Obligatory response to the Referendum

Britain has voted (52-48) to leave the EU. For many this was not a surprise, and for others this has been a hard and heavy shock. The true ramifications of this are yet to be truly felt across the globe, but it will send shockwaves across the world for a long time to come. I know this blog is not a political one, despite some of my strong political leanings, but something this major needed to be addressed somehow. So I have done all that I think I can do now. Celebrate Lithuanians within the UK!


So here goes! The first Lithuanian composer I wanted to natter about is Vitalija Glovackyte. The Mancunian based composer is a intriguing one for me. She has celebrated successes like being Apartment House's embedded composer, and has had works featured in the Panufnik scheme. For me, her real strength comes in her electronic works. Pieces like Sunday is gritty, grimy, and just glorious! Despite being almost completely dysfunctional, the music finds itself and also shows a quirky sense of humour which many composers tend to shy from. Listen to her music here on Soundcloud.

For those of you who read my blog I haven't always been positive of Egidija Medeksaite's work. I admit the pieces I have heard over this past year haven't been the strongest especially when I have heard stronger pieces from her too. When I first came across Panchami about 3 years ago, I was struck by its melodious rolling patterns and the humming electronics which blurred the field. Egidija's obsession with textiles does produce some intriguing musical reconstructions, and I feel as she grows more and more as a compsoer she will tap into something far more elegant and fluid. Listen to her music here.


Juta Pranulyte, is a composer I have had quite a soft spot for. Ever since I met her, I have been intrigued by her drive, sharpness of mind, and desire for more in her music. The resulting music has either been very elegant and striking pieces or works that show she is working towards something even stronger. Currently based in Glasgow, Juta has written for a large expanse of musical settings. Her choral pieces have been quite a strong area within her work. Her deus ex machina is a dark and brutal musical landscape, with a powerful sense of focus. The work is a major step for her as composer as it really poignantly shows off her abilities in the craft. I feel if she beings to produce works with a stronger more brutal message behind it she will stun thousands. Listen to her work on Soundcloud.

Ruta Vitkauskaite was the first Lithuanian composer I met in person five years ago. We have found ourselves every so often bumping into each other, and she has constantly been on the periphery of my work in the Baltic. Funnily enough, the day we met has since proven to be quite a poignant day for me as it is the day that started leading me towards eventually moving to the Baltic. Ruta's work show a desire to break from everything. A desire to find something new, all encompassing, and welcoming. Having written or produced improvisations for outreach projects or questioning the very nature of opera, Ruta shows a desire to not get stuck. Here is her For Many Thousand for solo accordion, the very work that was performed the day I met her.

To round off this lovely article, I'd like to quickly talk about a strong ally of Lithuania from Britain. Anton Lukoszevieze the cellist of Apartment House is of Lithuanian decent and has for quite a few years now been quite a champion for Lithuanian composers from Rytis Mazulis and Jugis Maciunas to Egidija Medeksaite and Antanas Rekasius. His desire and drive to promote these composers is commendable and deserves as much praise as he can get. What pointing out what Anton is doing with the wonderful Apartment House does is it proves despite Britain's choice, there are still strong allies fighting to show how great the rest of the world is. Listen to Aparment House do the third movement of Antanas Rekasius's Musica Dolente et con brio.

The next post will be far less political I promise!

Lithuanian Composer's Union awards

Last night was the Lithuanian Composer's Union awards where prizes were given to the panels favourite premieres of 2015. I sadly was unable to be there in person as I was on my way back from Vienna and ever so slightly brain dead once I finally arrived in Vilnius. This being said, I had spies in the audience, and the official announcement of the winners is on the Lithuanian Music Information Centre's website, however there isn't an English translation of it, which is an issue for another day.

Having been here in person since September, I have had to luxury of witnessing most of the pieces shortlisted. The rest of the shortlist here has full recordings of everything, so it was interesting to check out what I missed. 

In short, I feel I am at complete odds with the Composer's union's choices. With the exception of the public prize, I was particularly unimpressed with the winners. I am not in a position to comment on the public prize, as it was up to the public, so well done Ruta Vitkauskaite. My only worry is the fact that most of the composers in the shortlist aren't the most savvy at social media, so it can be argued they didn't necessarily have an equal opportunity to win it. But as I said the public has spoken and with over 700 votes, people definitely believed in Ruta's Confessions.

There were four other sections of prizes:uz stiliaus grynuma - purest style (or purity of style, depending on how you want to translate it)

uz ambicinga ideja - most ambitious style

uz orkestro vaizdinguma - best orchestral colour (or best orchestral imagery) 

jaunojo kompozitoriaus - Young composer

These four sections are quite open meaning composers in the youngest generation get to lock horns with the oldest. But on the other hand, groups like purest style are so vague it could be impossible to choose a winner. 

In the 'uz stiliaus grynuma' section, Vidmantas Bartulis won with his Voyage du silence. Admittedly I do have a soft spot for his work, it can often be quite moving and sincere. But Voyage du silence is just a bit dull, or like a weaker version of Eduard Tubin or even Stasys Vainiunas. Simplicity can be beautiful but this work failed. Definitely far from being a victor in my books.

For 'uz ambicinga ideja' the prize went to Egidija Medeksaite for her work Akasha which was premiered in GAIDA 2016. Those of you who can remember that far back, I was unimpressed by the work. I felt that there was too much adoption of bigger composers like Helmut Lachenmann, and not enough of Egidija. I also pointed out it was far surpassed by Ricardas Kabelis's Bole LT which was one of the most original pieces in the entire festival. I can understand why she was chosen, if you have never heard a note of Scelsi, Sciarrino, Lachenmann et al. the sounds the piece made was a bit more original. So maybe the panel just needed to listen to a bit more music first. 

Award ceremonies rarely make me cross, I admit I rarely agree but am never so stunned and shocked by a panel's decision. 'Uz orkestro vaizdinguma' was one of the worst choices I think that could be made. Mykolas Natalevicius's Karaciajus through some hole in the space time continuum defied all logic and won. A prize for best orchestral colour, or best orchestration, should go to a composer with a certain degrees of prowess in orchestration. I witnessed this piece's premiere and ultimately it was naive and half baked. The use of colour was basic, and particularly the use of brass was childish dull. I understand the piece was meant to show the horrors of a post-nuclear landscape, but brass should be menacing, not dull. 

The prize for 'jaunojo kompozitoriaus' went to Elena Sataites for her work Eremos. I have no clue what the criteria is for this group, especially when noone can agree on what constitutes a young composer. Elena's piece was quite sweet, but sadly did fall into a Baltic pastiche. If she was up against other students finishing their undergraduate last year, I know some composers who were more impressive. And if she were up against just young composers in general, I can name a few who outshone this piece. 

If I had influence on the awards this is how I would have gone:
uz stiliaus grynuma - Would have been a hard choice for me, but it would have either gone to Osvaldas Balakauskas for his Mozaika a truly wonderful piece for accordion, and further proof his Dodecatonality is both expansive and brilliant. Alternatively I would have chosen Ramunas Motiekaitis's Sonatina his beautifully unassuming music is by far one of the most original voices Lithuania has ever produced. 

uz ambicinga ideja - Without a doubt has to go to Juste Janulyte for her piece Radiance. I am rarely dumbfounded by a piece and Radiance blew me out of the water. Truly remarkable. 

uz orkestro vaizdinguma - Now there are two possible winners in my book, if I went for skill of orchestration and elegance of the craft, Marius Baranauskas's Palaiminimai is an outright winner. He is a skilled craftsman and even though it wasn't my favourite work by him its purity of craft must be commended. Alternatively if I went just for skill with colour and sheer inventiveness, the prize would have to go to Zibuokle Martynaityte's Ramybes Diptikai. This elegant work for violin and electronics is beautiful, striking and the interaction between the two is modestly remarkable. 

I won't offer my alternative for the jaunojo kompozitoriaus prize as I don't know the full extent of their process. 

I am intrigued by other people's views of the awards, as an outside looking in I wonder if it is just my opinion of the world of if others share my thoughts. Anyways can't ponder too much about the past. Got more fun things to discuss in the near future, like Druskomanija 2016 and a CD I have been meaning to review for a while now!

GAIDA Festival: Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra

The festival has been going a mile a minute over the weekend, with two concerts every night. Due to a combination of sleep deprivation and choice of repertoire I have avoided writing a blog till today. The repertoire choices have been stunning, but it has mostly consisted of French, Italian, and American music. Ultimately I don't want this blog to sound like 'Lithuania is great, they play Italian music'.

But to fly through those concerts, firstly was Ensemble 2E2M with a concert of Francesco Filidei, Michael Levinas, and Philippe Hurel. The pieces were very strong throughout, getting the chance to hear Levinas's music live is a wonderful experience, the powerful gestures combined with some wackier techniques makes for a wonderful performance. Philippe Hurel's Pour Luigi is a fun piece, but loses the drive quite quickly. Which is a shame because when he is good its wonderful, his work Flashback is just a wonder to behold. Francesco Filidei once again was the star of the concert, I was particularly touched by his Finito Ogni Gesto the combination of musical colour and  descent was simple but powerfully refined.

From there came Repertorio Zero from Italy, their concert was just powerful, and the 15 year old inside me was jumping for joy throughout. What made their concert quite so affecting was the process in how they performed it. They almost completely did a way with the 'classical' model, and just played a set, which was juxtaposed with electronic interludes while the musicians prepared for the next piece. Fausto Romitelli's Professor Bad Trip, is just a remarkable experience. The shifts into distortion which then subside into wonderful clarity was just astounding. The other highlight in the concert was Riccardo Nova's Yage Howl which the composer dedicated to Fausto Romitelli. The complex tunings and colours was just mystifying.

The next major highlight for me was last night's performance by the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra. The concert consisted of four works for the orchestra, Kaija Saariaho's Nymphea reflection, David Lang's Pierced for cello, piano, percussion, and strings, Ricardas Kabelis Bloe LT, and Egidija Medeksaite's Akasha. The two works by Lithuanian composers were world premieres.

The concert started with Egidija Medeksaite's Akasha. The work is inspired by Swami Vivekananda's books Raja-Yoga and Patanjali's Yoga Aphorisms. In short, Akasha is one of the two materials that creates the whole universe, it is the essence which brings form, everything then comes from Akasha and returns to Akasha. The work started with faint whispers while the string bowed their tail pieces. Slowly from the whispers pitches began to appear, and from there a richer sound grew which then fluctuated to bigger gestures. Structurally the piece worked, and the extended techniques fitted, but where was the essence that made Egidija Medeksaite sound like Egidija Medeskaite? All the gestures have been used in many other circumstances including Helmut Lachenmann's Tocattina for solo violin, Kaija Saariaho's Nymphea, and to a lesser extent Ligeti's Lontano. Listening to Akasha I couldn't escape the similarities these bigger figures. Beyond that, there was a lot of naivety in the work, gestures felt predictable and harmonies were rich but harmonies that have been heard before. As she continues to develop and mature Egidija Medeksaite has the potential to become a very potent composer. But, particularly when a composer is attempting to delve into new territories, a composer needs to know everything around them. Without that, she runs the risk of constantly sounding like a pale comparison.

The next piece in the concert was David Lang's Pierced. A work for solo cello, solo piano, solo percussion, and strings. The piece was typical David Lang, lots of pulsing rhythms, repetitive rhythms, and energetic. But particularly when the bass drum gesture entered, the piece was far to predictable, and ultimately dull. Which is a real shame, because the standard of the orchestra was remarkable, especially when you consider the fact they weren't conducted at all.

The third piece by Ricardas Kabelis is an enigma. Bole LT is on the verge of genius and utter insanity. First it starts, a huge cluster from the electronics and the strings. The room was dark and the strings kept on bowing, always bowing. And watching the screen, always watching the screen. The sensation was like watching an orchestra from an Orwellian nightmare. The blinking screen, the dimmed lights, the constant droning on, was like a scene from 1984. Then after what felt like an eternity came an insane man's epiphany, this chaotic and dystopian meditation came Bolero. The strings kept up their march, Bolero kept playing. Then the work ended. After all that, and even now, I don't know what I think of the piece. The sheer mechanics of the piece were unrelenting and never ending. As in I keep finding in David Lang's music, the repetition is what kills it. But some how Ricardas Kabelis, transcended this. I don't know if I like it, love it, or hate it. The one thing that I remind myself, is art is a way of affecting people. If this is the truth, Bole LT is one of the most solid pieces of art in a long time. I am still even now trying to work out this enigma, still trying to reach that same insane epiphany.

The concert concluded with Kaija Saariaho's Nymphea reflections. A truly beautiful work for string orchestra, born out of her work Nymphea for string quartet and electronics. The sheer elegance of gesture, combined with the brilliance of conception is a wonderful thing to witness. The way melodies float in the space, or the way an ensemble drags you into the chaos moves and affects you. What is also remarkable is this isn't Saariaho's strongest work, her musical power and prowess only grows when she tackles opera.

The Klaipedia Chamber Orchestra, in short were brilliant. What a wonderful debut performance at the festival. Their determination and sheer ability was half the reason the concert was such a profound success. They are an ensemble I hope to see again in the near future.

GAIDA is still moving on, tonight sees the Lithuanian Ensemble Network and the Ukrainian New Era Orchestra performing repertoire full of Lithuanian composers as well as giants like Xenakis. Another day another blog.