OUT OF
ČIURLIONIS

CHORDOS String Quartet
Antanas Jasenka, Antanas Kučinskas ( laptops)
Džiugas Katinas (live video projection)

The programme “Out of Čiurlionis” creates a space between epochs, where Čiurlionis’s String Quartet in C minor radiates like a distant star, shining with the light of Lithuanian Romanticism – an image of a lost, gentle and intimate world, re-read from today’s perspective: through the languages of electronics, unconventional performance techniques and live visuals.

Alongside the original work, Antanas Jasenka’s and Antanas Kučinskas’s composition “Out of Čiurlionis” forms a prism of our own time, through which the rays of Čiurlionis’s music reach us from afar – like starlight, transformed beyond recognition, becoming an entirely new work. In this confrontation of different temporal expressions, Čiurlionis’s quartet, without altering its score, opens other dimensions and reflects how our relationship with sound, form and aesthetics has changed over the past century.

Let us quietly dream: what if Čiurlionis suddenly found himself here today – among sound effects, code and streams of images – and how might his thought unfold through the means of our time, in the soundscapes of today.

Concert Program

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis

String quartet in C minor

(1901)

String Quartet in C minor retains a restrained, rather traditional form. Its music is graceful, touched by a romantic impulse, and breathes with the longing of memories of Lithuania.
Vytautas Landsbergis

Antanas Jasenka, Antanas Kučinskas

Out of Čiurlionis

(2007)

For string quartet, two laptops and live video projection.

The electroacoustic composition, created in 2007 as the collective result of two composers, is essentially a computer-interpreted score of Čiurlionis’s quartet – rendered as a set of digital commands, converted and inscribed in signs “invented” by the computer itself. The work becomes unrecognisable: alongside live sounds produced through various unconventional playing techniques and a pre-recorded soundtrack, the soundscape is expanded, enriched, and continuously transformed by two laptops operated by the composers. The piece intrigues with its interactive dialogue between the quartet and electronics, a play of sounds, gestures, and emergent harmonies. The real-time video projections of Džiugas Katinas complement this dialogue.
Antanas Jasenka / Antanas Kučinskas

Performers

Chordos String Quartet

Ieva Sipaitytė – violin I
Vaida Paukštienė – violin II
Robertas Bliškevičius – viola
Viktor Rekalo – violoncello

Founded in 1997, the Chordos String Quartet has remained true to its core artistic mission: to champion and disseminate the latest works by Lithuanian composers both at home and abroad, while also introducing Lithuanian audiences to outstanding new music from around the world. From their very first concerts, the ensemble impressed as a group of talented young musicians, and within just a few years, they were invited to perform at all of Lithuania’s major festivals. Since then, Chordos has appeared regularly on international stages and, over a quarter of a century, has given more than 400 concerts. In 2001, filmmaker Edmundas Zubavičius created a documentary about the ensemble titled Fuga plenere (Fugue en plein air). In 2024, the quartet was awarded the Lithuanian Government’s Prize for Culture and Art.

The ensemble actively engages in creative collaborations with artists and groups from across artistic disciplines, working with Lithuanian and international stars such as cellists David Geringas (DE–LT) and Anton Lukoszevieze (UK–LT), trombonist Mike Svoboda (DE–US), pianist Indrė Baikštytė, saxophonist Liudas Mockūnas, the UK-based ensemble Apartment House, the choir Jauna Muzika, the Copenhagen Dance Theatre, interdisciplinary artist Dovydas Kolomyckis, among others. Chordos has frequently been entrusted with representing Lithuania abroad and has been invited to perform at events of great national and symbolic significance. Beyond the stage, the quartet is also highly active in the studio, having released more than ten albums dedicated to Lithuanian contemporary music.