Musical bridges: lithuania – poland

Performers: TORUŃ SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (Poland) Orchestra Manager Przemysław Kempiński Orchestra Artistic Director Dainius Pavilionis

Conductor DAINIUS PAVILIONIS

Program: Grażyna Bacewicz - Overture for Orchestra Magdalena Cynk, Zita Bružaitė - Song of Two Rivers: Vistula (M. Cynk), Neris (Z. Bružaitė) Mieczysław Karłowicz - Lithuanian Rhapsody, Op. 11 Wojciech Kilar - Suite from the film "Pan Tadeusz" Stanisław Moniuszko - Mazurka from the opera "Halka" Stanisław Moniuszko - Mazurka from the opera "The Haunted Manor"

Visiting Kaunas for the first time, the Toruń Symphony Orchestra invites you to an exclusive concert, "Musical Bridges: Lithuania–Poland," where music becomes a link between the history, culture, and artistic friendship of two close nations. The program of this concert reveals the close cultural ties between Lithuania and Poland, while also providing an opportunity to hear valuable Polish symphonic works that are rarely performed in our country's concert halls.

The program's creator and conductor, Dainius Pavilionis, who leads the artistic activities of the Toruń Symphony Orchestra and actively fosters the musical dialogue between Lithuania and Poland, offers listeners a musical journey through different eras and stylistic directions this evening.

The concert will begin with the energetic and colorful Overture for Orchestra by one of the most prominent 20th-century Polish composers, Grażyna Bacewicz. She was a famous Polish composer and virtuoso violinist, descended from a Lithuanian-Polish family. Her father was the musician Vincas Bacevičius, whose family roots closely link this family to Lithuania. Although the composer was born in Łódź and spent most of her life in Warsaw, she maintained close ties with Lithuania, having lived and performed in Kaunas for a time.

Next, a special fruit of the collaboration between Lithuanian and Polish creators will be performed – the work "Song of Two Rivers" by composers Magdalena Cynk and Zita Bružaitė, in which the rivers symbolizing the two nations – the Vistula and the Neris – meet.

One of the evening's most important highlights will be Mieczysław Karłowicz's "Lithuanian Rhapsody" – a work born from the composer's fascination with the Lithuanian landscape, folklore, and the romantic vision of its history. This symphonic poem is considered one of the most significant musical embodiments of Lithuanian motifs in the history of Polish music.

The program will also feature excerpts from the suite for the film "Pan Tadeusz," created by one of the most famous Polish film music composers, Wojciech Kilar. Inspired by the national epic, this music conveys the spirit of the 19th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the nostalgic longing for the native land, and grand historical memory. Undoubtedly, one of Adam Mickiewicz's most famous works has a longer title – "Pan Tadeusz, or the Last Foray in Lithuania."