April

Osvaldas Grinius
www.kamane.lt, 2007 04 01

Pianist Audronė Eitmanavičiūtė and soloist Sabina Martinaitytė. Photo from www.bernardinai.lt

In brief: A large book would be needed for describing the activity of two musicians making Kaunas city famous. On last Wednesday of March, the soloist Sabina Martinaitytė and pianist Audronė Eitmanavičiūtė commemorated the twentieth anniversary of their joint concert activity. One could only wonder at the number of works done by the duet, organised concerts, prepared opera parts and gained awards reading the programme of the concert. However, how could a listener hearing the duet for the first time evaluate the performers?

First of all, such a listener would be awarded with the tastefully selected and performed programme of the duet, which covered the width of vocal music from the Russian romance to wonderful opera arias during the jubilee evening. An admirer of rhymed lines would have enjoyed the synthesis of W. Shakespeare sonnets and music which was implemented with the help of the actor Aleksandras Rubinovas. People expecting surprises would have been charmed by the powerful improvisation of Prof. Giedrius Kuprevičius which illustrated the difficult work of the duet.

Still, the admirer of vocal music would have gained the most as this field predominated during the evening. The soprano of S.Martinaitytė is really impressive. Harsh metal-like shade of the voice, strong expression, powerful and penetrating high notes are the typical features of the singer. The soloist is a masterful ruler of her instrument and is able to grant the needed shade to it. The voice sounded the most vividly while performing the song of B.Prozorovski “Silk Rope”. Still, there appeared some doubts regarding the intonation of high notes while performing "Ave Maria" of D.Kairaitytė. It might have been caused by a freeze or other reason. A singer is a live organism and he or she has to sing under various conditions.

Meanwhile, the playing of A.Eitmanavičiūtė is stable, energetic, it points out the respective emotions of the vocal in the needed places. The pianist adapts the sound of the instrument to the genre that is being performed; therefore, it sounded soft in romances or reminded of an orchestra while performing opera arias. A slightly different attitude of A.Eitmanavičiūtė to the fortepiano part could be felt while she was accompanying the student of S.Martinaitytė Liudas Mikalauskas who also participated in the concert. The pianist took the leader’s position here dictating her conditions of interpretation to the young singer.

The romances, Leporelo’s aria from W.A.Mozart’s opera “Don Juan” and Basilio’s aria from G.Rossini’s opera “Barber of Seville” performed by L.Mikalauskas demonstrated the growing potential of the soloist. Another pleasant accent of the concert was the duets of the teacher and student (S.Martinaitytė and L.Mikalauskas). The voices of both singers suited each other, and the interpretations were enriched by acting illustrating the text being performed. Still, the openly declared feelings of love and the evident age difference between the singers contrasted slightly.

In conclusion, the top of the fortepiano covered with flowers, abundant gifts, congratulations and applause testified that the duet of S.Martinaitytė and A.Eitmanavičiūtė was respected and loved in Kaunas. Twenty years have not been spent in vain; therefore, one should rejoice for having such a strong creative duet, which is constantly searching for ways to listeners' hearts, in the city.