20 May 2022, 7pm
Duration: 2 hours
Price: €14,00 - €29,00
Venue: Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall (Aušros Vartų Str. 5, Vilnius)
Piano ALEXANDER PALEY
Orchestra LITHUANIAN STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Conductor GINTARAS RINKEVIČIUS

CONCERT PROGRAMME

E. Grieg. Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 16
G. Mahler. Symphony No. 9

***

Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by artistic director and chief conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius, invites the audience to celebrate the end of the 33rd concert season together with its beloved piano virtuoso Alexander Paley and masterpieces of the representatives of Romanticism Edward Grieg (1843–1907) and Gustav Mahler (1860–1911).

The talent and charisma of the fiery piano virtuoso Alexander Paley does not leave any member of the audience indifferent. The artist, who lives between New York and Paris, is welcomed in concert halls around the world, but always finds time to return to Lithuania. “I adore maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius. Throughout my career, I've played with a variety of conductors and orchestras, but I have to admit that playing with this Maestro is simply the best feeling", – says the famous pianist.

Already in 1991, after the pianist's debut with the US National Symphony Orchestra, “The Washington Post” called A. Paley's performance "simply flawless", which eventually led the pianist to perform with some of the world's most famous orchestras. The audience applauded him standing up, and critics praised him for "dazzling technical prowess", "convincing performance", "personal interpretations", and "an incredibly wide repertoire". Over the years, A. Paley's star is not extinguished – the pianist performs around 80 concerts worldwide every year. Tonight, A. Paley will perform Piano Concerto in A minor by the Norwegian composer Edward Grieg – it is one of his most popular works and one of the world's most famous pieces for piano, written by E. Grieg when he was just 24 years old.

In the second part of the concert, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius will perform Symphony No. 9 by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. The latter started composing the symphony in 1909; in the spring and autumn of the same year, G. Mahler already had his draft score, and then completed his work exactly a year later. Unfortunately, the author didn’t witness the performance of his work: the premiere took place a year after the composer's death, in 1911. The Ninth Symphony was composed by the composer with an overflowing sense of death: a couple of years earlier, G. Mahler lost his much-loved four-year-old daughter, was forced to leave the Vienna Opera House, and was himself warned by doctors of a serious heart condition. Although the motif of "farewell" is mentioned everywhere in the symphony, all other moods and states lead away from this initial sense of an ending. As H. L. de la Grange writes, the work conveys an intense love of life and a feverish passion that bursts through countless passages.