Looks like a result!

It seems, on current opinion polls, that Dalia Grybauskaite, the current EU Budget Commissioner, may have won the presidential election in the first round of voting - the most recent estimate (19.00 hrs) was 67.5%, well over the 50% required to avoid a run-off.

One of her advantages, apart from being a superbly intelligent politician, is that she has been out of Lithuania for five years, and not involved in any of the shenanigans that have been going on in the last few years. She threw her hat into the ring in February, after the small riot over the Government's handling of the economic crisis (they are tightening everyone's belt, so no wonder that the economy is shrinking fast).

She had to overcome some obstacles, though; over her sexual orientation - she is an unmarried woman and there have been rumours over exactly who she might prefer - she said that she was not a lesbian. Can you believe someone having to state that??

Then over her nationality - this blonde woman has a father with a Greek first name, Polikarpas (which is incidentally also the name of the chap who my road in Georgia was named after, Polikarpe Kakabadze - no doubt about links between Greece and Georgia, apart from the Salomes and Medeas of the Georgian world). Someone legally challenged her, and she had to place hers and her mother's birth certificates in the internet to prove that she is a true Lithuanian. The question was never clarified whether the challenger was talking about ethnicity or citizenship....

But at last we may have a president who is not only untainted by scandal (if there were any, the Lithuanian media would find it), and one who has a pulse and a true close connection to the country, her absence in Europe notwithstanding. That was 5 years, not 50 years as in the case of Mr Adamkus, for all the good egg that he is.

Bags of enthusiasm!

One can never accuse Algirdas Vizgirdas, the director of Musica Humana, of lack of enthusiasm - he bounds onto the stage like the cat that got the double cream, produces encores at the drop of a hat and generally wheedles his crew into playing more, and more, and yet more.

Tonight was the second concert in a series of celebrations of Vivaldi's 330th birthday.  Surprisingly, it was in the Filharmonija at 7, rather than, as usual, in the Lutheran church at 6 - where I might have rushed to, had I not looked at the website at the last moment.  The Filharmoija's stalls had the audience tastefully sprinkled throughout it.

It was all Vivaldi, then, 8 pieces, plus 3 encores - one before the interval! I made a point of standing up and leaving after the second encore in the second half, and the band, who had been playing standing up, were also much in the mood to go.

It was a nice mixture of pieces, though; a few I did not know, which helps. Seems some Vivaldi is played all the time, and some not at all. There were three 'symphonies', 3 movement pieces (and you thought Haydn was the Papa of symphonies, no? - but he wrote 4-movement symphonies!).  They were nicely played, though some of the contrasts could have been greater. Also there was some breakneck speed - edge of seat stuff. 

Ieva Prudnikovaite sang Psalm 126 (in 8 movements); for a prayer I thought some of the introductions were a bit brisk (Vivaldi's fault, not the orchestra's).  She has a very dark and rich voice, and I wondered how it might have sounded sung by a boy.  She followed it by an aria from the 'Gloria' where I wish I could have understood the words better - I am quite good at liturgical Latin, but the 'qui sedes at dexteram Patris' always ended up a bit of a mumble.  Got the 'miserere nobis' though.

Then there were three concertos; the first was for violin 'and its echo' (RV 552). Here the group went a bit over the top, with planting the echo just outside the stage entrance (with the stage manager wandering about behind it). This did not do much for the sound quality - though again, which echo has a perfect sound quality. I thought the player on the stage was a bit uncertain rhythmically and in intonation, just slightly.  And in the slow movement the 'echo' could have ornamented her version of the same line; I know it's not exactly the function of an echo, but it would have made the movement more interesting. Overall, this is rather a dull piece, with a very pedestrian first movement.

Very young Simona Vaitkeviciute then solo'ed in the concerto for piccolo and orchestra - we all know it well. I've heard it live twice before; once with Evelyn Glennie and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra in a vibraphone (or marimba) version, the last concert ever under Saulius Sondeckis, and another time with Michala Petri on recorder and the St Christopher Orchestra quite a few years ago.  I would have expected Ms Vaitkeviciute to play it from memory; I mean, how many piccolo concertos are there in the whole repertoire?  But I think she might have been nervous, seeing as at the end she shot off the stage without thanking the conductor or first violinist. She played totally securely and nicely, though. Maybe there could have been a bit give and take in terms of tempi, particularly in the slow movement, but generally it was fine.

Finally Robertas Beinaris, without whose solo no Musica Humana concert happens, played the oboe concerto RV457 (in F major).  A concerto which I had never heard before, and which sounded a bit odd - but with amazing virtuosity. Beinaris held a long, very high note in the second movement - it was to die for. 

And then all those encores.  

I was a bit surprised to see a bassoon in the band, playing along in everything, including symphonies and concertos requiring string orchestras plus harpsichord only (poor harpsichord, it was audible once). The bassoon stuck to the bass line, I think, which is a justified use, though not, I would have thought, in a string orchestra. All seemed a bit pointless. Did he just want to have a go?

I'm going out on very thin ice here...

It's very rare that Lithuania's tolerance to its minorities exceeds that of Western Europe, and I suspect the festival of Roma culture is but a very small sticking plaster on the rather open sore of prejudice, especially given the low attendance of non-Roma at the event. But it happens, and it's good. The Lithuanian organiser of the festival speaks of conflict during the setting up of the event, of culture clashes, but he, too, thinks that's great since different cultures and differences are needed. More power to his elbow.

Meanwhile in Italy, as Jessica and others report, based on an Independent article, the Roma, regardless of nationality, are being fingerprinted, children included. Though I'd want those Roma living in London, whether Jessica's description of 'happy multicultural London' feels quite as happy to them.

Of course, what's needed is respect, not mere tolerance.

and talking of spelling....

this article talks about a dishwasher which went on fire in the Swedish embassy in Vilnius, saying that 'There very no victims. Four firelighter teams extinguished the fire in 20 minutes'.

Lithuania can do better than that!

Classics under the Stars

Got a mailing about a rather strange concert that will take place near Vilnius on St John's Night (23. June - a serious day in Lithuania).

It's strange because it's a collaboration between the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Human Rights Monitoring Institute, and a golf club - the strangest set of bedfollows that I can think of. Did not know that golfers were big into human rights.

It's kind of a society event (does not hurt society to know about Human Rights) with a matching programme, Bizet, Mendelssohn, L Berstein (sic).....

This combination does make me worry a bit about the political leanings of the HRMI; I see its supporters are some Western embassies, the Soros Foundation, the EU Commission, a lawyer, a hotel, an airline and iki, the supermarket. Their press releases include something on 'the draft act on the protection of life in the prenatal phase' Though I see that they say that prohibition of abortions is not a way of solving the problem of high abortion rates. Jeeez, someone is talking about prohibition of abortions? Are we Poland? In fact here it says that the draft law might be even stricter than in Poland. Unbelievable! Though of course we are a catholic country.

Other work they do is on the question of the skinhead's march in Vilnius in March this year, on integration of the Roma into the labour market, on racism, on gender reassignment (Lithuania's personal code, held by each citizen including me, starts with a figure identifying gender, which is not much good if you change gender and can't change the code which you have to use everywhere). And it seems they respond to events quite rapidly.

So it's probably quite a good organisation to have in Lithuania.....Nice of the music world to inform us of these things, then.

Not sure about that....

Terry Wogan complains that Russia won the Eurovision song contest because of block voting, since many neighbouring countries gave Russia the full 12 points, to ensure, as he says, their energy supplies. It's all political, he claims - as do others. Nothing to do with the fact that the UK came last, of course.....

I'm not convinced. Not that I know anything about pop music, really, but it seems to me that Russian pop music is still very popular in Lithuania. Despite all. Taxi driver (who are mostly Russian), play Russian pop music; many other small businesses have it on the go...Go into a karaoke bar, even with solid Lithuanians who complain about the Siberian transports, and they sing Russian songs. I wouldn't if I were them.

So, Mr Wogan, you may be barking up the wrong tree - and you can see only sour grapes!

We are 10,000

In the last few days this blog has crept past the 10,000 hit/readers mark! Ok, so it's taken a year and a half, and probably 7,000 of them are the same people returning for their regular fix. Do I care? Here we need a birthday candle, or, in Lithuanian style, some fireworks!

Cath, who commented on this post, lead me via her music-with-fashion blog to this rather interesting Lithuanian blog where people seem to go round photographing generally funky young people on the streets and asking them questions. Very nice - it's amazing the amount of ideas young Lithuanians have!

Change in Lithuania

...just a small, fairly insignificant one. The most recent British Ambassador, Colin Roberts (photo from Lietuvos Rytas), is leaving his post, as they do every few years.

It's a shame that the support foreign countries give to culture (or anything else, I suspect), is so dependent on the personality and interests of the ambassador. Mr Roberts' successor was a great supporter of the arts, and especially music, in Lithuania, as have been the last three German ambassadors, a Spanish ambassador, the Armenian one (who, based in Warsaw, has a bit of a commute to get himself to the Filharmonija...), the Americans come and go. The British embassy (all of them) has been spectacular by their absence in this regard. Obviously the discovery of culture by the UK government ('every child shall have five hours of arts a week') has not percolated into every nook and cranny of her officials. That can be a shame as far as fairly culture interested intelligentsias as in Lithuania are concerned.

(The British Council, while not bad on the visual arts, appears to know nothing about music if it's not hip-hop so there's no great hope there. But BC, as an NGO, could not possibly be seen as representing HM Government anyway).

Let's see what happens next.

Two concerts of one half (each)

Two concerts, starting two hours apart today. Could have made all of the first concert, but without a car, and with needing to be early in the second concert to get a good seat, I left after the first half.

It was the trio 'Fortvio' (piano trio, ....think about it). Consists of Indre Baikstyte (accompanist in the music academy, Ingrida Rupaite (leader of St Christopher's Orchestra), and Povilas Jacunskas (first cello desk of Lithuanian State Orchestra). I have been aware of Povilas since before he started studying at the music academy 7 years ago. Ingrida I heard recently play solos with her orchestra, but there she was a bit lacking in confidence - not the case today! Makes you wonder about interpersonal dynamics in the band....Ms Baikstyte did all the emoting she cannot do as an accompanist. They are all good musicians. In fact, looking at them today, I wondered what it is that happens to Lithuanian musicians once they turn forty and many seem to lose the will to live. Was speaking to someone today who said that the Opera House orchestra is really difficult to motivate - yes, we can hear it!

Our young trio, in existence formally since 2006, has already won some international prizes - the International S Vainuno Chamber Music Competition in Vilnius in 2006, and the third prize at the J Brahms International Chamber Ensemble Competition in Austria last year. Keep an eye on them!

I heard Haydn's G-major piano trio, and Shostakovich's second trip. Both were great. Gee, the energy and the communication the group has! The Haydn was a bit dull for the cello perhaps, but he did not let it show and played along perfectly with his fellow players. The Rondo al' Ongarese was so ....Ongarese ... with loud, dirty cello playing (only where required!) and everything. None of that (falsely) refined 'oh, the notes must all sound nice' playing. This was pure Bull's Blood and temperament.

The Shostakovich, which I recognized when I heard the second movement (and I am surprised I had not reviewed it before) has a funny start, which would be good for a listening exam - 'which instrument starts first'? The cello plays harmonics for what seems forever while then the violin enters with much lower notes. Like the Haydn last movement it has plenty of scope for rumbustious, temperamental playing - I loved the beginning of the last movement, which the violinist and cellist played like the approach of a couple in a tango (not in tango rhythm of course) who then dance violently with each other. I wish I could have heard the remainder of the concert.

But I had to rush to the Lutheran Church for the next concert of Musica Humana of Bach and 21st century Lithuanian music. When I saw the balance of the programme, I was a bit dismayed - one Bach, three modern pieces. But by then I had hailed one of the composers, so had to listen to his work - which was ok.

Like yesterday we were made to stand in memory of someone. I could not believe it yesterday, but now I've checked - it was in memory of Margarita Dvarionaite, a (woman) conductor of the Filharmonija for over 30 years. We had them here, first? Maybe it helped that Dad had been a quite well-known if not exceptional composer (and brother is violin professor, whose children are music teachers...another dynasty).

So although I was aghast that they put the 'Air on a G-string' on the music stands, under the circumstances one could hardly protest.

This was followed by Bach's concerto for oboe d'amore in A major. Oboe d'amore, in Lithuania? Methinks the delectable Robertas Beinaris, our best oboist, has a new toy! It must be the first d'amore anything in Lithuania. And a very fine, dark tone he produced, too. It was a bit lost because he was in the middle of the orchestra, and the pitch is not ideal for that, but hey, keep it coming, Robertas. Played as beautifully, and securely, and confidently as he only knows how.

Osvaldas Balakauskas' clarinet concerto, brand new, was the last piece I heard today. It's in two merged movements, with largely the same rather spiky rhythm for the orchestra throughout (or at least for the first fiddles, practically among whom I was sitting). The second movement read 'Andante' or 'Andantino' on the score, but it was hard to tell the difference. It seemed very virtuosic for the clarinet who was constantly playing. Again his sound was a bit lost among the orchestra, or maybe I was just too close to them - plus I was really paying attention to the first fiddles - who went astray at one stage despite counting very hard. It happens, I suppose. Now, don't ask me if it was atonal (no, almost certainly not) or serial music (also almost certainly not) .... It was quite pleasant, really, but very hard work for the clarinetist.

13 January Memorial Concert

On 13 January 1991, at the TV tower in Karoliniskes, Vilnius, Russian tanks under the orders of that nice Mr Gorbachev, mowed down 13 Lithuanian men and one woman who were in a group peacefully defending the TV transmission system located in the tower. These events, televised throughout the world, led, eventually, to the break-up of the Soviet Union.

On January 12th every year since then, a concert by the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra has taken place in St John's Church in the University commemorating this event. The key piece is 'Sutartines' (it means something like 'little folk harmonies') by Schnittke, a 3 minute piece which he wrote in solidarity and memory of the events. It's an awesome piece, starting with a viola solo of a simple little melody, which the viola soloist and his front desk colleague play non stop throughout the piece, as the other instruments join in in an increasing noise, roar and gun noises, before dying away again, leaving the little melody carrying on before it dies away. It's a magnificent depiction of tanks rolling over fragile flowers. There is one violist in Lithuania, Petras Radzevicius, who plays this little melody to perfection, with the right amount of feeling, expression and child-like gay abandon - under all the noise. Sadly, he did not play tonight.

Some prat sitting near me started to applaud when the band came on stage at the start of the concert; this is the one occasion - a memorial concert - where you would not do that, until later in the concert. He was not well supported; I thought the leader of the orchestra gave a little scowl.

'Sutartines' was followed by the usual Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra programming. A strange little concerto grosso by Vivaldi; very early (RV 129), and overwhelming the audience who should then have applauded and did not; two elegaic pieces by Grieg (incredibly slushy and not played slushily enough), and then the Siauliai choir 'Polifonija' came on. Actually, it's not a bad choir - good at their pianos and enunciation.

Vaclovas Augustinas' (he's still alive and young) a capella piece (not on the programme) was a fairly traditional choral setting of something; could have been a weaker baroque piece had it not been for a bit of triteness in the men's voices. Algirdas Martinaitis, a respected Lithuanian composer, in his 50s, (brother Jurgis [?] is a poet), had written an Agnus Dei for mezzo, choir and orchestra. It was kind of neo-romantic (he also writes much more modern stuff), with I think a few gun noises thrown in [but difficult to tell in a public church where people wander in even during concerts]). This lamb of god was certainly carrying the sins of the world, but at various stages it also seemed to throw them off and gambol around the countryside, kicking its little legs in the air. Nicely sung by Ieva Prudnikovaite (who's changed her haircut to a heavy fringe - before, with all her hair long, she always had rather a noble brow), the choir and played by the orchestra.

Mozart's Ave Verum; what can you say - there was a moment when they choir could have been more legato; otherwise it was ok. Finally Schubert's Mass in G Major (written in a week in 1815); quite a classical piece, and also short. Apparently after Schubert's Death the mass was nicked by another composer, who ended up in prison for embezzlement. Here you wonder why you pay for soloists; their parts are so short, it's hardly worth them sitting on the stage and getting all nervous - could not the better choir members have done it? Probably not - there's a difference between even the best choir member and the professional soloist. The 3 soloists did well; Asta Kriksciunaite and Ignas Misiura are old hands at this game; I had not seen Rafailis Karpis (tenor) before; he had about 3 words ....

It was an ok concert; it served its purpose - you go more for the emotional moment than for the music. You'd never expect musical brilliance at this kind of concert. For that the orchestra needs a number of well-aimed kicks up their collective backsides.

150 tons of smuggled citrus fruit

Customs officials around Georgia have in the last 10 days found 150 tons of smuggled citrus fruit and nuts. You may laugh - who in their right mind would smuggle something like this?

Actually, it's deadly serious. When Russia closed its borders to Georgia, suddenly Georgia lost a huge market for its citrus (and other) fruits and nuts, as well as for its wine and other goods. At one stage fruits were taken through South Ossetia (which is in Georgia but trying to break away with the help of Russia). So obviously Georgian farmers are in deep trouble. Just before I left Georgia a week ago the price of a kilo of mandarins (the fruity kind) was under 40 Eurocents; here in Vilnius it's about 1.5 Euros.

Interestingly, considering that Lithuania is oh so supportive of Georgia, I can't find Georgian wines anywhere in the supermarkets, though I have seen Moldovan wines. Get the right Georgian wine, and it's fine, though there is some very sweet stuff around, too.

And why do we in Lithuania get our pomegranates from California when Georgia and Turkey have perfectly good ones? They may not been quite as nice and round, or shiny, as the Californian ones, but at least this way we could support some needy folk.

Odd stories

The Baltic Times reports, amongst others, the story of the French guy who met a girl on the internet, visited her in Vilnius, and then found himself handcuffed to a radiator in a flat and robbed of all his belongings. It took him 3 days to wrench the radiator off the wall and get help (while the downstairs neighbours were flooded). I suppose then that I could lock my bike quite safely to the radiators on the stairs....

In Latvia police stopped a drunk driver to find that he was blind. He was guided by his equally drunk teenage passenger. A week later they stopped him again, only to find that in fact he was the owner of the vehicle! (In Germany no-one checks the eyesight of a driver once they have passed their test. A relative with macular degeneration still drives during the day, even though he has difficulties judging distances....As long as it is only his funeral!)

Vilnius is changing

Whew, got home on Saturday and bought concert tickets just for the next two weeks - it feels like I had to milk the ATMs. Frightening prices they have these days - time I got out my student card; having discovered the benefit of the cheaper 'standing' seats also helps. But the concert halls are still full....

I swear that if you go along Gedimino prospektas, the major shopping street in Vilnius, and have a coffee at each coffee shop along its length, you'll either need to be scraped off the sky (if you had an espresso), or you won't need to eat for a week (if you had a latte). You could of course balance that with a meal at each restaurant on the street, and a drink at each bar.....If you spent a week in Vilnius, you'd never need to leave the street for food or drink, and could possibly eat and drink in a different place each meal. It's obviously becoming a service economy. Not sure that all the businesses are doing all that well, though - some of the shops change hands at a frightening rate.

Some things take longer to change. Having needed a bit of medical investigation recently I put it on my BUPA card and forgot all about it, until I got home. Wow, those charges looked high - the price looked like the Euro version of the Litas price. Inquiry revealed that when the treatment centre deals with BUPA they put a coefficient on the bill. I reckon it's a factor of 3. Nice work if you can get it out of the foreign insurance companies who don't know any better and think that the cost is low ... Another hospital which I need a tiny operation at, and who I asked about the price, has first asked about my citizenship and whether I contribute to the local social insurance system. Though it's private treatment. One rate for the job obviously does not exist. If I pay more, I expect a better service - or should I be looking at this as a form of redistribution of wealth? But already I pay quite enough taxes ...

This is how it was in the Soviet days, when museums and such like charged different entrance fees for locals and for foreigners. Then again, I remember having roof repairs in Scotland and the company asking, before giving me an estimate, whether it was an insurance job....

Heavenly Almonds

This is what the 81 -year-old Lithuanian president said when talking to the Kauno diena newspaper: "I am full of energy and strength, therefore, after 2009, I will not sit back in a rocking chair somewhere in the country and look at the sky contemplating heavenly almonds. No. I think I will be a very active participant in the life of Lithuania," he said.

I'm trying to work out what heavenly almonds are, and whether something has been lost in translation?

Inflation!

There are statistics, and there is experience.

In Georgia, where inflation since last December is reported to be 6.2% according to the statistics office, the experience feels different. In my favourite Adjarian khachapuri restaurant first they slapped on a 10% service charge, and now the smallest khachapuri is noticeably smaller. Another place selling take-away khachapuris has slapped 20% on them. Theatre and concert tickets have gone up, too. With other food it is difficult to tell - fresh food changes seasonally every week, and sometimes I pay the foreigners' prices, too. But of course gas etc have gone up considerably. I also hear that the price of flour has gone up, but the government has not allowed for the price of bread to rise - a wise move in view of last week's unrest.

In Lithuania, too, price increases keep rising, with an inflation rate of 7.6% in the year to October 2007 (compared to an upper limit for Euro membership of 2.6%). We'll have no chance to join the Euro (though thankfully the currency is fixed to that already). My mortgage interest rate is below the inflation rate - does that mean I am making money? I don't know. Opera ticket prices in particular have doubled over the last few years, as have some concert prices. Then there are nasty tricks such as putting 2 litai on each ticket you buy, even at one concert hall. Restaurants have increased their charges considerably, and I notice the prices of milk and bread have increased a lot, too. The service charges for my flat seem to have doubled recently. Of course in the last 6 years the minimum wage has increased from 450 lt to 700 lt, and many of the public sector workers, and pensioners, get considerably higher incomes - I hope that for them there is a real increase in ability to spend (or save) and that they are not earning more and buying less.

I wonder where it will end and whether Lithuanian prices, and incomes, will have to approach the EU average before it all stops. If incomes got there, then at least many of the expatriates would maybe return...

European of the Year!

The Lithuanian President, Valdas Adamkus, is one of the 4 nominations for European Statesman of the Year, together with the Estonian President, Mrs Merkel and Sarkozy (though he might not be on her favourite list, what with having invaded her personal space by shmoozing her excessively).

Welldone, Mr Adamkus! It's for helping to avoid isolating Poland over the new EU treaty, even though, under the current Polish regime, this might have been very tempting. But it's one of Mr Adamkus' strengths, sorting out messes. He and the then more sensible Polish president and others helped to sort out Ukraine at the time of the orange revolution, and I'm sure he has had his hands full in Lithuania as well. So even though the Economist described him as 'doddery' a little while ago he's not doing too badly for a guy of almost 81. But now he's due to finish his term in office, and I have no idea who or what will follow him.
Publish Post

The Cult of the Stamp

Old East Europe hands know that a stamp (not a postage stamp) is the most important piece of equipment any official or any 'legal person' can have. Without a stamp, you are nothing. Without the stamp on a document, you have nothing because how can anyone believe that it's a true document? You could have made it up on your computer. When you start a business you get a stamp, when you close it down you have to confirm that it is destroyed.

It's not just any stamp - it has to be round. Nowadays in the more advanced countries, they are self-inking, but if you travel further south and east, eg to Central Asia, you find officials bringing out a little ink pad in a tiny tin with a screw top, unscrew it, ink the stamp, breathe on it just to make sure and then stamp your document. The stamps have to be guarded with their lives, needless to say.

I was thinking of this when yesterday I once again went off to the notary to sign for my loan. Regular readers may remember that I had flown to Vilnius specially in May to sign the loan, only for the notary to find something was amiss a couple of days before (they had had the documents only since April). This did not make me happy. Arranged another appointment in July, when I was in Vilnius anyway, and a couple of days before the notary...... you get my drift.
That time I hit the ground at Vilnius airport and 15 minutes later found myself at the registration centre with a queue of 78 ahead of me.....clearly nothing could be done. The next morning I appeared at another registry centre at 7 am, and yesterday, at another 7 am visit, I got the required document, to tootle off to the notary for the 10 am appointment.

Already at 11 am they were ready to see us. I'd asked for my Lithuanian personal code to be put on any documents for signing, but they refused, since I did not have a 'dokumentas' to prove that this is my personal code. The personal code is on my residence permit provided by the immigration department; this in turn is glued into my passport. It seems it was not 'dokumentas' enough. (Whenever you do something important here, you prove your ID with a 'dokumentas'; usually my UK driving licence suffices - I think a 'dokumentas' needs a photo, too). Clearly I cannot expect the UK government to slap the Lithuanian personal code into my passport - there isn't a space for it.... Sometimes people really do not think logically. Now the document I signed has my passport number on it. The passport will expire and in any case I have two, with different numbers....

The only other problem was the fact that my print-out of an internet banking transaction lacked The Stamp, so how could it possibly be true? Internet banking has been a fact of life in Lithuania for the last 6 years at least. So I had to rush round to the bank to get a stamped document.

Otherwise everything went well, except that the notary forgot to send some documents to the bank, and also to give me back some original documents of my own.

If you wish to know which Vilnius notary's office to avoid, write to me privately....and the bank also knows it...

Link betwen car ownership and health confirmed

A Lithuanian study has discovered that the bigger and more expensive the car you drive, the more likely you are to be disabled.

How do they know?

They surveyed the 'disabled cars only' spaces outside the supermarkets.

Equal rights?

According to European legislation, all people have equal rights before the law, and are entitled to respect and all that. And the EU does its best to ensure that people enjoy equal rights; nowadays with the right of freedom of movement European Union citizens can freely move around most of Europe (not everywhere, so here we have another set of exceptions).

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let me talk about the rights of gays. Of course, legally, they have the same right as everyone else, including the right to marriage in most EU member states. In other countries, however, particularly out East (Poland) their rights might be observed in the violation. But that's nothing to the stroke pulled by Lithuania in the last few weeks.

The EU has sponsored a campaign on tolerance (only 'tolerance', not necessarily 'acceptance' or 'respect', as Daniel Barenboim once discussed with the members of the East West Divan Orchestra). In Lithuania the aim was to place advertisements on two buses, and there is a huge EU truck, with built-in stage and everything, which is currently touring 19 EU member states (out of 27). The bus drivers refused to drive buses with this advertisement, so of course the bus company decided not to have the adverts placed. Then the new mayor of Vilnius, Juozas Imbrazas aged 72, who I am told had been a nobody until he became Mayor this year (rumoured to be Paksas', the disgraced ex-president's, front man - Paksas is now in the city parliament), decided in his wisdom not to allow the truck into Vilnius. I suppose they could have gone to Kaunas instead, but that city is even less known for tolerance.

The ensuing correspondence on website has shown a horrifying degree of ignorance about the whole topic, but even educated people talk about 'people deciding to be gay'; others talk about it as an illness. We sure have a long way to go. Of course Poland is another country where the truck won't be visiting, as is Romania. It just shows the huge cultural gap that exists between the old and new member states. Or are the Lithuanians just more honest about their prejudices?

In passing I notice that the municipality website is really bad these days, with no sign of the webcam from the mayor's meeting room that his inspired and visionary, but alas also mildly dodgy predecessor had installed.

A blast from the very recent past

Arrived at my desk in Tbilisi yesterday morning to find a message from a friend about a concert organised by the Lithuanian embassy of Judita Leitaite, mezzo soprano and Andrius Vasiliauskas at the piano. Wow!

The last time I saw Ms Leitaite live in a concert was roughly on 23 November 2001 or 2002, when she sang French love songs, together with the Lithuanian chamber orchestra, to an audience which for some reason comprised mainly of shaven headed young soldiers - not a happy combination, though the young men did well. I think I may have left at the interval, so I don't know if the young men stayed.

Ms Leitaite does not do opera singing, as far as I know (and in any case, the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is full of well-established singers); she's more into recitals and concert halls, though I also cannot remember seeing her participate in oratorios or other large scale pieces. She does, however, do much work with contemporary music, and is the main female singer in Senderovas' soundtrack to the Film 'Ghetto' (which I am listening to at the moment) - this is outstanding, though I am told by the composer that things ended up getting changed for the film. I further have to admit to not having seen Mr Vasiliauskas, the accompanist, in concert in Vilnius, but there I don't go much to singer recitals.

This concert was arranged in celebration of Lithuania's 3-year membership in the EU (welldone!). The programme consisted of Lithuanian songs adapted for recitals, some songs by Grieg sung in their original languages, and some popular songs, in addition to some piano pieces by Ciurlionis and Grieg. The main theme of the evening was 'love'. It would have been nice to have some of the Jewish music (either from 'Ghetto' or other music) in the programme, also for the sake of Lithuania's reputation, but essentially it was a very light programme, and maybe that might not have fitted so well. It's also possible that people don't know of Ms Leitaite's skills in this area.

The concert went well - it was the right length for this kind of event, and the mix of singing and pianoplaying was good. Ms Leitaite is a great singer and actress, and effortlessly filled the (admittedly small) hall. It took some time for the audience to warm up (and did it really need 'La Paloma' to break the ice, and was it sung in Lithuanian?) - and then things really got going! At least one person in the audience was having a wonderful time, and he would probably have danced if there had been the slightest possibility. Ms Leitaite then milked the audience for all they had got.

Mrs President (Sandra, sorry Hans, I did not pass on your regards!) appeared just before the concert got going, with a whole entourage. This lead to a fierce little debate about the person's identity between my friend and me, since my friend had only seen her the day before - but she'd had a different hair colour...At this moment Ms Leitaite just about melted - she knew fine who she was singing to; but I am sure she has sung lots of times to the Lithuanian President!

It was a nice little touch that both Ms Leitaite and the Ambassador did not speak in Russian, only English and Lithuanian - though Ms Leitaite later burst into Russian for ease of communication.