Early Music Day is held every year on 21st March, a day celebrating the beginning of spring, and the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach. Launched in 2013, Early Music Day is a project of REMA, the official promoter and coordinator of the celebration, the representative network for Early Music in Europe, composed by 86 members in 21 countries.
Due to the prevention of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Lithuania, we will not be able to invite you to the concerts of the 6th International Marco Scacchi Early Music Festival in the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Nevertheles, we invite you to rejoice music streamed on the Museum‘s „Facebook“ account: https://www.facebook.com/valdovurumai
5 pm
Giesme wakarine | Pieśń wiecźorna | Evening song
16th century songs, hymns and psalms from the court and chapel of Sigismund Augustus
Nora Petročenko – soprano
Radosław Pachołek – countertenor
Maciej Gocman – tenor
Nerijus Masevičius – bass
Ensemble MORGAINE:
Mirjam-Luise Münzel – recorders
Darius Stabinskas – treble viol
Alina Rotaru – harpsichord, organ
Michele Carreca – lute
The Golden Age of art and culture that was the reign of Sigismund Augustus, had famous European musicians gather at the Vilnius palace in the 16th century: among them, the most prominent Polish composers of the day – Wacław z Szamotuł, Mikołaj Gomółka and Cyprian Bazylik. The flourishing Latin sacred music tradition was gradually enriched with echoes of the Reformation, where hymns, as well as other religious texts, started being translated into Lithuanian. In the Polish literature history, the poetry of Jan Kochanowski was considered the most important in this respect – his Psalms of David (released in 1579 in Krakow) drew the attention of musicians as well. Within a year, Mikołaj Gomółka had created a collection of psalms based on the latter’s texts. In Lithuania, translations from the Polish hymns appeared in both Protestant and Catholic works. In this concert, the performers’ aim is to present how the Polish composers’ hymns sounded as psalms translated into Old Lithuanian by the Reformers Merkelis Petkevičius and Steponas Jaugelis-Telega, and by the Catholic Saliamonas Mozerka Slavočinskis, as well as in the original Polish language.
Ensemble MORGAINE recorded the program “Giesme wakarine” in Vilnius in November 2019. The record is scheduled to be released in April 2020 at Ayros. This is their present for the Early Music Day, in replacement for the concert of MORGAINE’s latest program “Audi, Domine, hymnum meum – music dedicated to the Transylvanian Prince” with motets by G.B. Mosto and works from “Il Transilvano”, a concert which they would have performed on this day, and which unfortunately was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Produced by Banchetto Musicale
Sponsored by the Lithuanian Council for Culture
Partners: Lithuanian National Culture Centre; National Museum - Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.