We have been accustomed, or perhaps trained, to take many things seriously and responsibly. But if we allow ourselves to look at a problem from a less serious, unexpected angle, we might get the chance to solve it. Two musicians - baritone Giedrius Prunskus and pianist Eglė Kižytė-Ramonienė - united by their love for the genre of the art song, invite us to differently experience the work of composers who are taken very seriously.
How is it that Feliksas Bajoras, considered the guru of Lithuanian academic music, perfectly expressed his relationship with Lithuanian music by using a not-so-serious genre - fairy tales? What prompted Arnold Schoenberg, who shocked the world with his dodecaphonic work, to compose songs for a completely non-serious stage - the Viennese Cabaret? Why did Anatolijus Šenderovas, whose scores are sometimes hard to play even for serious orchestras, take up the childish poems of Sigitas Geda, in which everyday life situations are hidden under the mask of “unseriousness”? Is it possible to believe that Oliver Messiaen, the French composer and organist, famous for his sacred works, composed piano preludes in his youth, each of which has a different colour?
If you immerse yourself in the context of the programme “An Evening of (Un)Serious Music” in all seriousness, you will surely find out the answers to these and other “serious” questions, because the evening's performers are truly (un)serious!
