Algirdas Martinaitis: Seasons and Serenades - Works For String Orchestra - Ondine: ODE 1398-2 - CD or download

There’s all sorts going on in Martinaitis’s Three M‘art Comedy Seasons, including glimpses of tango to clever allusions to Vivaldi. His other works, however, show there’s more to the Lithuanian... — BBC Music Magazine, April 2022, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 7th Jan 2022
Catalogue No: ODE 1398-2
Label: Ondine
Length: 73 minutes

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Martinaitis: The 3 M'art Comedy Seasons

Work length21:59

$5.00

$6.00

$8.75

Rūta Lipinaitytė (violin)
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas

No. 1, Commedia dell'arte Seasons

Track length8:05

$2.00

$2.40

$3.50

No. 2, Ballet-Comedy Seasons

Track length6:41

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

No. 3, La caccia Comedy Seasons

Track length7:13

$2.00

$2.40

$3.50

Martinaitis: Artizarra

Work length5:07

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

Daumantas Slipkus (harpsichord)
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas

Martinaitis: Serenade for Mistress Europe

Work length18:31

$4.00

$4.80

$7.00

St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas

Martinaitis: Birds of Eden

Work length8:42

$2.00

$2.40

$3.50

Version for Orchestra
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas

Martinaitis: Valse triste

Work length6:25

$1.00

$1.20

$1.75

Asta Krikščiūnaitė (soprano)
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas

Martinaitis: Chant de la lointaine

Work length12:23

$3.00

$3.60

$5.25

Asta Krikščiūnaitė (soprano), Daumantas Slipkus (piano)
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra
Modestas Barkauskas

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This album presents works for string orchestra by Lithuanian composer Algirdas Martinaitis (b. 1950) from his early breakthrough work Birds of Eden (1981) to a recent Valse triste (2020), giving a very broad vision of this composer. This programme is performed by Lithuanian musicians of the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra conducted by Modestas Barkauskas and featuring violinist Rūta Lipinaitytė and soprano Asta Krikščiūnaitė. For keen fans of music within the Baltic states, Algirdas Martinaitis is quite known for his works dancing between a serene beauty and sincerity before collapsing into an almost sarcastic nihilism, a style which he describes as 'new animality'. Within this style, much like Henryk Górecki’s ‘circus pieces’, sarcasm, irony, and subversion of expectations become central to the music making. His early chamber works, including Birds of Eden, demonstrated his unique voice and saw him grouped with the neo-romantic movement within Lithuania. However, never wanting to be predictable or stuck in an idiom, he later shifted to a newer style. The Three M‘art Comedy Seasons for solo violin and strings makes numerous musical references, not least to the famous Four Seasons of Vivaldi. Artizarra for string orchestra and harpsichord has an energised and bouncy nature which is comparable to J. S. Bach’s concerti for multiple harpsichords or the latter movement of Górecki’s concerto for the instrument. The album also two recent songs to lyrics by Oscar (Vladislas de Lubicz) Milosz (1877–1939), the famous Lithuanian French-language poet.

Reviews

April 2022

There’s all sorts going on in Martinaitis’s Three M‘art Comedy Seasons, including glimpses of tango to clever allusions to Vivaldi. His other works, however, show there’s more to the Lithuanian than just a sense of ironic playfulness.

March 2022

Certainly, Asta Krikščiūnaitė’s singing has real eloquence, as does Lipinaitytė’s playing and that of the St Christopher Chamber Orchestra under Modestas Barkauskas. Vividly recorded, this release should come as an appealing surprise for many.

Algirdas Martinaitis: Seasons and Serenades - Works For String Orchestra

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