Baltic Soundscapes [CD]

The album features ten works by Ciurlionis, arranged for cello and piano by Lithuanian cellist Juozas Celkauskas. These arrangements open a new window for experiencing the piano works of Ciurlionis as chamber music, while his pictorially enhanced musical vision remains intact. In addition to the pieces by Ciurlionis, the album introduces three contemporary opuses composed especially for this project by Lithuanian composer Zibuokle Martinaityte, Latvian composer Arturs Maskats and Estonian composer Mihkel Kerem. Each of them, drawing personal inspiration from Ciurlionis, not only wrote a new composition for cello and piano, but also dedicated their creative efforts to the Ciurlionis' anniversary and this duo of performers, thus making this album not only a retrospective, but also a lively, creative dialogue between eras, cultures and personalities. This album is not merely a musical recording. It is a return to the source for the journey, during which the four bars of an unfinished work are transformed into a newly born world.