The Lithuanians have always been highly ranked in terms of education but there is also another side of the coin: Culture! Once one of the largest kingdoms in medieval Europe and later on influenced by other European cultures Lithuania has developed a high level of culture in many fiields. One reason is because this is a country of many unique talents.
What is a “talent”!? Often you get as many different answers as people you ask Talent is present in any discipline and is more or less impossible to quantify or find. If you just meet a person, it is first in the moment they perform that you will find out. Before that moment talent remains hidden. Suddenly you just know that someone has something special to “say”, you feel her unique skills. These rare moments come often through music.
One of these rare moments I had in the Swedish Embassy in Vilnius a few years ago. Suddenly I heard one of Rachmaninoff´ most beautiful compositions, but also most technically difficult, played by two Lithuanians, Martynas Svegzda von Bekker on violin and Indre Baikstyte on the piano. Some people just play music! Only a few perform with an intensity and emotional expression which transform the music to the audience in such a way that we feel the music inside us. We got an experience “above all” that evening, the intensity and passion of one of Rachmaninoff’s masterpieces was presented in such a brilliant way that can’t be explained, it must be experienced.
Mr. von Becker is a well-established violinist with the world as his workplace. You will find so many other creative talents in different fields from mural paintings to street musicians
Malmo, Sweden, October 2006
Leif Almo