Milda Daunoraite

Performers

Notes on the performers

Lithuanian born, Milda began her piano studies at the age of six. She studied piano performance at the Purcell School and is now continuing her studies with Tessa Nicholson at the Royal Academy of Music under a full fees scholarship. She is supported by ‘SOS Talents foundation – Michel Sogny’, The Keyboard Charitable Trust and she is a recipient of the ABRSM Scholarship award.

Milda has performed extensively throughout Europe for many eminent music societies, festivals and key events. She has made an appearance  at venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikhuset Aarhus in Denmark, United Nations headquarters in Geneva. Every year, since Milda was 9, she has performed in a Christmas concert held in the ‘Dassault’ hotel in Champs Elysées, Paris. A few of those concerts were broadcast by Mezzo & TV5 Monde. Milda has performed at the EMMA World Summit of Nobel Prize Peace Laureates in Warsaw and also performed the 4th V. Bacevičius concerto for Piano and Orchestra in Lithuanian National Philharmonic with Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra as a result of having EMCY publish her profile on their website.

She is a prize winner of numerous national and international competitions, such as the 1st Prize in the international V. Krainev Piano Competition in Kharkov, Ukraine; the ‘jury‘ prize in the PIANALE International Academy & Competition and the Purcell School solo and concerto competition which lead her to perform at the Wigmore Hall and the Ravel piano concerto in G at the QEH, Southbank.

Programme

Programme notes

Johann Sebastian Bach

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903

1. Chromatic fantasia
2. Fugue

The Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903, is a work for harpsichord by Bach. He probably composed it during his time in Köthen from 1717 to 1723. The piece was already regarded as a unique masterpiece during his lifetime. The virtuosic and improvisational toccata style of the fantasy, in which both hands alternate rapidly, the expressive, tonally experimental character and the key of D minor put the work alongside the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565. Both works are exceptional and therefore particularly popular compositions in Bach’s keyboard music. This assessment was shared by Bach’s contemporaries. The first biographer of Bach, Johann Nikolaus Forkel, wrote: “I have given much effort to find another piece of this type by Bach. But it was in vain. This fantasy is unique and has never been second to none.”

Source: Wikipedia

Ludwig van Beethoven

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903

1. Chromatic fantasia
2. Fugue

Les Adieux (“The Farewell”) was written during the years 1809 and 1810. The title Les Adieux implies a
programmatic nature. The French attack on Vienna, led by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1809, forced Beethoven’s patron, Archduke Rudolph, to leave the city. Yet, there is some uncertainty about this nature of the piece — or at least, about the degree to which Beethoven wished this programmatic nature should be known. He titled the three movements “Lebewohl”, “Abwesenheit”, and “Wiedersehen” (‘farewell’, ‘absence’, and ‘reunion’), and reportedly regarded the French “Adieux” (said to whole assemblies or cities) as a poor translation of the feeling of the German “Lebewohl” (said heartfully to a single person). Indeed, Beethoven wrote the syllables “Le-be-wohl” over the first three chords.

Source: Wikipedia

Alexander Scriabin

Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903

1. Chromatic fantasia
2. Fugue

Scriabin’s Sonata-Fantasy took five years for him to write. It was finally published in 1898, at the urging of his publisher. The piece is in two movements, with a style combining Chopin-like Romanticism with an impressionistic touch. The piece is widely appreciated and is one of Scriabin’s most popular pieces.

The first movement Andante, in sonata form, begins with echoing effects, followed by two lyrically themed sections. The first theme is in G-Sharp minor, but the following two come in B major (the relative major). After a short climax in the development, the piece modulates to E major (also C-sharp minor) for the recapitulation and lyrical sections are restated with a slightly more complicated accompaniment. The second movement Presto, in sharp contrast to the first movement, is very fast and intense. Alternating crescendos and decrescendos may give the listener the impression of waves.

The precedent of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata allowed Scriabin the luxury of an opening slow movement to his Second Sonata, whose programme reads thus: “The first section represents the quiet of a southern night on the seashore; the development is the dark agitation of the deep, deep sea. The E major middle section shows caressing moonlight coming up after the first darkness of night. The second movement represents the vast expanse of ocean in stormy agitation.”

Source: Wikipedia

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1981)

Petrushka

1. Danse Russe
2. Chez Petrouchka
3. La Semaine Grasse
4. Fugue

A Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship, Stravinsky is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. Three Movements from Petrushka for the solo piano were composed for his friend, pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and are dedicated to him. Stravinsky is very explicit in stating that the movements are not transcriptions. He was not trying to reproduce the sound of the orchestra, but instead wished to compose a score which would be essentially pianistic even though its musical material was drawn directly from the ballet. Stravinsky also wanted to create a work which would encourage pianists to play his music, but it should be one in which they could display their technique, an objective he amply achieved.

Source: Wikipedia