Bronius Kutavicius

* Last Pagan Rites
* Epitaphium temporum pereunti

Choir of the Vilnius Ciurlionis Art School, Digrys (organ)/Romas Grazinis;
Kaunas State Choir, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra/Robertas
Servenikas.
Ondine ODE 972-2  TT: 65:12

Summary for the Busy Executive: More from the dark side of the Baltic.

Lithuanian composer Bronius Kutavicius wants to tap into the power of
ritual, the stasis of chant.  The means are sophisticated, and in that
regard share many of the stratagems of the so-called Holy Minimalists:
the complex ostinati, the slowing-down of time, the amount of time it takes
for a musical process to complete.  Last Pagan Rites gets a raw deal on CD,
since much of its power comes from the changing positions of the musical
forces around the audience.  Kutavicius here sculpts sound in space.
Without the ambience of the "surround," and settling for the ambience of
mere stereo, the work lacks enough contrast to maintain interest.  It's
mainly harmonic clouds (mostly on a G 9-m.  7 chord) generated mainly by
canon and, I believe, free chant.  In stereo, it gets old very quickly.
The meta-story concerns the fading of paganism in favor of Christianity,
symbolized in the last movement by a choral played by the organ, which
interrupts and weakens the chants.  At that point, I don't particularly
care.  The difference between Kutavicius and the people he tries to evoke
is that they didn't think about ritual.  Ritual was life, whereas for
Kutavicius it seems merely a good idea.

The more varied work is the later Epitaphium, a cantata on the city
of Vilnius.  The movements tell of the founding of the city, the city
in its first glory, the fall of the city (and Lithuania itself) to the
Russians, and the nation's rebirth, symbolized by the restoration of the
city's cathedral.  Contrasted to Last Pagan Rites, it's a work with more
blood and vigor, less interested in dressing up as Druidic folk and more
about talking about something that really matters to the composer.  His
love of country is something he doesn't have to think about: he simply has
it, and recent events have stirred it.  It's in many instances Kutavicius
using the same devices, but to far more interesting effect.  The choral
ostinati evoke the natural world - wolves howling, crows cawing - as well
as the spiritual one.

The sound is fine (with the caveat noted above about mere stereo for a
work that needs not only left and right, but "depth of field").  The
performances, while not polished to super-stardom sheen, are good enough.

Steve Schwartz