April 21st a press conference was held, presenting the programme highlights of the Vilnius Festival 2009 and other related events. Among the panel members were Gintautas Kėvišas, Artistic Director of the festival; Rūta Prusevičienė, Executive Director of the festival and Director General of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, acting as an organiser of the Vilnius Festival; Audrius Žiugžda, President and Chairman of the Board of SEB Bank and a long-standing patron of the festival; Sandra Adomavičiūtė, Programme Director of the Festival partner Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009; and Modestas Pitrėnas, a conductor of the Festival’s closing concert. At a conference, an agreement was signed by the President of SEB Bank and Director General of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, according to which the SEB Bank became the official patron of the Vilnius Festival 2009, thereby pledging its commitment to supporting art and culture through sponsoring the Vilnius Festival from its very inception.

The current edition of the Festival, slated for May 13th–29th, is dedicated to Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009. Another, important focus of the festival is the paradigm of classical music – the diversity of its ideals, shapes, logic and intuition – mastered by the prominent figures in this area today who leave a distinct trace of their personality in every interpretation of classical heritage. Conductor Valery Gergiev and opera diva Violeta Urmana can be named as some of the central figures at this year’s festival.

The programme of the Vilnius Festival 2009 comprises four orchestral concerts and two chamber music programmes. Although dominated by the canonical scores of the European classics, nearly all concerts will also feature either the recently discovered versions of the well-known pieces, or first performances of newly written works and rarities from the distant historical epochs. The concert programmes will offer an assortment of music from different regions, times and styles, including German Baroque polyphony, refined French sound and the flamenco inspirations captured in the Spanish guitar repertoire. The core of the programmes will nonetheless consist of the works by the well-established Western and Eastern European composers, such as Georg Friedrich Händel, Ludwig van Beethoven, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov, Igor Stravinsky, Krzysztof Penderecki and Rodion Shchedrin.

At the opening concert on May 13th, the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev, a renowned expert in Russian music, will perform symphonic works by Stravinsky and Rachmaninov and a world premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s symphonic fresco Lithuanian Saga (commissioned by the Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009). This world premiere will be seamlessly continued by the appearance of the Shanghai Quartet (China) on May 15th. The ensemble will premiere the String Quartet No. 3 Leaves from an Unwritten Diary by Krzysztof Penderecki. This work was first performed several months ago, at the concert series dedicated to the 75th birth anniversary of the composer. At the first part of the concert, the quartet will share the stage with the pianist Mūza Rubackytė. She will play a version of Beethoven’s Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 4 for piano and string quartet; the score of this version contains 80 previously unheard episodes.

Alexander Toradze (Georgia / USA) is another pianist participating at the Festival who is also recognised as an expert in Russian music. Together with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded the highly acclaimed Philips series of Prokofiev’s five piano concerti. On May 23rd, together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under its artistic director and principal conductor Juozas Domarkas, he is going to perform Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto. The same evening, Juozas Domarkas will present renderings of the symphonic sketch Tetra by Osvaldas Balakauskas and the Divine Poem by Alexander Scriabin. The performance of these works on the orchestra’s Polish tour in January 2009 received great critical acclaim: “The orchestra has a distinct sound and in that respect it might be compared to the best orchestras of Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and London; yet the character of its sound – that ear-pleasing colouring – makes one compare the performers of symphonic music from Vilnius to the American orchestras and, especially, to the Philadelphia orchestra famous for its intimate timbre.” (Ruch Muzyczny).

The concert of May 18th is dedicated to the memory of Sir Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), an inspiring artist and humanist. It is no coincidence that the oratorio Messiah by Georg Friedrich Händel was chosen to be performed at this concert. The semi-staged interpretation of the oratorio by the Kaunas State Choir and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin was premiered at “Old and New Ways to India” festival in 1992, dedicated to the 500th anniversary of America’s discovery. Over the years it had been performed in numerous countries and recorded, along with other choral masterpieces, by the famous maestro in collaboration with the Lithuanian performers. This year the oratorio will be performed by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra Choir (Germany), together with four soloists from various countries and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under the renowned master of the oratorio genre, Rolf Beck. This interpretation of the Messiah will also commemorate the 250th death anniversary of Händel (1685–1759).

May 24th will bring perhaps the most specific programme of this festival, dedicated entirely to guitar repertoire, to be presented by the unique classical guitar quartet “The Romeros – the Royal Family of the Guitar”, which comprises several generations of guitar players from one family. A programme dedicated to the quartet’s 50th anniversary will mostly consist of works by the 19th–20th century Spanish composers.

The closing concert of the festival on May 29th will showcase the Lithuanian-born opera diva Violeta Urmana and her husband, Italian tenor Alfredo Nigro, who have prepared a programme of arias from the operas and other works by Christoph Willibald Gluck, Luigi Cherubini and Hector Berlioz, together with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra under Modestas Pitrėnas.

From May 13th to 16th, the Vilnius Festival 2009 will also host the General Assembly and Conference of the European Festivals Association (EFA). According to Rūta Prusevičienė, the executive director of the Vilnius Festival, the privilege to host the EFA’s annual meeting in Vilnius was granted after Vilnius became the European Capital of Culture this year, thus it forms an official part of the Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009 national programme. The conference, planned for May 14th at the National Philharmonic Hall, is themed as “Artistic Trends in Festivals” thus offering a platform for the Lithuanian and international festivals to meet, network and exchange, and discuss the state of play of the festival business today.