11th International Festival Cello Cēsis

11th International Festival CELLO CĒSIS

September 13th at 19:00, Concert Hall “Cēsis” Grand Hall

CONCERT FOR CELLO, ACCORDION, AND ORCHESTRA. AZUL

Marcel Johannes Kits, cello / Estonia

Artūrs Noviks, accordion

Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Modestas Pitrėnas

Program:

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, symphonic poem “In the Forest”

Osvaldo Golijov, concerto for accordion, cello, and orchestra “Azul”

César Franck, Symphony in D minor 

This year, Lithuania and the world widely celebrate the 150th birthday of a remarkable figure from this country—composer, painter, writer, and photographer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. Inspired by this, in collaboration with the Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra and maestro Modestas Pitrėnas, the festival “Cello Cēsis” has crafted a grand concert program, highlighting the creative forces not only of Lithuania but of all Baltic states.

At the concert, we will hear Čiurlionis's symphonic poem “In the Forest”—a powerful musical landscape where the forest becomes a symbol of life's strength, mystery, and the unfathomable majesty of nature.

In a letter to his future wife Sofija Kymantaitė, the composer writes: "I would like to create a symphony from the whispers of the sea, the rustles of an ancient forest, the sparkle of stars, from our little songs, and my endless longings…".

The core of the grand concert will be Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov's concerto for accordion, cello, and orchestra “Azul” (meaning “blue” in Spanish), where the music will engage in dialogue with one of the most promising young Estonian cellists of his generation, Marcel Johannes Kits, Latvian accordionist Artūrs Noviks, and the Lithuanian Symphony Orchestra.

“Azul” is one of the most masterful cello concertos in the history of contemporary music. It was commissioned and premiered in 2006 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra alongside the renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. The composer was inspired by the summer of 2000 spent in the Middle East when a new wave of violence erupted in the region. "I was simply amazed by this incredible planet we live on, how beautiful it is from above, and how the topographical view doesn't allow you to understand all the struggles for life on the surface of our planet," says Golijov.

Alongside this, the concert will feature French composer César Franck's Symphony in D minor. Inspired by the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, the composer skillfully combined French and German musical traditions in this opus. This magnificent work became an unequivocal summary of César Franck's creative output and, alongside Camille Saint-Saëns's "Organ Symphony," is considered one of the most significant examples of late 19th-century French symphonic music.

*Children of preschool age are not admitted to the concert.