Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973)
Ex Tenebris Lux
Nunc Fluens, Nunc stans for percussion and string orchestra (2020)
Ex Tenebris Lux for string orchestra (2021)
Sielunmaisema for cello and string orchestra (2019)
Pavel Giunter (percussion)
Rokas Vaitkenicius (cello)
Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra/Giedrė Šlekytė
rec. 2021, Vilnius, Lithuania
ONDINE ODE1403-2 [75]
New York-resident Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė enters the lists with her second disc from Ondine. Her writing is luminous and not at all bold or ‘shouty’. The playing demands and receives quiet dedication.
Nunc Fluens, Nunc stans for percussion and string orchestra plays in a single unbroken span for just over a quarter of an hour. The music whispers, murmurs, buzzes, tolls and rings . The title is translated as “The now that passes creates time, the now that remains creates eternity”. It invites - positively compels - concentration and is very quietly spoken. If you are looking for parallels then reach for Pärt, Kancheli, Urmis Sisask and some Hovhaness. The percussion complement includes vibraphone, crotales, gongs, bowed cymbal and one tubular bell.
Ex Tenebris Lux for string orchestra is for eighteen instruments. This is another single-movement work stripped down to what feels like a spiritual quintessence. Although lower key, there is dramatic substance in the merest dynamic shifts and changes of texture here and woody impacts wrought from striking the bridge of the instruments. It is quite Sibelian as if inspired by the quieter sections of the Finn’s Fourth Symphony, Bard and Luonnotar. The music fits well with the title of “From Darkness comes Light” and does so with a quiet but noticeable increase in buzzing tension and self-effacing lyrical gestures. At times it is movingly reminiscent of Tippett in his Corelli piece for strings but much less complex.
Sielunmaisema (“Soul landscape” in Finnish) for a string orchestra and a very tactful cello is in four movements: ‘Winter’, ‘Spring’, ‘’Summer’, ‘Autumn’. Although in four bands - one per season - this 35-minute sequence moves without seam or pause and almost imperceptibly from one season to the next. ‘Winter’ buzzes without even the suggestion of human presence. The cello takes a very low-key role, at times almost moaning - no grandstanding here. ‘Spring’ unsurprisingly resorts to marginally warmer tropes and to slightly elevated dynamic levels. ‘Summer’ has a noticeable ‘undertow’ although this is not a matter of drama but a gentle libation of warmth. ‘Autumn’ hums and muses, but that is all that this composer requires to suggest the onward progress to a new season.
The CD’s extensive notes are in English only and are by Frank J Oteri. Hubert Culot reviewed this composer’s Saudade disc, also on Ondine, last year.
Rob Barnett
Previous review: David McDade
