Trio Claviola
A diverse concert programme showcases the ensemble's artistic journey, highlighting rare and lesser-known works.
2023 May 11
19:00
1 hr. 20 mins.
Klaipėda Concert Hall
Artistic Director and Conductor Mjr. Egidijus Ališauskas
Mjr. Egidijus Ališauskas
: Johan de Meij Casanova Concerto for Cello and Concert Band; Friedrich Gulda Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra
Free
The evening concert invites us to relish an unexpected combination of the cello and concert band. This time, the cello fiesta is joined by a rare guest – the Lithuanian Armed Forces Headquarters Band (Artistic Director and Conductor Mjr. Egidijus Ališauskas). Founded more than 30 years ago, it has been responsible not only for preserving the tradition of music for military bands and the proper performance of foreign anthems at ceremonies, but also for the dissemination of new, modern works, and the desire to reach wider audiences with the help of music. The concert is playfully entitled “Casanova’s Stories” after the Casanova Concerto for cello and concert band by famous Dutch composer Johan de Meij. It is a musical portrait of Giacomo Casanova, the 18th-century libertine and philosopher who captured the hearts of women, impersonated by the solo cello. Eight musical scenes recount the highlights of Casanova’s adventurous life: his arrest, his captivity and his escape from the notorious Piombi Prison in Venice.
Equally intriguing is the Concerto for Cello, Wind Orchestra and Rhythm Band by Austrian composer Friedrich Gulda, which blurs the boundaries between genres and is also full of musical adventures and events, all of which are conveyed in the spirit of jazz, rock and improvisation. Gulda himself described the work as “jazz, minuet, rock, a little polka, a little march, and a couple of cadenzas in which the star cellist has to improvise.”
Yes, the young cello stars are playing solo tonight! Featured in this concert are Marius Urba (Lithuania / Germany), a pupil of Peter Bruns and Troels Svane, principal cellist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, who is described as “a great cellist with an extraordinary sound and a warm vibrato,” and Atanas Krastev (Bulgaria), a pupil of David Geringas and prize-winner of international competitions, who is, by the way, artistic director of the similar festival in Bulgaria called “Cellissimo”. Both soloists are members of the jury in this year’s International David Geringas Cello Competition in Klaipėda.