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Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911)
The Sea (Jūra)
The Forest (Miške)
Lakštingala (Nightingale), VL 268
Ruduo (Autumn), VL 264
Prelude, VL 188
Romualdas Gražinis (b.1962)
Sutartinė
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla
rec. 2024, Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, Paris, France (The Forest); 2025, Lithuanian National Philharmonic, Vilnius, Lithuania
Reviewed as download (available as vinyl, but not CD)
Deutsche Grammophon 4867762 [59]

This new release from Deutsche Grammophon features music by Lithuanian legend Mikalojus Čiurlionis. It appears in the year of the 150^th anniversary of his birth. Although his family spoke Polish, as did most of the middle and ruling classes, Čiurlionis later learned the Lithuanian language and was a noted nationalist. He was also a painter, studying fine art after his musical training. He had some major exhibitions, notably in Saint Petersburg in 1909. Čiurlionis’ best known musical works are the two tone-poems given on this disc by a pair of very fine and fully committed orchestras under conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

Jūra, or The Sea is perhaps his best-known work. It was begun in 1903 and completed in 1907. This is contemporaneous with Debussy’s famous La Mer which had a shorter gestation, being first performed in 1905. Čiurlionis’ style by this time had surely been influenced by his term in Leipzig in 1901/2 and the music of the age he had soaked up since then. Čiurlionis is always authentic and true to his roots, however, and apart from the rather obvious nod to Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, with the organ augmenting the fortissimo chord near the start, those influences, though audible, do not overwhelm him. His is a real voice with a genuine accent. 

A rising sweeping motion in the harp complemented with high strings leads to a four-note descending motto on flute and clarinet. It might be the prelude to one of those wonderful fantasy Rimsky operas. This calm seascape we are first presented with is developed, leading to that first climax I mentioned earlier within the first couple of minutes. The Sea is a large work, in this performance it lasts thirty minutes, in some performances even a few minutes longer. It surges and swells as you would expect it to, but for me it does not conjure up images of the waves and the flickers of spray, the light, the salt, the tempest or the deep as much as some other famous sea pictures in sound. I just enjoy the music as a large orchestra fantasia and in this, Čiurlionis does not disappoint.

DG helpfully track the work into seven cue points, covering exposition, development, recapitulation and coda, which is all very symphonic. If you care to put Čiurlionis’ The Sea into the context of the time (as I always do with most music), as well as Debussy, other works which I think the composer would have been aware of, and consciously or unconsciously assimilated, may include:

Čiurlionis is unlikely to have heard all these works but readers may find the context useful. The Sea breathes the same air as these masterpieces, even if not perhaps as expertly crafted. Another piece I thought of when listening to it was Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. The Lithuanian composer could not have heard Schoenberg’s orchestration by the time he wrote his piece but there are elements where they are on the same wavelength – and it is worth saying that Schoenberg also very much enjoyed painting. I hear faint echoes of Mahler and even Johann Strauss II (track 6) but I will stop there. It is surprising what a year in Leipzig could do for a young musician back at the turn of the last century. 

The Lithuanian NSO clearly knows how the pulse of this music goes, and they sound great in all sections. The performance was recorded live at the concert organised in Vilnius to commemorate the 150^th anniversary. The sound engineered by DG is predictably very refined and well managed. Mirga’s conducting has rhythmic life whilst bringing out the sensuousness in the score. Čiurlionis writes a decent coda too: treading slowly, repeating à la Bruckner, it fades but then comes back with chorale brass fanfares in a positive exultant ending.

The Forest (Miške) follows. This is an earlier work than The Sea, dating from 1900 and his time in Warsaw before he went to Germany – and I think I like it better. I find the voice more plainly spoken, more authentic; it seems to me that Čiurlionis writes here for himself. This is what he wanted to say, in the way he wanted to say it. He is not showing off his technique in orchestration or harmony. He is just painting and singing from his heart, from his inner self. The music is transcendent and full of colour and shading. Like The Sea it is rhapsodic in style to my ears, unashamedly late Romantic with the flavours and essence of his native land. DG again give us seven tracks in which primary and secondary themes can be identified and marked. For The Forest, Mirga conducts her Paris-based radio orchestra. They sound superb, recorded in their home venue. My colleague Jonathan Woolf reviewed Ondine’s recording of these two Čiurlionis pieces over five years ago. That disc too is recommendable. Mirga is slower in The Forest but swifter by a fair margin in the later work. Ondine also offers a reconstruction of the only other performable extant Čiurlionis work for orchestra: Kęstutis.

The new record ends with three short piano pieces by Čiurlionis, played by Mirga’s sister Onute on the day of the Vilnius 150^th birthday concert. Čiurlionis was seven or so years older than Szymanowki. The piano literature we have is worth hearing, if not, to my taste, as special as that written by his younger colleague. The record also has a short choral work by Mirga’s father Romualdas Gražinis. The piece is called Sutartinė and is very enjoyable. It seems to draw on many influences: folk, traditional Lithuanian themes and a distinct reference to The Carol of the Bells which is Ukrainian I think in origin.

Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla clearly has a special affinity with Čiurlionis. She introduced his music to Birmingham in her time there and in the current season (2025/26), I see she has already revived The Sea in Paris and toured it to boot with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. I do hope this mainstream release from the grand old yellow label brings this neglected composer to a slightly wider recognition. DG’s decision to release this record on streaming platforms with download options will not be an issue for most collectors, but for some, however, the lack of a CD option will be lamented. There is an LP option but surely that appeals only to a niche market. I also must highlight that there does not seem to be a booklet available for the release (at least I could not find one at the time of my writing in early November). I have managed to confirm recording dates and venues but for the enthusiast new to Čiurlionis, some background on him, and his music would have been welcome.

Philip Harrison

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Other performers
Onutė Gražinytė (piano)
AIDIJA Chamber Choir, Upper school choir of the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Vilnius/Romualdas Gražinis