Balakauskas/ Damarkas - Balakauskas, O. : Sym 4/5

The two works are symphonies composed in 1998 and 2001, respectively. The subtitles employed in the Symphony No. 4 - "Octa," "Hendeca," and "Deca" - refer to the number of pitches in the scales used for each movement. "Octa" opens with a beautiful, very slowly developing section that becomes Mahlerian in the middle and more violent toward the end, whereas "Hendeca" has a strangely Ivesian texture shot through with syncopated figures reminiscent of Gershwin. The Symphony No. 5 is similar in tone to the previous symphony, although somewhat richer in texture and more rumbustious in spots. The opening movement may remind some of Messiaen with it's sense of growing, unrelieved tension, and the second introduces bluesy mannerisms that evoke the specter of Leonard Bernstein. Ironically, the music of this former politician from a lately freed Baltic state sounds more "American" than, say, the music of John Adams. However, Balakauskas seems also to have inherited something of the bloodline extending from Lithuania's greatest composer, Mikalojus Ciurlionis, as he is successful in working out pieces that seem longer than they really are.