VLADAS JAKUBENAS (1904-1976): String Quartet, Op. 4, 2 Pictures for Piano, Op. 2, Melody-Legend for Violin and Piano, Serenade for Cello and Piano, Prelude and Triple Fugue in D Minor for String Orchestra.
Catalogue Number: 05O066
Label: Toccata Classics
Reference: TOCC 0013
Format: CD
Price: $18.98
Description: At last (says this Lithuanian), a whole disc of pre-modernist Lithuanian music! Jakubenas studied with Schreker but almost everything here (the Pictures are wholly late Romantic, written while at the Riga conservatory in 1926-27 and the oddly Spanish-flavored Serenade from 1936 from his time back in his native land) from the composer's time in Berlin from 1928-32 is a satisfying mixture of neo-classicism and melodic, emotionally colored Romanticism. The two-movement, 25-minute string quartet includes Lithuanian folk material in its second movement (a third movement was lost during World War II) Vilnius String Quartet, Kaspara Uinskas (piano), Kaskados Piano Trio, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra; Donatas Katkus.