Osvaldas Balakauskas (b. 1937)
Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5
Osvaldas Balakauskas, one of the leading Lithuanian
composers, graduated from the Vilnius Pedagogical
Institute in 1961, and from Boris Lyatoshinsky’s
composition class at the Kiev Conservatory in 1969.
From 1992 to 1994 he was ambassador of Lithuania, the
first after fifty years of foreign rule, to France, Spain,
and Portugal. In 1996 Balakauskas was honoured with
the Lithuanian National Award, the highest artistic and
cultural distinction in Lithuania. He is head of the
Composition Department of the Lithuanian Academy of
Music and Theatre.
Balakauskas is one of the very few Lithuanian
composers who have developed their own unique and
precise compositional system. The composer named his
technique “dodecatonic”: it can be defined as the
formation and elaboration of new tonal connection
within strict serial structures, along with no less strictly
calculated rhythm progressions. Nevertheless,
Balakauskas is always able to infuse a certain
recognizable stylistic flavour into his mathematically
built constructions, which could sound as similar to neoromantic
or impressionist music, as to jazz. The synergy
of intellect and elegance is what distinguishes his work,
as well as steadfast adherence to his own rules of
composition, a virtue of being an enthusiastic modernist
in the times of ubiquitous post-modernism.
The large list of Balakauskas’ compositions is
dominated by instrumental genres, chamber ensembles,
symphonies, concertos. Symphonic works comprise one
of the most important parts of his output, and reveal the
composer as a master of instrumentation, skilfully
exposing and combining radiant colours of different
orchestral groups, emphasizing the individuality and
charm of sound of solo instruments. The highlights of
Balakauskas’s symphonic music include Sonata of the
Mountains, inspired by the art of Lithuania‘s greatest
classical composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas
Ciurlionis (1975); his quasi-minimalist Symphony No. 2,
brimming with vigorous rhythms and sparkling colours
(1979); Opera Strumentale (1987), an abstract
orchestral theatre, with evocative instrumental “arias”,
“duets” and “choruses”; also the Symphonies No. 4
(1998) and No. 5 (2001), included on this disc. The
latter two represent the new direction in Balakauskas’s
oeuvre; the turning-point was marked by his Requiem in
memoriam Stasys Lozoraitis, composed in 1995 [Naxos
8.557604].
Symphony No. 4 was written on the occasion of the
start of the new symphonic music season at the
Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall. The titles of its
three movements, Octa, Hendeca, Deca, correspond to
the composer’s invented scales of eight, eleven, and ten
tones respectively, which underlie the harmonic
material for each movement. It is in fact the harmonic
progressions determined by the use of specific scales
which often function as melodies or motifs in
Balakauskas’s music, underpinning the entire musical
fabric. As said before, this symphony reflects some
trends of the composer’s recent creative period, a
growing transparency of textures, a neo-classical
restraint of expression, a balance of form and emotion.
Within his system of scales, the composer now strives to
develop a euphonic, consonant sound, as if reverting to
the origins and traditions of European music, “to
something familiar and recognisable”. Among other
things, this work also displays discernible signs of jazz,
a flexible syncopated rhythm, flowing blues harmonies.
Various elements of early and modern music settle
smoothly into the homogenous and integral composer’s
musical vocabulary.
Linas Paulauskis
Symphony No. 5 was composed to a commission from
the Vilnius Festival. The structure of this fourmovement
cyclic work is not so typical of Balakauskas:
when listening to this music, it seems that the one and
the same “theme” is sounding throughout all
movements. A half-hour filled with rather intensive
music, it evokes a view of really giant painted canvases,
those which need dedicated buildings for their proper
exhibition. An allusion to painting is not coincidental
here: the music is indeed colourful and vital, like four
works of art on the same subject, painted in thick and
expressive strokes. Despite the energetic rhythms and
almost big-band-like outbursts at the culminating points
(as well as the absolutely unpredictable form of the
composition), all textures are minutely detailed.
The musical material follows its course upwards and
downwards persistently and consistently, somewhat
resembling the models of Hindu raga or Indonesian
gamelan. Such a type of structural enclosure seems
rather unexpected, but at the same time, it is probably
the most important factor in the originality of this
composition. This kind of structural organization was
always favoured by Balakauskas; on the other hand, a
shift to the “minor” end in the scale of his modal
vocabulary, and an increasing amount of dissonances in
the harmonic content, seems to predict new vistas in the
composer’s creative work.
Šarūnas Nakas