, the song art marathon will be crowned with a Lithuanian program prepared by two duos:
In the first part "Is this earth or is this heaven?" baritone Modestas Sedlevičius will perform together with pianist Julija Sadaunykaite. The works of the pioneers of Lithuanian modernism, famous personalities of interwar Lithuania - the composer Juozas Gruodis, the song poet Kazios Binkis, the expatriate composer Kazimierus Viktoras Banaitis and the first Lithuanian composer Konstancijas Brundzaitė will be heard. "Concert, dedicated to a Lithuanian song, is an extremely rare phenomenon in our musical culture. It becomes even more important at this time, when we fully reflect on the meaning and value of our culture and national identity", says J. Sadaunykaitė.
II - in the first part "Lament to the World" mezzo-soprano Renata Dubinskaitė and pianist Jone Punytė – Svigarienė will transfer the experiences of the art of song festival to the works of Lithuanian composers. The artists will pay full attention to the reflections of the 20th-21st century woman's attitude towards the fragility of being and the depths of human experiences, found in the work of three Lithuanian composers - Konstancija Brundzaitė, Dalia Raudonikytė-With and Raminta Šerkšnytė.
Summarizing the idea of the festival, Renata Dubinskaitė notes: "Listeners know me mainly as a performer of baroque, old music. However, the art of song is very close to me, because it and the baroque music of the 17th century are connected by a special connection between words and music. As Claudio Monteverdi said, music is the handmaiden of poetry, its purpose is to highlight, strengthen, convey the meaning of poetry. I am extremely fascinated by the art of baroque rhetoric, the musical skill that aims to evoke emotions according to the meaning of the words, and the freedom of the performer to improvise, to convey the music according to his feeling - I find all this in the art of song as well."
