BALTIC GUITAR QUARTET:
ZIGMAS ČEPULĖNAS
SERGEJ KRINICIN
SAULIUS S. LIPČIUS
CHRIS RUEBENS
EDUARDAS BALSYS – Sutiktuvių maršas (Welcome March) from the ballet Eglė žalčių karalienė (Eglė, Queen of the Grass-Snakes)(arrangement by Saulius S. Lipčius)
JONAS ŠVEDAS – Pievų taku (Along the Meadow Path), the cycle of ten bagatelles (arrangement by Zigmas Čepulėnas)
MINDAUGAS STUMBRAS – Reflections
LEO BROUWER – Paisaje Cubano con Rumba (Cuban Landscape with Rumba)
EDWARD ELGAR – Sevillaña (Scène Espagnole) (Sevillaña (Spanish Scene)), Op. 7 (arrangement by Carl Herring)
NEJC KUHAR – Colors of Baltic (premiere)
FAUSTAS LATĖNAS – String quartet No. 2 Šviesiam atminimui (In Loving Memory) (arrangement by Saulius S. Lipčius)
CHRIS RUEBENS – Three Ukulele Dances
“Four Guitars – One Soul”, the eloquent credo of the Baltic Guitar Quartet speaks for itself.
The leading guitar ensemble in the Baltics captivates with its sensitive, vivid and subtle musicianship. Viktoras Gerulaitis noted yet another unique feature of this ensemble – a sense of humour, which, according to the musicologist, is not found in every chamber ensemble.
The guitar quartet is not as common as, for example, a string quartet, which has a very old tradition, so the members of the Baltic Guitar Quartet often arrange the music for their concert programmes themselves. The inventive guitarists have no shortage of ideas about what to play and how to play it. The wide horizons of their repertoire cover a broad variety of opuses from Renaissance to the present day, from Classicist compositions that have become the staple of the repertoire or that have not yet been heard to jazz and pop music examples.
The Baltic Guitar Quartet celebrates its twentieth anniversary elegantly: in a dance step accompanied by broad landscape of folk motifs. Lithuanian march, Andalusian Sevillana, Cuban rumba, original dances by one of the members of the quartet, C. Ruebens, compositions by the famous guitar virtuosos N. Kuhar and M. Stumbras, and arrangements of works by the classics of Lithuanian music literature J. Švedas and F. Latėnas will be parts of a brightly coloured but subtle musical kaleidoscope.
