On May 22, at the third concert of the Vilnius Spring Festival, a unique programme dedicated to one of Lithuania’s most prominent composers – Algirdas Martinaitis, who is celebrating his 75th anniversary this year – resounded at the National Gallery of Art.

The concert featured selected works from fifteen years of the composer’s creative output – hymn-like and satirical, pastoral and openly carnivalesque, at times combining seemingly incompatible elements, yet consistently enriching the world with distinctive colours.

“It is fascinating to imagine what the May day looked like seventy-five years ago when Algirdas Martinaitis was born. I believe the winds must have blown differently, and the thrushes and other birds of paradise must have sung in another way. This concert is a wonderful opportunity to touch and feel the composer’s thoughts and states of being,” said television and radio host Gerūta Griniūtė during the event.

The audience had the opportunity to hear well-known works such as Strazdiškasis, Birds of Paradise, and Europeana, as well as new compositions, including two premieres – The Elixir of Love for soprano, piano, and orchestra (based on texts by Marcelijus Martinaitis) and G@V (Ascent to Mount Carmel) – a postlude dedicated to Gija Kančeli and Vidmantas Bartulis.

Gunta Gelgote (soprano), Giedrius Gelgotas (flute), Indrė Baikštytė (piano), and the Šv. Kristoforo kamerinis orkestras, conducted by Modestas Barkauskas, created an atmosphere in which Martinaitis’s music unfolded in its full range – from meditative serenity to provocative expressiveness.

The concert was not merely a retrospective, but a living pulse of this creative world, inviting the audience to rediscover how multifaceted, vulnerable, sometimes absurd, yet always profoundly human Martinaitis’s music is.

The festival continues! On May 29 – the final concert of the Vilnius Spring Festival, where the Šv. Kristoforo kamerinis orkestras will perform together with the Dainius Pulauskas Trio.

Full festival information: springfestival.lt