This concert is a multi-layered artistic dialogue between France and Lithuania, Claude Debussy and Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, piano and song, sound and colour, the early 20th century and today. And the culmination of the evening is the world premiere of Reflections, a work for choir and piano for four hands by composer Nijolė Sinkevičiūtė, based on texts by Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz-Milosz.

The off-the-cuff dialogue between Debussy and Čiurlionis dates back to 1903, when the two composers began composing symphonic works on the theme of the sea the same year. Without knowing anything about each other, the impressionist Debussy would title his major symphonic opus, begun that year, "La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestra" ("The Sea, three sketches for symphony orchestra"), while the symbolist Čiurlionis would give his epic symphonic poem, begun in 1903, the title "The Sea", spelling it in the Dzūkija dialect as "Marės". From their very different aesthetic and cultural positions, the two geniuses looked at the same element of the deep and the boundless spaces, painting in sound the camaraderie of the sun and the sea, the dancing and the frenzy of the waves, the power of the wind and its play in the vastness of the sea, telling the eternal legend of the sea.

The fates of the "Seas" launched in the same year were very different: Debussy's "The Sea" became one of the most important, most frequently performed works of the early part of the century before the First World War, primarily thanks to the efforts of the conductor Arturo Toscanini, and is considered a milestone masterpiece in the history of symphonic music; whereas Čiurlionis' "The Sea" was first performed in Kaunas in 1936, a quarter of a century after the composer's death, without the organ and with a significantly modified instrumentation as the composer had planned. Čiurlionis' "Jura" suffered another blow when in 1956 it was "re-edited" by the composer Eduardas Balsys, shortening its climax and significantly changing the orchestration. It was only after 1990, when Lithuania regained its independence, that a restoration of the composer's original version was finally undertaken.

The two "Seas" have never been combined in a single concert programme, and it is only in recent years that this creative dialogue between Debussy's and Čiurlionis' "Seas", through the efforts of the piano duo of Sonata and Rokas Zubovas, in the form of four-hand piano transcriptions, has been heard on concert stages in countries ranging from South Korea to the USA.

The concert programme was prepared by the choral music ensemble of the Toulouse region: Ensemble "Antiphona", under the direction of Prof. Rolandas Muleika and the piano duo of Sonata and Rokas Zubovas.

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PERFORMERS

Ensemble "Antiphona" (France)

Artistic Director and Conductor: Rolandas Muleika

"Duo Zubovas"

Sonata Deveikytė-Zubovienė and Rokas Zubovas (piano duo)

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EVENT INFORMATION

Date & Time: August 24, 2025, 4 PM

Venue: Vilnius Town Hall

Address: Didžioji st. 31, Vilnius

More: HERE

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ORGANIZER

M. K. Čiurlionis House

Contact: mkc.namai@gmail.com / +370 646 53 503

"Čiurlionis' Vilnius Sounds" concert: "Sea in Sparkling Colours"

"Čiurlionis' Vilnius Sounds" concert: "Sea in Sparkling Colours"

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