Lithuania pays tribute to composer Ogiński

The show is part of the official 2015 Year of Oginski, marking the 250th anniversary of his birth.

Michał Kleofas Ogiński held the office of Grand Treasurer during the twlight years of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was also an advisor to Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski. His father was a Lithuanian nobleman and many of his ancestors had Lithuanian roots.

MP Jurgis Razma recalled during the opening ceremony Oginski’s best-known composition, the polonaise ‘Farewell to the Homeland.' He urged fellow parliamentarians to take such decisions that would ensure that no one ever felt compelled to bid farewell to the homeland.

Ramune Szmigelskyte-Stukiene from the Lithuanian Cultural Institute stressed that the venue of the exhibition has a symbolic dimension. ‘It was in the united parliament of Poland and Lithuania that Ogiński’s political career started’, she said.

The Union of Lublin of 1569 brought Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania together into a single ‘Commonwealth’ with one parliament.

The exhibition in the Lithuanian Parliament was organized by the Ogiński Cultural Museum in Rietavas, where a former residence of the Ogiński family is located. It was badly damaged after World War One. Its last owner, Prince Bogdan Michal Ogiński, died, without issue, in 1909. A monument to Michal Kleofas Oginski is to be erected in Rietavas in the autumn. A wide range of other events in his tribute is also planned.

Ogiński’s compositional output includes some 20 polonaises, piano pieces, mazurkas, romances, military songs and an opera. He died in 1833 in Florence, where he spent the last ten years of his life. (mk/nh)