Violinist Mari Poll and conductor Robertas Šervenikas

Conductor ROBERTAS ŠERVENIKAS

Programme:
JOHANNES BRAHMS – Tragic Overture in D minor, Op. 81
CARL NIELSEN – Concerto for violin and orchestra, Op. 33 / FS 61
JOHANNES BRAHMS – Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Tonight, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Robertas Šervenikas shares the stage with Estonian violinist Mari Poll, the first concertmaster of the Estonian National Opera Symphony Orchestra and a lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. The violinist has performed in various European and American concert halls as a soloist and a member of chamber ensembles; she studied the violin at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London, and later served for some time as an assistant to her teachers Jan Repko and Peter Herresthal. The violinist’s CDs have been released by the renowned record company EMI Classics.

This evening, the violinist plays a particularly virtuoso and melodious Violin Concerto by perhaps the most prominent Danish composer, Carl Nielsen. He composed the opus in the summer of 1911, when he was invited to visit Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in a cottage by the lake. The programme also features two symphonic canvases by Johannes Brahms: Tragic Overture written for the planned (unfortunately unrealized) production of J. W. Goethe’s Faust and premiered in 1880 in Vienna, as well as the Fourth Symphony, composed in 1884–1885. The latter is one of Brahms’ greatest works, in which the almost ancient beauty and the reflections of the harsh reality of life are uniquely combined.