Concert series "Personally"

The Čiurlionis Quartet, named after the Lithuanian master of symbolism Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, will visit Liepāja in January to open the season of audience-favorite chamber music series Personally. The ensemble of creative explorers and technical virtuosos, founded over half a century ago, has prepared an intricate chamber music program for listeners of the Liepāja concert hall. The first part will introduce us to brilliant Lithuanian composers, and the second will feature works by Norwegian Edvard Grieg.

The core of the concert program will be String Quartet No. 1 in G minor by the most famous Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, one of the few cyclical pieces of this master of miniature. “Artists like Bach and Beethoven erected churches and temples on the heights. I only wanted to build dwellings for men in which they might feel happy and at home,” Grieg once described his music. However, his String Quartet No. 1 in G minor shows a cathedral-like opulence. It will hint at Norwegian folk music and lyricism full of bright tenderness, and it is sometimes considered part of the composer’s most sensual pieces.

The concert will be opened by a selection of works by the most brilliant Lithuanian composers of the turn of the century, most of which will be performed in Latvia for the first time. Teisutis Makačinas represents a generation of Lithuanian modernists. In his opuses, he melds elements of popular and academic music, thus gaining unyielding admiration especially among listeners of the younger generation. In their respective worldviews, Vidmantas Bartulis and Faustas Latėnas share a number of similar characters and yet are very different in their expressions – it will be demonstrated through the first string quartets by these composers, which are both a sonic play on intimate homages to loved ones. Zita Bružaitė’s Dance in Blue will be a journey back to the traditions of American minimalism with a deeply immersive amalgamation of dance and music.

Participants:

Čiurlionis Quartet:

Jonas Tankevičius, 1st violin

Darius Dikšaitis, 2nd violin

Gediminas Dačinskas, viola

Elena Daunytė, cello

Concert recorded on: 16.01.2022.

Photo: Valters Pelns