PHILIP GLASS / JUSTĖ JANULYTĖ / RYTIS MAŽULIS | Cello Club × Indrė Baikštytė

The second PLAYGROUND concert of this season highlights one of the series’ central themes: alongside new music, the programme features works that have shaped musical trends of the 20th and 21st centuries. This concert also marks the first collaboration between the cello ensemble Cello Club and pianist Indrė Baikštytė.

At the heart of the programme is American composer Philip Glass’s suite Dracula, written for cello octet and piano. For this occasion, Cello Club expands into an octet for the first time, performing together with Indrė Baikštytė. This version of the piece was arranged by Glass’s longtime collaborator, pianist and conductor Michael Riesman. The music unfolds as a slow, hypnotic soundscape – a pulsating, layered structure in which the dramaturgy emerges through gradually shifting and varied repetitions.

The work originated at the end of the 20th century, when Universal Pictures invited Glass to compose a new score for Tod Browning’s 1931 film Dracula. The original film contained almost no music, prompting the composer to choose a string quartet instrumentation. This chamber setting allows for both intimacy and tension while avoiding direct genre clichés. The score was first performed in collaboration with the renowned Kronos Quartet.

Philip Glass – DRACULA
𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢 – 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘯 – 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘯 – 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 – 𝘋𝘳. 𝘝𝘢𝘯 𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢 – 𝘐𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 – 𝘚𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘚𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮 – 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 – 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘢’𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 / 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘺 – 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢 – 𝘌𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦

Alongside Glass’s work, the programme features compositions by Lithuanian composers Justė Janulytė and Rytis Mažulis – two distinct pieces rooted in the tradition of minimalism, yet diverging in their artistic approaches. In Janulytė’s Unanime, the cello octet is perceived as a single organism – a unified, breathing sonic body in which individual lines dissolve into a shared timbral flow. In turn, Mažulis’s Circulatio is based on cyclical movement – repetition, rotation, and a precisely structured progression that takes on a living, pulsating form in performance. Both works extend a shared idea in different ways: music as an ever-changing, time-evolving system.

Programme:
Philip Glass – Dracula
Justė Janulytė – Unanime
Rytis Mažulis – Circulatio
Performers:
Cello Club [ Povilas Jacunskas – Domas Jakštas – Arnas Kmieliauskas – Evaldas Petkus – Povilas Paukštė – Šarūnas Pozniakovas – Viktor Rekalo – Rokas Vaitkevičius ] x Indrė Baikštytė (piano)

Tuesday, May 19, 6 pm
Sapieha Palace, 13 L. Sapiegos St., Vilnius

Producer: “Tarp tylos”
Co-production: “Cello Club”
Curator: Arnas Kmieliauskas
Partners: Sapieha Palace, Lithuanian Composers’ Union
Media partners: LRT Klasika, Radio Vilnius
Supported by: Baltic-American Freedom Foundation
Funded by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, LATGA
Visual communication: Lauryna Narkevičiūtė