LVSO GIMTADIENO CONCERT
R. Wagner. "Lohengrin: Introduction to Act I
R. Wagner. "Lohengrin: "In fernem Land" aria from Act III
R. Wagner. "Lohengrin": "Einsam in trüben Tagen" ("Elsa's Dream")
R. Wagner. "Lohengrin: Introduction to Act III
R. Wagner. "Lohengrin": duet from Act III
R. Strauss. "Alpine Symphony"
Edgaras Montvidas, tenor
Gabrielė Bukinė, soprano
Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra
Dir. On 9 February, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra invites the audience to celebrate the Orchestra's 35th birthday. The Orchestra's birthday concert, which has become a tradition, marks the first concert of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra every year.
This year's concert will be opened by the tenor Edgaras Montvidas and the young generation soprano Gabrielė Bukinė. Edgaras Montvidas is one of the most famous names in Lithuanian opera. He has created more than 40 roles at the English National, London's Royal Covent Garden, the Dutch National, Geneva, Frankfurt, Lyon, Paris, Brussels, Strasbourg, Cincinnati, Santa Fe (USA) and other opera houses. In addition to opera productions, the singer performs extensively with major symphony orchestras in Europe, USA and Japan. Since 2020, Montvidas has been the Artistic Director of the Pažaislis Music Festival. In 2023, he was awarded the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art.
E. Montvidas' partner on stage tonight is soprano Gabrielė Bukinė. G. Bukinė graduated from Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Music in 2021. Immediately afterwards, she started working as a teaching assistant at the Academy and made her debut at Kaunas State Music Theatre with the leading roles in Verdi's La Traviata and Rossini's Il Turco di Italia, for which she was nominated for the Golden Stage Cross and awarded the Fortuna statue. In 2023, Bukinė became the absolute winner of the Claudia Taev International Competition for Young Opera Singers, winning first prize and the Audience Choice Award. This evening the audience will have the opportunity to hear the most impressive arias of Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) magnificent opera Lohengrin performed by E. Montvidas and G. Bukinė.
In the second part of the concert, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maestro G. Rinkevičius will perform the expressive and enchanting "Alpine Symphony", Op.64 by German composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949), which was written during the composer's stay in Bavaria, at the foot of one of the highest Alpine peaks. Although Strauss called the work a symphony, the music pours out uninterruptedly, the sounds painting a seamless and enchanting picture of a walk in the Alps, with musical depictions of forests with birds and beasts, waterfalls and rapids, meadows and shepherds grazing their cattle... At the same time, it is an allusion to human life from sunrise to sunset, with its vitality, grandeur, fears and storms.
