Farewell Symphony

Performers:
LITHUANIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Artistic director, soloist and conductor SERGEJ KRYLOV (violin)

Programme:
MAX BRUCH – Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 1, in G minor, Op. 26 (arranged for strings by Tomas Petrikis)
JOSEPH HAYDN – Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor (Abschied (Farewell)), Hob. I:45

On New Year’s Eve, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra and its artistic director, conductor, and violinist Sergej Krylov traditionally perform at the Church of St. Johns’. This time, Krylov will solo in the emotional Violin concerto No. 1 in G minor, composed in 1866 by the German Romantic composer Max Bruch. In the second half of the 19th century, when new musical trends, experiments, and explorations were already sweeping through Europe, Bruch, who was based in Berlin, remained faithful to the noble and sincere Romantic style of a century past. This work is characterized by virtuosic brilliance, melodiousness, and a youthful exuberance. It became not only the composer’s best-known work but also one of the most popular violin concertos of the late Romantic era.

There are various legends concerning the unusual format of Haydn’s Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor (Abschiedssinfonie, Farewell). In 1772, Haydn’s patron Prince Esterházy was resident, together with all his musicians and retinue, at his favourite summer palace Esterháza. The stay there had been longer than expected, and most of the musicians lived in poor conditions – it was cold and many of them got sick. Even Kapellmeister Haydn had no stamina to communicate that to the Prince. He then composed a new symphony and invited the Prince to listen. At the end of the work Haydn enacted a spectacle: after traditionally fast finale the audience heard Adagio during which each musician stopped playing, snuffed out the candle on his music stand and left in turn. So, at the end there were just two violinists left (Haydn and his concertmaster). The Prince seemed to have understood the message: the court returned to the city the day following the performance.

Since the 1970s, Haydn’s Abschiedssinfonie (Farewell) has been played every year to bid farewell to the Old Year. It is one of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society’s longest-standing New Year’s Eve concert traditions: the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra performs the legendary opus in a vanishing candlelight…