Programme:
Franz Schubert - vocal cycle "Winterreise" ("Winter Journey") for voice and piano, Op. 89, Ž. W. Müller
In 1827, a year before his death, in the midst of severe illness and poverty, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, hailed as the King of Song, composed one of his most profound and personal works, the 24-song vocal cycle "Winterreise", with a poetic text by Wilhelm Müller. The songs, written in a beautiful romantic musical language, tell the story of a young man, rejected by his beloved, who sets off on a long journey, accompanied by wintery nature, blizzard, wind and black raven. This profound and highly sensitive music captures not only the lyrical hero of the cycle, but also the composer's personal experiences: the world of love, dreams, loss, sadness and fear. Baritone Giedrius Prunskus and pianist Paulė Gudinaitė invite Lied lovers to listen to one of the most impressive and soul-touching works in the history of music, and to immerse themselves not only in the states of a wanderer, but also in the spiritual journey of a human.
GIEDRIUS PRUNSKUS - Licentiate in art, baritone, soloist of Kaunas State Musical Theatre, teacher at Kaunas Juozas Gruodis Conservatoire and the Academy of Music of Vytautas Magnus University. The soloist became acquainted with the Lied genre while studying at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Music School in Leipzig. It was there that he prepared Schubert's vocal cycle Winter Journey and returned to Lithuania with a series of concerts presenting this diamond of vocal art. Twenty years later, having accumulated considerable experience in the genre of art song, the singer will once again join the immortal cycle.
Doctor of Arts, pianist PAULĖ GUDINAITĖ is a prize-winner of international competitions, who won the diploma of the best accompanist at the international chamber music competition Beatrice, as well as the first place at the Republican Competition of Concertmasters in Vilnius. She holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. She is a regular partner of tenor Mindaugas Zimkus and mezzo-soprano Eglė Šidlauskaitė, and has performed with many well-known Lithuanian and foreign singers. Her chosen field of artistic studies and concert activities have allowed her to accumulate a vast experience in the Lied genre. Her repertoire includes numerous vocal cycles, but this is the first time that she will join Schubert's immortal Winter Journey.
