This July concert of the M. K. Čiurlionis International Music Festival in Palanga is another gem in the necklace of this summer's exceptional festival programme and a rare opportunity to hear the young generation of Lithuanian pianist Paul Andersson and Moldovan-born violinist Ionel Manciu performing together.

The outstanding virtuosos, who have been climbing from one peak to another in their solo careers, have for the first time come together in a duo that is sure to leave no one indifferent, not only because of the extraordinary virtuosity of the artists, but also because of the conceptual musicianship and the choice of a stunningly beautiful programme.

The first part of the concert will feature the Sonata for Violin and Piano by Claude Debussy - the composer's last completed work after his cancer. Composed in 1917, when Europe was immersed in the chaos and economic hardship of the First World War, it symbolises a pre-war world that was fading into oblivion before the eyes of the terminally ill composer.

"I wrote this sonata just to get rid of this image, prompted by a dear publisher. The sonata will be interesting from a documentary point of view and as an example of what a sick man can create during wartime," Debussy wrote to a friend.

But this short, three-movement work, with all its ever-changing moods, erupts into a mesmerising world of lively rhythm, shimmering colours and nostalgia, with a quiet autumnal atmosphere of farewell.

Johannes Brahms's Third Sonata for violin and piano can be described as one of chamber music's masterpieces. Dedicated to the composer's friend and colleague Hans von Bülow, the work was premiered in Budapest in 1888 and is one of Brahms' most mature opuses and one of the most frequently performed in concert halls.

In the second part of the work, the duo will perform the most beautiful piano and violin arrangements by the Lithuanian genius, M. K. César Franck's Sonata for Violin and Piano, considered one of the finest sonatas ever written for this ensemble.

César Franck, of Belgian origin in France, wrote this work in 1886 as a wedding gift for the 28-year-old Eugene Ysaÿe, who was known as the King of Violin. The composer himself was not present at the wedding, but presented the gift on his behalf to the violin virtuoso and his bride; Franck was not present when Ysaÿe was married, but on the morning of the wedding, 26 September 1886. Arlone, their mutual friend and also composer Charles Bordes. After a hasty rehearsal, the sonata was performed for the guests of the party. Ysaÿe himself, of course, played the violin, and his sister-in-law, the pianist Marie-Léontine Bordes-Pène, sat at the piano

12 July

Program:

C. Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor, L148 by C. Debussy

J. Brahms Sonata for Violin and Piano No.3, in D minor, Op.108 by J.

M. K. Čiurlionis Preludes (transcriptions for piano and violin)

C. Franck Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major