On June 6, the bells of Pažaislis Monastery will announce the start of the 31st Pažaislis Music Festival. The opening concert will feature guests from Switzerland – the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas and the audience’s favorite, accordionist Martynas Levickis.
The St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra consists of about seventy musicians from more than twenty countries around the world. The orchestra is based in the St. Gallen Concert Hall, built in 1909 and recently renovated for better acoustics. The ensemble performs operas, operettas, and musicals at the St. Gallen Theater and the St. Gallen Festival, and chamber music in various forms is also part of its artistic activities. In recent years, the orchestra has released several internationally acclaimed CDs, gained recognition for premiering contemporary Swiss music, and collaborates regularly with radio and television. The history of the orchestra dates back to the mid-19th century, when music enthusiasts from St. Gallen organized the first subscription concerts. In 1877, the orchestra became a permanent music ensemble under the auspices of the St. Gallen Concert Society, and in 2018, the internationally renowned Lithuanian conductor M. Pitrėnas became the orchestra’s chief conductor and artistic director.
M. Levickis, well known to Lithuanian audiences, is a musician who constantly brings fifteen kilograms of passion to the stage, constructed from twelve thousand details. He calls birds and trees his first music teachers, and the Lithuanian forest his best concert hall. M. Levickis was described by The Independent as “an incredibly talented man who is reinventing the accordion all by himself.” The performer himself calls his instrument a “magic box of tricks.” And indeed, when he puts on his accordion and starts playing, he creates truly enchanting soundscapes, his virtuoso playing impressive, varied, and unexpected.
The audience will be able to enjoy Levickis’ virtuosity as he performs Swedish composer Daniel Nelson’s impressive concerto for accordion, “The Ghost Machine Treatise.” At the beginning of the concert program, the orchestra and conductor will invite the audience to listen to Swiss composer Fabian Künzli’s 2024 work “So klingt St. Gallen”, which creates a musical portrait of this place with the help of city sounds woven into the orchestra’s score. And the concert will culminate with one of the most famous classical music scores – Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth (Fate) Symphony.
