Ibelhauptas Piano Duo at the festival "Music of Changes"

Rūta and Zbignevas Ibelhauptas piano duo concert "The Sounds of Angels and Demons" will be held at the festival "Music of Changes" on 5 October 2012, Friday, 18.00.

The distinguished interpreters of contemporary music will open up mystical spaces for listeners in Klaipėda. The repertoire will encompass the entire range of creative interests of the ensemble covering both contemporary Western and Lithuanian composers.

According to music critics the piano duo, who love to pamper the audience with virtuosic bravura, at the same cling to "ascetic" academic standards. Rūta and Zbignevas truly are first-rate virtuosos, characterized by refined sound, excellent artistic taste and intuition. Apart from playing as a duo both are professors at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. A year ago, Zbignevas Ibelhauptas was elected as rector of the academy.

The Rūta and Zbignevas Ibelhauptas art duo received the highest award in the country - the Lithuanian National Prize. This obliges the pianists to constantly showcase their best shape and prepare the most complex of pieces.

The concert “The Sounds of Angels and Demons" will be framed by the compositions of Bronius Kutavičius. The ensemble will bow to this prominent contemporary Lithuanian composer, commemorating his 80th anniversary. The concert will begin with the composer’s newest work “Robert’s Demons and Angels”. It was inspired by the Robert Schumann piano piece, whose fragment Kutavičius used.

At the end of the concert the duo will perform “Debate with a Stranger", composed by Kutavičius three decades ago. In three contrasting parts of the piece two pianos will “talk” to each other and a "Stranger", whose role will be reflected by the backing track. The sounds of a brass quintet, organ and piano duet in the recording will both oppose and assent the live music. Kutavičius’ style sutartinės intonations and minimalist development will give way to a lyrical episode, followed by a vigorous rhythmic finale.

Gintaras Sodeika, whose creative output connects traditional values and new technologies will greet echoes from extraterrestrial civilizations in his piece “SUTAPO”. The title of the piece is an acronym that, according to the composer, stands for Sound Universe Technology Avatar Partnership Organisation.

One of the most original Danish composers Per Nørgård quotes the verse of the poem by Rainer Maria Rilke for the title of his piece "Unendlicher Empfang / Infinite Tenderness". This quote speaks of the flower, which unfolds at dawn and is extremely sensitive to polyphonic sunlight. The sound will echo in the room with infinite sensitivity in the 16 minutes of this composition.

The duo will also perform two parts from the opus by American George Crumb "Otherwordly Resonances". The author creates memorable and beautiful music frequently using symbolic, mystical elements and meticulous scores.

"Throughout the whole concert our gaze will be directed to otherwordly being," - says Rūta. "Some of the works create special acoustic and spatial harmonies, they will not be limited to just playing the keyboard: percussion sticks, playing the strings of the piano, 4 metronomes and recordings will be used.”

KCH information prepared by Loreta Narvilaitė