4 November 2022, 7pm
Duration: 2 hours
Price: €9,00 - €24,00
Venue: Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (Katedros Sq. 4, Vilnius)
Soloists
Soloists
Actor / Actors
Violin
Viola
Cello
Orchestra Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Ričardas Šumila

Concert Programme

The program will feature Faust Latėnas' works:
“Samba Lacrimarum“ for violin and orchestra
String Quartet: version for double quartet and symphony orchestra
Sonata “Habanera“ for cello and orchestra
“Bolero“
Songs “Far, Far Away“ and “It is Not Yet Evening”
Music from the production of “Macbeth”

***

Composer Faustas Latėnas was one of the most prominent artists of this era, who devoted his life mainly to theatre music. The composer created music for more than 200 theatre productions, 9 feature films, 20 documentaries and 5 television productions. Among his most famous works are the music for the plays directed by Rimas Tuminas "Uncle Vanya", "There Will Be No Death Here", "Smile Upon Us, Lord", "The Auditor", Eimuntas Nekrošius’ "Pirosmani, Pirosmani...", "Hamlet", "Othello", and many others.

This November marks exactly two years since F. Latėnas is no longer with us. Despite that, his music is still lively, engaging, transforming, immortal. "If it wasn’t for F. Latėnas' music, I would never have acted in “The Cherry Orchard”. And we played it for twenty three years. These are inexplicable things: magic, energy,” – recalls actress Eglė Gabrėnaitė. Tonight, listeners will have an exclusive opportunity to experience F. Latėnas' music live – the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ričardas Šumila shall perform it on the stage of the Palace of the Grand Dukes.

“Composer Faustas Latėnas belongs to an exceptionally prominent generation of Lithuanian composers, once called the “new romantics”. All of them observed the surrounding world with a hint of mistrust and pessimism, all grew up and matured in small circles of friends, which were bound together by a common worldview, attention to small but important things in life. Next to his peers Algirdas Martinaitis or Vidmantas Bartulis, Faustas Latėnas was the real enfant terrible, transferring hypertrophied banality, irony and musical hooliganism from the theatrical medium into academic music: “It is like an island where I am allowed to realize the most radical, most banal and witty thoughts, because theatre music has always been forgiven much more”,” – wrote musicologist Daiva Parulskienė.

After graduating from the Kaunas Juozas Gruodis Music School, Giedrius Kuprevičius' composition class, F. Latėnas later continued his composition studies at the then Lithuanian State Conservatory with prof. Eduardas Balsys. After studying, the composer linked his fate with theatre for a long time – he not only wrote music, but also managed the Vilnius Puppet Theatre, State Academic Drama Theatre, National Drama Theatre, State Small Theatre. He also held other important responsibilities: was Deputy Minister of the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, advisor to the Prime Minister on cultural issues, and Lithuanian cultural attaché. The composer has been awarded numerous music awards for his work in the sphere of theatre. One of the most significant ones was the prestigious International Konstantin Stanislavsky Prize for the music created for productions directed by Eimuntas Nekrošius and Rimas Tuminas, bestowed to him in 2011. In 2014 F. Latėnas was awarded the National Prize for Culture and Art for the sound of the Lithuanian theatre and music as a full-fledged participant in the theatrical process.