Programme:
BORIS LYATOSHINSKY - String Quartet No. 2, Op. 4, in A major
OSVALDAS BALAKAUSKAS - String Quartet No. 3
FELIX MENDELSSOHN - String Octet, Op. 20, in E-flat major
This concert reflects the sincere ties and creative links between the musicians of Lithuania and Ukraine. One of the most striking examples of this is the famous composer Osvaldas Balakauskas. "He came to Vilnius after graduating not from the Moscow or Leningrad Conservatoire, but from the Kiev Conservatoire, where he attended the class of Prof. Liatoshinsky. He did not return to his homeland immediately, but after living in Kiev for a while, because from the very first year of his studies he became a member of the Ukrainian modernist underground, i.e. the informal, dissident composers. It was not only a group of great talents, but also a kind of aesthetic community that categorically broke all ties with Soviet aesthetics and looked for inspiration for its ideas in Western modern music", Donatas Katkus has written. And Balakauskas mentions his esteemed professor Liatoshinsky in an interview as one of the most tolerant of all composition teachers of the time.
This concert features works by both Lyatoshinsky, considered the father of modern Ukrainian music, and Balakuskas, more than 70 years apart in composition: Lyatoshinsky's classical, melodic, dramatic Second String Quartet, decorated with oriental motifs and impressionistic colours, and Balakuskas's Third String Quartet, the constructive logic of which is elegantly overshadowed by the rhythms, harmony and improvisationalism of jazz.
The communion between the musicians of the two nations is symbolised by the final highlight of the evening - the String Octet of the Romantic Felix Mendelssohn. The State Vilnius Quartet, winner of the Lithuanian National Prize and the Baltic Assembly Prize, and guests from Ukraine have come together to perform it. They are laureates of prestigious competitions, talented performers who perform as soloists all over the world: Dmytro Udovychenko, whose numerous achievements include the title of the laureate of the V Yasha Heifetz Competition in Lithuania (2017), concerts with the Ukrainian orchestras, as well as with the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Slovak Sinfonietta, the Sønderiyllands Symphoniker, the Radiophilarmonie of the GDR, etc. Nataliia Kuleba, former Artist-in-Residence of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra; Nataliia Kuleba, winner of the competitions 21st Century Art, J. Stankovich, etc. Winner of the National Academic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, principal viola, now living in Vienna (Austria) and guest member of the Vienna Radio (RSO), Tonkünstler and Vienna State Opera Orchestras; Cellist Oleksiy Shadrin, who has already played chamber music in Vilnius, is a laureate of the prestigious 4th Prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, as well as a finalist and prize-winner of the competitions in Kiev, Prague, Budapest, and has performed with various orchestras of Ukraine, the Montpellier National Opera, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Constance, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and others.