Lithuanian music on
BBC Radio 3

At last, after many years of campaigning, the British Broadcasting Commission and its classical music channel Radio 3 has realised that classical music exists in Lietuva.

On 22 September 2011, UK based Lithuanian pianist Evelina Puzaitė appeared on BBC Radio 3s programme In Tune in a belated celebration of the 100th anniversary of the death of Čiurlionis. Despite my pleas at the time, Radio 3 ignored the actual anniversary on 10 April, but made amends with the In Tune programme which was broadcast on what would have been Čiurlionis' 135th birthday.

As well as playing six of Čiurlionis' piano pieces, Evelina gave a very professional account of his achievements in the field of music composition, art and literature. The presenter Sean Rafferty, said at the end that the BBC would pay special attention to Čiurlionis in his anniversary year.

Earlier on 16 August, the same programme featured the British Presteigne Music Festival which this year promoted Lithuanian music. As well as interviewing the Artistic Director who explained that it was the first festival of Lithuanian music to be held in Britain, a young British violinist Tamsin Waley-Cohen played Barkauskas' Partita.

Having been a thorn in the side of the BBC since 2003 in my campaigning for Lithuanian music to be played on Radio 3, I immediately emailed a letter of thanks, pointed out that the Čiurlionis anniversary had been ignored, and that Evelina Puzaitė and the Cosima Piano Quintet would be performing at an anniversary concert on 25 September at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

The outcome was an invitation for the performers to appear on In Tune. As I don't personally know Evelina and the other members of the Quintet, I passed the invite on to Daiva Parulskiene, the Cultural Attaché at the Lithuanian Embassy in London, who made the necessary arrangements.

Three days after her In Tune appearance, Evelina Puzaitė played a number of Čiurlionis' piano preludes at the very enjoyable anniversary concert in London. The string players of the Cosima Piano Quintet followed on with a performance of Čiurlionis' String Quartet, and Evelina joined the string players to end the concert with an exciting performance of Robert Schumann's Piano Quintet in C minor op 44.

My next BBC goal is a Radio 3 Composer of the Week series. I first suggested that in 2004 - even gave them a synopsis for the five programmes to be broadcast Monday to Friday (though then the plan was for Lithuanian music including Čiurlionis). Recent correspondence, including loaning the BBC my boxed set of Čiurlionis CDs bought from the Čiurlionis Museum in Kaunas, gives a glimmer of hope, and no doubt the In Tune appearances will help in the cause to get Lithuanian music performed and broadcast in Britain.

What is also needed now is for Lithuanian Radio to send the BBC a steady stream of Lithuanian music to be broadcast on Through the Night and hopefully, during the day as well. I look forward to the day when Lithuanian music is as well-known in Britain as Estonian music now is.

Tony Olsson, Ilfracombe, United Kingdom