MIKALOUS KONSTANTINAS ČIURLIONIS The Sea VL 317, Variations on a Theme of Sefaa Esec VL 258, Variations on a Theme of Besacas VL 265, Fugue in B minor VL 345
FRANTIŠEK CHALOUPKA new composition for clarinet, piano and choir, world premiere, commissioned by the festival
MIKALOJUS KONSTANTINAS CHIURLIONIS choral works
Anna Paulová clarinet
Miroslav Beinhauer piano
Aidija Chamber Choir
choirmaster Romualdas Gražinis
September 2025 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), an artistic figure of Renaissance scope and undoubtedly the greatest figure of Lithuanian visual and musical art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Čiurlionis is a world-famous symbolist painter and a prized composer, the founder of Lithuanian national music. In Lithuania, it is said that one of the first to recognise Čiurlionis’ musical talent was the Czech musician and teacher Josef Mašek, who worked at the court of the Ogiński princes in Rietavas at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. (Incidentally, at the same time as Mašek, another Czech music teacher, Rudolf, the son of Dvořák’s teacher Antonín Liehmann, became famous in Lithuania – specifically in Rokiškis.) The student orchestra led by Mašek maintained exchange contact with an orchestra from the nearby town of Plungė, where Čiurlionis was studying and playing the flute at the time. I feel that the music of Čiurlionis will arouse enthusiasm not only in Rietavas and Plungė, even not only in Lithuania, but will travel far and wide, Mašek is said to have heard more than once…
In his paintings Čiurlionis emerged as a creator of fantastic and symbolic visions, combining natural and folkloric elements with cosmological, philosophical, pagan or biblical scenes. Even as a painter, he did not deny himself as a musician: he often “composed” his paintings into cycles (diptychs, triptychs…) and took their titles from musical terminology: Forest Music, Prelude and Fugue, Sonata of the Sea, Sonata of the Stars, etc. In the sonatas, he also called the individual “movements” after the tempo designations of the movements of the classical sonata cycle.
The MKČ 150 project, which will symbolically bring together artists from the Czech Republic and Lithuania, will present a selection of Čiurlionis’ piano and choral works, which are the domain of his musical legacy, as well as the world premiere of a new composition by František Chaloupka, a prominent Czech composer of his generation, inspired by Čiurlionis’ compositional and artistic work. The entire evening will be conceived as a compact project, accompanied by a light design based on the colours of Čiurlionis’ paintings.
