Vilnius Festival. Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Modestas Pitrėnas, Martynas Levickis

Opening of the 30th Vilnius Festival

Performers:
SINFONIEORCHESTER ST.GALLEN (Switzerland)
(artistic director and principal conductor Modestas Pitrėnas)
Soloist MARTYNAS LEVICKIS (accordion)
Conductor MODESTAS PITRĖNAS

Programme:
FABIAN KÜNZLI – So klingt St. Gallen (The Sound of St. Gallen) for symphony orchestra
DANIEL NELSON – The Ghost Machine Treatise for accordion and orchestra
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN – Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, Fate

This year’s Vilnius Festival will open with Swiss sound – three monumental compositions will be performed by the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra, which has been led since 2018 by Modestas Pitrėnas, principal conductor and artistic director of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. Pitrėnas will hand over these duties to Italian conductor Pietro Rizzo in the 2026/27 season.

The St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra consists of about 70 musicians from more than 20 countries around the world. Renowned for its successful symphonic program cycles, the orchestra currently resides in the Tonhalle, one of the most beautiful concert halls in the Lake Constance region. Known as an ardent performer of operas, operettas, and musicals, the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra also devotes considerable attention to various forms of chamber music, the cultivation of a young classical music audience, and promulgation of the works of contemporary Swiss composers.

One such work is Swiss composer Fabian Künzli’s soundscape So klingt St. Gallen (The Sound of St. Gallen), which will be performed by the orchestra for the first time. With this work, the composer pays tribute to the canton of St. Gallen and its namesake capital city, full of hidden treasures and unique sounds. The work was composed in collaboration with local residents, who were invited to share their special sound experiences, which were incorporated into the score of So klingt St. Gallen (The Sound of St. Gallen).

The concert will also feature Swedish composer Daniel Nelson’s The Ghost Machine Treatise, a powerful and rhythmically energetic concerto for accordion and orchestra. This opus of exceptionally colourful orchestration will be performed by the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and accordion virtuoso Martynas Levickis, admired by Lithuanian audiences.

The concert will conclude with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, also known as the Fate Symphony, one of the most significant examples of Western European classical music literature, which has achieved exceptional cultural and artistic significance. Marking the boundary between classicism and modern musical thinking, the work fundamentally considers the structural and artistic expression possibilities of the symphony genre. It also intrigues with four-note ‘fate’ leitmotif accompanied by the stories from the composer’s life.

Organizers of the Festival: Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, PI “Vilniaus festivaliai”

Sponsor of the Festival – Vilnius City Municipality