About Festival
Closely connected with the Kaunas summer life, the Pažaislis Music Festival has welcomed its faithful listeners for the sixteenth year in a row.
As every year, the festival combines novelties and surprises with the long-established traditions. A wide spectrum of styles and genres has already become a distinctive feature of the Pažaislis Music Festival, so this year’s programme is also sure to satisfy the listeners of different tastes. Compositions by authors of the Baroque and classical periods will be played alongside works by contemporary composers; large-scale concert compositions will be counterbalanced by chamber music; light genres will provide a contrast to majestic academic opuses.
However, a distinctive feature of the sixteenth festival is the age of Romanticism. The major part of the festival events will feature music from this colourful and romantic period. And, of course, this is no coincidence. This feature of the festival has been determined by great composers’ anniversaries, which are marked in2011: the 200th anniversary of the Hungarian genius Franz Liszt, the 100th anniversary of the death of the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, the anniversary year of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
The geography of the festival, as always, broad and encompasses Kaunas’ concert venues, churches with excellent acoustics and Lithuanian historical mansions. In addition to the conventional venues, the festival will make its debut at the Baisogala Mansion, which has recently opened its doors to cultural events.
To mark the Coronation Day of Mindaugas – Lithuanian State Day, Justinas Marcinkevičius’ Mažvydas,the final part of his famous trilogy, will be put on, in cooperation with the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, in the approaches of Kaunas Castle. Like a requiem for our national bard, who passed away a little while ago, Mažvydas’ words will sound: “Lith-u-a-ni-a!Do you hear that? Do you? All together now! Once more! Lith-u-a-ni-a!”
XVI Pažaislis Music Festivalwill delight audience all summer from June 5 to August 28.
When the summer is over, let us remember its warmth and maintain the impressions and the desire to create, seek and search in order to meet at Pažaislis again and again.
