Sacrum Profanum is joining forces with one of the most fascinating Lithuanian ensembles!Contemporary Music Ensemble Synaesthesis takes the audience on a journey to a deserted city.The music by the Lithuanian minimalists encourages us to reflect on the ongoing crises and helps us find peace essential to overcome them.
The Lithuanian take on minimalism, familiar to Sacrum Profanum audiences, is especially austere, almost static and filled with repetition.It’s always characterised with a lucid structure.This important contemporary music genre, popularised in Lithuania in the 1970s, is undergoing something of a revival with the young generation of composers.Some of the most important musicians in the genre are Dominykas Digimas, Julius Aglinskas and Ramūnas Motiekaitis.
The latest instalment of the cycle Sacrum Profanum: Interactions introduces works by these artists.We will hear Contemporary Music Ensemble Synaesthesis from Vilnius, specialising in minimalist reductionism, melancholy and subtle changes.The talented musicians aim to blur the boundaries between artistic genres and categories and frame contemporary music in fascinating narratives.This approach has been applauded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, awarding them the Ensemble Prize as mark of quality and confirmation of top class performance.
We will hear compositions commissioned by Synaesthesis from three composers and inspired by walks in a city during lockdown, empty of the usual crowds.The outcome is Flaneur (one who saunters around) – a musical legacy of mental states and emotions accompanying the pandemic when everything had stopped and was out of balance. Solastalgia, penned by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, explores the emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change.The composition is rich and complex with sounds and textures.The poetic music by Diana Čemerytė demands our full attention and engagement.All the thoughtful, minimalist compositions encourage us to face up to our own disquiet.And while they cannot promise to eliminate its roots, they help us find peace of mind we need to face up to today’s world.
Programme:
Ramūnas Motiekaitis – 1997-ieji regi mane
Diana Čemerytė – “Meine Seele wartet…”, after listening to Bach
Julius Aglinskas – tylūs atspindžiai
Žibuoklė Martinaitytė – Solastalgia
Dominykas Digimas – sensescape
Performers
Contemporary Music Ensemble Synaesthesis:
Marta Finkelštein – piano
Vytenis Gurstis – flute
Artūras Kažimėkas – clarinet
Lora Kmieliauskaitė – violin
Monika Kiknadzė – viola
Arnas Kmieliauskas – cello
Donatas Butkevičius – double bass
Džiugas Daugirda – vibraphone
Karolis Variakojis – conductor
The concert is co-organised by the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków and the Contemporary Music Ensemble Synaesthesis, and co-financed by Vilnius 700 and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania.
