In the Rays of Chiurlionis
On a Saturday night at the National Philharmonic, a stone’s throw from Kyiv’s revolutionary Independence Square, the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius City Hall performed compositions by the famous Lithuanian composer and artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Chiurlionis (1875-1911). Before the concert began, the “orange” sounds of the street, motorists honking and people chanting their support, drifted in from the outside. At first it seemed as though the music would not rise above them, while the audience sometimes felt as if it were stranded in a concert hall amid a revolutionary sea. Meanwhile, the concert organized by the Lithuanian Embassy in Ukraine was never so timely: Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus recently flew down to Kyiv together with Alexander Kwasniewski, Javier Solana, and OSCE General Secretary Jan Kubis for talks with the Ukrainian leadership that lasted well into the night. Politics brought up memories of the Rzeczpospolita’s heritage, a complex brotherly dialog among Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, three countries that share common roots but have developed differently. Incidentally, Chiurlionis was educated in Warsaw, and today his paintings and music command admiration everywhere from the Baltic to the Black Sea. For many, the heritage of this unusual man has become an important part of Lithuania’s image, which was noted for its Europeanism even during the Soviet period.
“There were many famous musicians and as many brilliant artists. There were musicians who were keen on painting and artists who tried their hand at composing music. But Chiurlionis’s talent combined the images and sounds of the surrounding world,” said Lithuanian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktoras Baublis, adding: “Most importantly, in all his works Chiurlionis left a space for all of us to hear one another, feel the warmth of the earth and the warmth of human relationships, without which there can be no society or state.” Donatas Katkus, conductor of the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, called Chiurlionis “a sign of Lithuanians’ national identity.”
Chiurlionis’s final quartet, with which the musicians opened the concert, was lost during World War One. The artist himself perished at a young age, but his talent inspired other composers, including Bronius Kutavichius, who transformed the chants of northern shamans into a breathtaking concert composition, and Algirdas Martinaitis, who created “A Serenade to Mademoiselle Europe,” a composition replete with irony. The virtuoso performance of Vilnius City Hall’s chamber orchestra made one feel happy for Lithuania, where even European skepticism is transformed into rowdy yet beautiful music, and for Lithuanians, who in the last decade elected as president Valdas Adamkus, a politician from the Lithuanian American Diaspora. Then they elected Rolandas Paksas, who leaned more toward Russia and was subsequently impeached. Then they reelected Adamkus, and against the background of all these events they still managed to join the European Union. Perhaps they get their strength from the transparent freedom of Chiurlionis’s starry paintings and cosmic music of Chiurlionis, and the genuine respect that Lithuania has for its greats.
