Donatas Katkus
Donatas Katkus (b.1942) is a famous Lithuanian violist, conductor, teacher, musicologist and a prominent personality in Lithuanian culture and art. In 1965 he graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire (where he studied violin with Prof. J. Fledžinskas); in 1971 he was awarded PhD(Mus) at P. Tschaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow (quartet class with Prof. A. Grigorian and V. Gvozdecki). In 1964 – 1969 he was the Head of the Orchestra Department at Ten-Grade Balys Dvarionas Music School, was a member of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, later of the Composers’ Union Chamber Orchestra. Since 1968, he has been teaching at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre; Professor since 1995.
In 1965 Donatas Katkus organized the Vilnius Quartet and played with it until 1994. In 1969 (together with the Vilnius Quartet) and in 1971 he attended courses in Budapest held by A. Mihály. Together with the quartet he toured Europe, Africa, America and Asia, participated in international music festivals. In 1972 he won the First Prize at the Competition for String Quartets in Liége (Belgium). Donatas Katkus has performed as a soloist, edited and was the first to perform many opuses by Lithuanian composers for viola, string quartet or chamber quartet, among them compositions by O. Balakauskas, F. Bajoras, A. Rekašius, J. Širvinskas, B.Kutavičius, B. Borisovas and A. Šenderovas. Lithuanian composers have dedicated their opuses to D. Katkus (O. Balakauskas’s sonata Do nata for viola solo, 1982).
In 1995 – 1999 Donatas Katkus held summer master classes in Germany (Pomersfelden), later Finland and Spain. In 1994 he founded the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius Municipality, which he still leads. Since 1996 he has been constantly touring abroad with this orchestra (Estonia, Finland, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain).
In 1995 Donatas Katkus started organizing the now traditional St. Christopher Summer Festival and is the art director of this event.
D. Katkus has recorded his unusually large and varied repertoire in 30 records and CDs together with the Vilnius Quartet, and around 20 CDs together with St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra.
Donatas Katkus is always bursting with new ideas; his activities cover various domains of culture: he has written around 300 articles on the aesthetics of music, interpretation theory, semiotics of music, the monograph Lithuanian Quartet (1971), scripts for musicals such as Vilnius Quartet (1982) and Violinist (1984, about R. Katilius); he has also starred in films, given lectures in Lithuania and abroad, participated in international conferences on aesthetics and musicology in Finland, Russia, Estonia, Germany and Poland; he has organized soirees-concerts of contemporary music.
Donatas Katkus is a member of the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (since 1996), president of the Lithuanian – Irish Society (since1998), vice president of SOS Kindersdorf, Lithuanian Society (since 1999), Representative of Lithuania in Television without Frontiers, a EU committee in Strasbourg (since 2001). He is also one of few performers –
A member of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union.
For his commitment to Lithuanian culture Donatas Katkus was twice honoured with the National Prize of the Republic of Lithuania: in 1979 (as a member of the Vilnius Quartet) and in 2001.
Lithuanian Composers
Feliksas Bajoras
The Path of the Sun
Under This Roof (2005)
Osvaldas Balakauskas
Polilogas
Concerto Brio for violin and chamber orchestra (1999)
Concerto for Oboe, Harpsichord and Strings (1981)
Ludus modorum for cello and chamber orchestra (1972)
Concertino for Piano and Strings (1966, rev. 1994)
Requiem in memoriam Stasys Lozoraitis
Vidmantas Bartulis
I like Schubert (1998)
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis
String Quartet in C minor
Vladas Jakubėnas
Prelude and Triple Fugue
Antanas Jasenka
"Confido" for Strings
Jurgis Juozapaitis
"Perpetuum mobile" for Strings
"Kaleidofonija" for Strings
Vytautas Juozapaitis
Concerto for String Orchestra
Vytautas Jurgutis
"Semjaze" for Strings
Julius Juzeliūnas
Poem-Concerto (1961)
Concerto for organ, violin and chamber orchestra
Songs of Plains, symphony No.5
Jeronimas Kačinskas
Nonet
R. Kisevicius
Elements for Oboe and String Orchestra
Bronius Kutavičius
Far Away, till Midnight
On the Shore (1973)
Vytautas Laurušas
Sinfony X (2009)
Spring Sonata for flute and string orchestra (2011)
Five Sonnets (2012) for soprano and string orchestra
Teisutis Makačinas
Pacem relinquo vobis (1998)
Arvydas Malcys
Vox clamantis in deserto (1995)
A Moment in Eternity (2000)
Cleaved Silence (2004)
Concerto for piano (2005)
Algirdas Martinaitis
Artizarra (2001)
Concerto for violin and viola
Onutė Narbutaitė
Sinfonia col triangolo (1996)
Gesang
Opus lugubre
Metabole (1992)
Poem of Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas
Epitaph, text by Rainer Maria Rilke (1993)
Eglė Sausanavičiūtė
Somnium Symphony
Anatolijus Šenderovas
"Major-Minor" for Violine, Viola, Piano and Strings
Raminta Šerkšnytė
De profundis (1998)
Jonas Tamulionis
Toccata Diavolesca
Oratorios Cantatas Mass
Johann Sebastian Bach
Cantatas: Ich habe genug, BWV 82; Aus der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu Dir, BWV 131
Joseph Haydn
Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, in B flat major, for soprano, mezzosoprano, choir and chamber orchestra
Works for piano and orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for piano and orchestra in D minor, BWV 1052
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto in C minor No. 3, op. 37
Joseph Haydn
Concerto for piano and orchestra in D major, Hob.XVIII, No. 11
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for piano and orchestra Nro23 in A major, KV 488
Concerto for piano and orchestra No.9 in E flat major, KV 271
Concerto for piano and orchestra No.20 in D minor, K.466
Concerto for piano and orchestra No.24 in C minor, KV 491
Dmitri Shostakovich
Quintet for piano & strings in G minor, Op. 57
Works for Cello and Orchestra
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Concerto for cello in A minor
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for cello and orchestra in a minor
Luigi Boccherini
Concerto for cello and orchestra in G major, G. 480
Concerto for cello and orchestra in D major, G. 479
Joseph Haydn
Concerto for cello and orchestra in D major
Works for Violin and Orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for cello and orchestra in D major Violin Concertos: Nr.1 a-moll, BWV 1041; Nr.2 E-dur, BWV 1042
Max Bruch
Concerto for violin and orchestra in D minor, op. 44
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for violin and orchestra No.3 in G major, K. 216
Concerto for violin and orchestra No.5 in A major, K. 219
Concertos for Wind Instrument
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Concerto for flute and orchestra in D minor
Johann Sebastian Bach
Overture for flute and orchestra No.2
Anastasius Grün
Concerto for trumpet and orchestra
Lars-Erik Larsson
Concerto for flute and orchestra No. 1
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for clarinet and orchestra in A major, KV 622
Concerto for flute and orchestra No.1 in G major, K.313
Carl Stamitz
Concerto for flute and orchestra in G major
Concerto for flute and orchestra in D major
Johann Stamitz
Concerto for flute and orchestra in C major
Concerto for flute and orchestra
Yuko Uebayashi
Concerto for flute and string orchestra
Concertos for Viola
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Concerto for viola and orchestra
Johann Christian Bach
Concerto for viola and orchestra
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for viola and orchestra, BWV 169
Concerto for viola and orchestra, in E flat major
Max Bruch
Romance, for viola & orchestra in F major, Op. 85
Paul Hindemith
Trauermusik for viola and orchestra
Concertos
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Concerto for flute, harpsichord, cello and orchestra in A minor
Concerto for flute, harpsichord, cello and orchestra in A major
Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto for two violin and orchestra in D minor, BWV 1043
Ludwig van Beethoven
Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 3 in C minor, op. 37
Max Bruch
Concerto for viola, clarinet and orchestra, in E minor, op.88
Mauro Giuliani
Concerto for guitar and orchestra op. 30
Felix Mendelssohn
Concerto for two violin, piano and orchestra in D minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for flute, harp and orchestra in C major, KV 299
Tomaso Albinoni
Concerti a cinque op.5, No1, No.3
Concerto grosso op.9
Elias Parish Alvars
Concertino for harp and strings, op. 34
Tomaso Albinoni
Symphony in G major
Johann Sebastian Bach
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, in G major, BWV 1049
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, in D major, BWV 1050
Brandenburg Concerto No.3, BWV 1048
Orchestral suites: Nr.1, BWV 1066; Nr.2, BWV 1067
Johann Sebastian Bach
Symphony in F major
Samuel Barber
Adagio for strings (or string quartet; arr. from 2nd mvt. of String Quartet), Op. 11
Bela Bartok
Divertimento for string
Luigi Boccherini
Symphony in D major, op. 42, G.520
Alexander Borodin
Sextet in D minor
Johannes Brahms
Sextet in G major
Benjamin Britten
Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge, for strings, Op. 10
Max Bruch
Adagio appassionato, op. 57
Serenade
Arcangelo Corelli
Concerti grossi (12) op. 6
David Diamond
Rounds for string orchestra
Antonin Dvorak
Serenade for string orchestra in E major, op.22
Edward Elgar
Serenade for string orchestra in E minor, op. 20
Torbjorn Engström
Rispolska
François-Joseph Gossec
Symphony No. 6, op. 6
Edvard Grieg
String Quartet in G minor No. 1
George Frideric Händel
Concerti grossi No. 2, 6; op.6
Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 6 in D major, (Le matin)
Symphony N. 7 in C major (Le midi)
Symphony No. 11 in E flat major
Symphony No. 55 in E flat major (The School-master)
Divertimento in E flat major, H. 2/12
Hans Werner Henze
I Sentimenti di Carl Philipp Emenuel Bach
Paul Hindemith
Five pieces for string orchestra, op.44
Kammermusic
Arthur Honegger
Prélude, Arioso and Fughette sur le nom de Bach
Alan Hovhaness
Alleluia and Fugue, op.40b
Charles Ives
The Unanswered Question (I & II), S. 50
André Jolivet
Andante for string orchestra
P. J. Korn
Five pieces for string orchestra, op.46
Witold Lutoslawski
Prelude and fugue for 13 strings
Muzyka żałobna (Musique funèbre)
Henry Mancini
Remington Steel
Felix Mendelssohn
Sinfonia No.9, in C major
Sinfonia No.10, in B flat minor
Sinfonia No.11, in F major
Sinfonia No.12, in G minor
Sinfonia No.13, in G minor
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto for Piano No. 3 in D major, KV 40
Divertimento for string orchestra in F major ("Salzburg Symphony No. 3"), K. 138 (K. 125c)
Symphony No.29 A-dur, K.201
Symphony No.33 B-dur , K. 319
Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra in E flat major, K. 364
Carl Nielsen
Little Suite, for string orchestra in A minor, FS 6 (Op. 1)
Pehr Henrik Nordgren
Symphony for Strings, op.43
George Shearing
Lullaby of birtland
Dmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 14, op. 135 in G minor
Carl Stamitz
Quartet for orchestra
Marcel Tournier
Feerie Prelude et Danse for harp and strings
Stevie Wonder
Sir Duke
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra and Donatas Katkus
A. Huber Concertino
St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra (Vilnius, Lithuania), conductor Donatas Katkus
The choral and orchestral forces under the direction of Donatas Katkus sound spellbound, and are spellbinding in return.
Jerry Dubins, FANFARE
