The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is coming to our country. On Monday 9 April, they will give a concert in TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, led by their young principal conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. They will play music by Wagner, Debussy and Beethoven, a fairly standard programme at first sight. But fortunately, Lithuanian Gražinytė-Tyla brings a piece by her compatriot Raminta Šerkšnytė. Who wrote Fires in 2010 as a prelude to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In this concert, too, these two works are juxtaposed.
Šerkšnytė was born in 1975 in Kaunas, a city over a hundred kilometres west of Vilnius, Lithuania's capital. From the age of seven, she played the piano and soon after started composing as well. She took composition lessons with the renowned Osvaldos Balakauskas at the Vilnius Music Academy. She then participated in master classes abroad with such diverse luminaries as Louis Andriessen, Magnus Lindberg and György Kurtág.
Post-romance
In 2005, Šerkšnytė scored highly at the Gaudeamus Music Week with her composition Vortex for violin and ensemble. In it, the material constantly spins around in a vicious circle, the 'vortex' from the title. With each 'spin', the whole becomes more dynamic and complicated. Later that year, she won UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers with this piece. She has since gained a permanent place in Lithuanian and international musical life.
Šerkšnytė's music taps into (post-)romanticism, but also incorporates elements of (post-)minimalism, jazz and avant-garde. From her very first pieces, she overwhelms audiences with her intense emotional expression; her work is highly passionate. She simultaneously has a great sense of form and instrumentation, pairing a complex web of rhythmic textures with colourful harmonies.
Vital energy
Her main sources of inspiration are the broad spectrum of psychological states of mind and musical archetypes. Her work ranges from calm and meditative to mysterious or nostalgic, but also features bursts of vital energy. Many of her compositions resemble painted musical landscapes. For instance, her grand orchestral work Aisbergas (Iceberg Symphony), with which she completed her master's degree in composition in 2000.
This work marked the start of a series of orchestral works inspired by natural phenomena and elemental forces. These include Mountains in the Mist (2005), Glow (2008) and the Britten's concert-performed Fires. In this two-part composition, Šerkšnytė has tried to depict different 'faces' of fire: from the detached perception of an approaching disaster to thundering explosions of compressed energy.
From ethereal tinkling to thundering roar
The first movement, 'Misterioso', opens with ethereal tinkling and long-held string and wind sounds. Gradually, bubbling motifs form, evoking images of an undercurrent flickering fire. The dynamics become more powerful and low instruments blend into the discourse, after which the fire erupts for the first time. Then apparent calm returns, but beneath the surface it continues to rumble, like a volcano about to erupt.
That explosion follows with thunderous roar in the second movement, 'Con brio'. This opens with fortissimi-played, repeating themes of brass and strings that are remotely reminiscent of the work of John Adams. The increasingly dense fabric of violently jumbled rhythms and lines generates increasing tension.
Descending melodies and ditto glissandi create the impression of falling beams and stones. Things finally collapse with a quote from the opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Šerkšnytė thus winks at her illustrious predecessor: she composed her piece for a Beethoven cycle of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Also at this concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra goes Fires preceding Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
More information and tickets via this link
During my introduction from 19:30-20:00, I hope to speak with conductor Gražinytė-Tyla
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