Balakauskas: Requiem In Memoriam Stasys Lozoraitis

Vilnius Christopher Co:Katkus

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Cat No: 8557604

Release Date: 01 November 2004

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313260423

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: BALAKAUSKAS

Description
Osvaldas Balakauskas (b. 1937)Requiem in memoriam Stasys Lozoraitis (1995)The music of Osvaldas Balakauskas is, above all,associated with clarity of style and form. Nearly everyone of his compositions bears witness to the composer'scommitment to pure form and the innovativedevelopment of tradition, as does his system ofcomposition, Dodekatonika, which gives his music itsunique harmonic flavour, and is frequently described asBalakauskas's tonality.As one of the unmistakable leaders of the modernschool of Lithuanian composition, and, in an officialcapacity, as head of the Composition Department at theLithuanian Academy of Music, Osvaldas Balakauskas,when necessary, has not shunned a public r??le. He wasa council member with the Sajūdis movement from 1988to 1992, and Lithuanian ambassador to France, Spainand Portugal (residing in Paris) from 1992 to 1994. Forhis contribution to Lithuanian culture, he was grantedthe National Award in 1996, and the Third Order ofGrand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania in 1998.Balakauskas's music has aroused interest not only inLithuania. Initially it was heard within the context of theSoviet Union and Eastern Bloc environment, and hisworks were performed at the Moscow Stars Festival, theKrzysztof Penderecki Festival in Lusl??awice, WarsawAutumn, Prague Spring, Berliner Festwochen, ZagrebBiennale, and elsewhere. Later, with a liberalisation ofthe political situation, Osvaldas Balakauskas's musicbegan to make its way into a broader milieu, including,among others, the Helsinki Festival, HuddersfieldContemporary Music Festival, Schleswig-HolsteinFestival, New Haven Arts and Ideas, Europa Musicale,Vale of Glamorgan Festival, and MaerzMusik, amongothers. His artistic career was typical for a composer ofhis generation. It began, during the Khruschev \thaw inthe early 1960s, with a marked interest in the avantgarde,even though under the Soviet system such interestin innovations from the West was seen as beingsomewhat dissident. Later, in consideration for thecommunicative aspects of his music, Balakauskasreturned to traditions which the avant-gardeendeavoured to deny. It would, however, be incorrect tocall Osvaldas Balakauskas's work post-modernist.Essentially he remained true to the ideas of modernism,focusing on aspects such as coherence of form, integrityof structural parameters, and a distinctive system ofpitch and modal organization. Totally foreign toBalakauskas is the post-modernist concept thateverything in music has been already created, that whatremains is simply re-creation. In his works anyrecognisable musical elements, jazz, classical cadencesor medieval organum, become an integral part of thecomposer's own unique style.Osvaldas Balakauskas is not a typical Lithuaniancomposer, in the sense that his musical origins are notconnected with the Lithuanian traditional compositionschool, one of whose basic tenets is founded on folkmusicprinciples. In this aspect his work has always beenparticularly European, and he has b
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