Vladas Jakubėnas: Chamber and Instrumental Music
As composer, critic, teacher and musical activist, Vladas Jakubėnas (1904–76) was one of the major cultural figures in pre-World War Two Lithuania, before his post-War exile in the USA. As a student of Schreker in Berlin in 1928–32, he initially wrote in a Neoclassical style – as most of the works on this CD attest – and was nicknamed 'the Lithuanian Hindemith’. Back home, he began to compose in a late-Romantic, gently modernist idiom, tinged with the influence of Lithuanian folk-music.
Vilnius String Quartet, string quartet
Kasparas Uinskas, piano
Rusnė Mataitytė, violin
Edmundas Kulikauskas, cello
Albina Šikšniūtė, piano
St Christopher Chamber Orchestra, chamber orchestra
Donatas Katkus, conductor
Listen To This Recording:
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String Quartet, Op. 4
- I. Allegro
- II. Adagio non troppo. Allegretto scherzando. Andante mosso. Adagio
- No. 1 ‘From the Land of Fairytales’
- No. 2 ‘Legend’
- Melody-Legend for violin and piano
- Serenade for cello and piano
- Prelude
- Fugue
Two Pictures, Op. 2, for piano
Prelude and Triple Fugue in D minor for string orchestra
Luke Pratt :
Beautiful music, well performed and recorded. I very much look forward to the upcoming release of Jakubenas choral works.
MusicWeb International :
…the music proves to be so good that it is regrettable that so many music-lovers from the past never had the chance of hearing it. […]
It is fortunate that record companies such as Toccata exist that they are ready to make available music of real quality that we would very likely never get to hear otherwise. They deserve recognition for it as well as every success in their endeavours.
The playing by everyone here is uniformly excellent and among other things it has made me want to seek out anything played by the Kaskados Piano Trio, each member playing here though not as a trio. […]
This is a disc to savour. It will repay close listening with a richly rewarding experience.’
—Steve Arloff, MusicWeb International
International Record Review :
‘I’m astonished by Toccata Classics and its capacity for uncovering worthwhile but little-known music. […]
The Vilnius String Quartet plays it compellingly, […]
The St Christopher Chamber Orchestra, […] plays it expressively.
I think this CD will be a happy surprise for almost any listener who gives it a chance.’
—Raymond S. Tuttle, International Record Review January/February 2013