FIRE AND WATER MUSIC
A musical extravaganza
“Fire and Water Music,” which will close the programme of the 4th Klaipėda Festival, will remind you of the Baroque-era sumptuous feasts with fireworks, fire-eaters, spectacular scenery and lights, boats on the water, full of musicians, actors and acrobats in disguise, and, of course, the noble guests dressed up in fancy costumes and masks… This concert is defined as a musical extravaganza because, in addition to the musicians of the Klaipėda State Musical Theatre Symphony Orchestra’s brass and percussion sections and the Sonum Brass Ensemble, the Viduramžiai LT company, which puts on some of the finest fire shows in Lithuania, will contribute a fire show produced especially for the festival. Their movement is choreographed by Aušra Krasauskaitė, a former dancer and choreographer of the Klaipėda State Musical Theatre and now the chief choreographer of the State Song and Dance Ensemble “Lietuva.” The fire performance also uses fragments from the Viduramžiai LT programmes choreographed by Laima Muralienė and Gintarė Dromantaitė.
“Fire performers are often invited to enliven city festivals and big shows, where they entertain, surprise, and make the audience gasp watching their masterful and dangerous tricks,” the stage director of the show, Karina Novikova, comments. “In this production, they will demonstrate their fakir skills and move on four high towers; so they will be clearly visible to the audience from all sides. And the link between their movement on the podiums will be the dances created and performed by KSMT ballet dancer Daria Verovka.”
The bulk of the musical programme consists of works by the most well-known Baroque composers, such as Handel, Bach, and Charpentier, written for public celebrations, the intimate pleasure of listening, or the calming of the spirit of the nobility, to whom they served. Put in between are modern compositions by the 20th-century Dutch composer and conductor Jan Koetsier and the living American composer and percussionist Peter O’Gorman. The musical programme is being prepared by Egidijus Miknius, conductor and trombonist, leader of the Lithuanian Army Naval Forces Band.
PROGRAMME
Georg Friedrich HÄNDEL (1685–1759)
Suite Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 (1749); arr. by Elgar Howarth
I. Overture (Adagio – Allegro – Lentement – Allegro)
II. Bourrée
III. La Paix (Largo alla siciliana)
IV. La Réjouissance (Allegro)
V. Menuets I and II
Perf. by the brass and percussion sections of the KSMT Symphony Orchestra
Water Music: Suite No. 2 in D major, HWV 349 (1717); arr. by Andreas N. Tarkmann
I. Overture (Allegro)
II. Alla Hornpipe
III. Lentement
IV. Bourrée
V. Minuet
Perf. by the brass section of the KSMT Symphony Orchestra
Jan KOETSIER (1911–2006)
Air and “Signal” from the Petite Suite for brass quartet, Op. 33/1 (1947; rev. 1957)
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685–1750)
Concerto for organ in D minor, BWV 596 (1713–1714), transcription of Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for two violins in D minor, Op. 3 No. 11, RV 565, from L’estro armonico (1711); arr. by David Baldwin for brass quintet
I. Allegretto
II. Allegro – Adagio molto
III. Andante
IV. Allegro
Air from the Pastorale in F major, BWV 590 (~1720); arr. by Sergijus Kirsenka for brass ensemble
Perf. by the Sonum Brass Ensemble: Jonasz Rudolf Dziuba (trumpet), Aretas Baranauskas (trumpet), Egidijus Stanelis (horn), Valentas Marozas (trombone), Sergijus Kirsenka (tuba)
Peter O’GORMAN (*1960)
Fire for percussion quartet (1983)
Perf. by the percussion section of the KSMT Symphony Orchestra
Giovanni GABRIELI (~1557–1612)
“Canzon per sonare duodecimi toni” from the Sacrae Symphoniae (1597); arr. by Robert King for two brass quintets
Perf. by the brass section of the KSMT Symphony Orchestra and the Sonum Brass Ensemble
Marc-Antoine CHARPENTIER (1643–1704)
Prelude (Marche en rondeau) from Te Deum, H. 146 (1692)
Perf. by the brass and percussion sections of the KSMT Symphony Orchestra, Sonum Brass Ensemble
