{"id":8353,"date":"2022-04-20T18:01:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T15:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/?p=8353"},"modified":"2022-04-21T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T08:03:17","slug":"kerem-and-zubovas-premiere-ciurlionis-without-saying-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/kerem-and-zubovas-premiere-ciurlionis-without-saying-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"Kerem and Z\u016bbovas premiere \u010ciurlionis\u2019 \u2018Without Saying Goodbye\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

VILNIUS, December 8th<\/sup> \u2014 This Wednesday, Estonian composer and violinist Mihkel Kerem and Lithuanian pianist Rokas Zubovas organised an important concert at the Vilnius Town Hall in occasion of the Vilnius 700 project, a long-term project to celebrate the 700th<\/sup> anniversary of Vilnius which will take place in 2023. The concert brought together around 150 people at Vilniaus Rotu\u0161\u0117.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rokas Zubovas and Mihkel Kerem<\/p><\/div>\n

After playing pieces from well-known composers from the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> century, such as B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k, Heino Eller, Leo\u0161 Jan\u00e1\u010dek and Jean Sibelius, the two musicians played the composition \u2018Without Saying Goodbye\u2019 (\u201eNeatsisveikin\u0119s\u201c in Lithuanian) that Mihkel Kerem, who has already composed over 160 pieces, created over lost musical sketches of the famed Lithuanian composer Mikalojus Konstantinas \u010ciurlionis who died in 1911.<\/p>\n

The musician and painter M.K. \u010ciurlionis<\/strong><\/a> has been an important symbol of Lithuanian music and art, having participated in organising the first Exhibition of Lithuanian Art of 1907, among other events. He was also one of the 19 founders of the Lithuanian Art Society. Nowadays, \u010ciurlionis is regarded as a national artist and is a symbolic figure of Lithuanian art.<\/p>\n

In a small side room of Vilnius Town Hall (Vilniaus Rotu\u0161\u0117), Kerem and Zubovas get ready for their concert and discuss the event\u2019s meaning.<\/p>\n

Why was Vilniaus Rotu\u0161\u0117 chosen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indeed, the Town Hall was first mentioned in 1432; since then, it was rebuilt many times. The current building dates back to 1799. Today, it\u2019s a representative monument of Lithuania, which is often visited by foreign officials, such as George W. Bush or Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re back in this center where so much of history of Vilnius and Lithuania has happened and keeps happening,\u201d added Kerem.<\/p>\n

An exceptional concert<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is quite a special concert because we also play other nationalist composers.  All of them were trying to create their own unique musical language based on very specific national idioms, nature and dances. The whole program is, in a way, a map of Europe in the early 20th<\/sup>century,\u201d remarked Rokas Zubovas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The two musicians played various music from Hungary, Estonia, Czech Republic and Finland, covering most of Eastern Europe from the North to the South.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only in their own language, with Czech music of course there was a huge musical culture before. But let\u2019s look at Lithuania, Estonia or Finland as well; we didn\u2019t have any musical culture \u2014 it was a national awakening,\u201d continued Mihkel Kerem.<\/p>\n

After so many years, the legacy persists<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exceptional in a sense that still, after more than 110 years after \u010ciurlionis died, there is still new material that surfaces and new music compositions that are written on-top of it,\u201d pondered Zubovas, the great-grandson of M.K. \u010ciurlionis. The pianist is very active in making a name for his great-grandfather.<\/p>\n

\u010ciurlionis died on the 10th<\/sup> of April 1911 of pneumonia, at the age of 35 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 15 years ago, a manuscript of \u010ciurlionis\u2019 \u201cSonata for violin\u201d was uncovered among papers of his younger sister Jadvyga \u010ciurlionyt\u0117. These sketches of \u010ciurlionis\u2019 work were just sitting, waiting for someone to touch them. I then suggested to Mihkel to look at them because he was both a violinist and composer. So, I thought that maybe these sketches should be looked at by a composer who\u2019s also a violinist,\u201d explained Zubovas.<\/p>\n

\u2018Without Saying Goodbye\u2019: a complicated piece to rebuild<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe sketches are very sparse and clearly were being written as a piece. It feels like he had written a lot of it and that quite a large chunk of it was missing\u2026 such as the beginning. There is no kind of basic material to really complete the piece, and I had to do something else with it, to mature this wonderful music, so it could come out somehow,\u201d the Estonian composer described \u2018Without Saying Goodbye\u2019.<\/p>\n

Since 2012, this project was on the back of Mihkel Kerem\u2019s mind, having met and played with Rokas Zubovas at a concert in Estonia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this work that I created, I made it into like a little \u2018pedestal\u2019 to bring these bits of genius out from the page. Because to play them as they are there really feels like you\u2019re playing the composer\u2019s rough thoughts and can\u2019t present it like this. Some of it is great, some of it is really complete and\u2026 a lot of it is just two notes, four chords, something messed up, something missing. But I used all of it, and so I wrote kind of my own piece around it as like a cushion to support his work,\u201d clarified Mihkel Kerem.<\/p>\n

A piece with historical value<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHere we\u2019re talking about something that was written in the late 19th<\/sup> century: approximately around 1897-1898, nobody knows exactly, because small sketches are all we have. Which historically would make it the very first Lithuanian chamber-sonata,\u201d explained the Lithuanian pianist.<\/p>\n

Historically, the first Lithuanian chamber-sonata, a musical composition usually comprised of four movements and is commonly played at secular events, was composed by Juozas Gruodis with his \u2018Sonata for violin and piano in D minor\u2019 written in 1922. If completed 25 years earlier, this piece made by \u010ciurlionis, would have been the first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose that makes \u010ciurlionis very special, a piece that- if it would have been completed -would have been the first, is premiered 125 years later,\u201d concluded Kerem.<\/p>\n

\u2018Without Saying Goodbye\u2019 \u2014 living beyond the grave as an artist<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine this as a link between his youth because the piece was written when he was very young. But also it is the very end of his life, because it feels that there are bits that you just remember from his earlier life; it\u2019s still a very tragic way he died, it\u2019s a problematic thing isn\u2019t it? So it represents his life that was cut short and also that he couldn\u2019t say \u2018goodbye\u2019 or even \u2018hello\u2019 to his little daughter that he never saw,\u201d said Kerem justifying the name of the piece.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, \u010ciurlionis never saw his daughter Danut\u0117, who was born on June 12th<\/sup>1910. At the time, he was held at the \u201cCzerwony Dw\u00f3r\u201d (Red Manor) hospital near Warsaw, where he caught a cold and died shortly after of pneumonia, on the April 10th<\/sup> 1911.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople or composers and artists like \u010ciurlionis really don\u2019t plan to die, and leave quite a lot to finish for the future generations. So, it is as if they\u2019re never saying \u2018goodbye\u2019. You\u2019re still finding things as if he just left the room and came back. His musical list of compositions becomes fuller and fuller even though he\u2019s been dead for more than a hundred years,\u201d wrapped up Rokas Zubovas.<\/p>\n

\u2014for The Lithuania Tribune<\/a> by Lukas BARBIER<\/strong> <\/b><\/span>(www.lukasbarbier.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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VILNIUS, December 8th \u2014 This Wednesday, Estonian composer and violinist Mihkel Kerem and Lithuanian pianist Rokas Zubovas organised an important concert at the Vilnius Town Hall in occasion of the Vilnius 700 project, a long-term project to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Vilnius which will take place in 2023. The concert brought together around 150 people at Vilniaus Rotu\u0161\u0117. After playing pieces Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","cat-447-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8353"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8990,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8353\/revisions\/8990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkcnamai.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}