This album presents works for string orchestra by Lithuanian composer Algirdas Martinaitis (born 1950) from his early breakthrough work Birds of Eden (1981) to a recent Valse triste (2020), giving a very broad vision of this composer.
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 presents two recent songs to lyrics by Oscar (Vladislas de Lubicz) Milosz (1877-1939), a famous Lithuanian French-language poet. © Ondine