PETA STEWART
Lithuanian pianist Mûza Rubackyté is one happy musician – on the day we spoke, she was told that she had received the “Oscar” of Lithuania, the 2018 St. Christopher Laureate Prize (Vilnius, Lithuania) for her cultural and artistic achievements.
She is coming to South Africa to initiate celebrations of 100 years of Lithuanian statehood, and in Cape Town will play with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra in February – something she loves as playing with an orchestra is far less lonely than giving recitals in an all-Schubert programme.
She should know – she spends about half her year playing 40 different recital programmes, and the other half playing more than 40 concertos.
“I practice alone; in recital I play alone so playing with an orchestra and conductor makes me very happy, like being part of a family.”
She grew up alone too, in Vilnius, where there were no siblings, but that really didn’t matter for by the time she was two or three she was focused on music.
‘Wunderkind’ – a school for gifted children
“My great grandmother was a concert pianist who studied in St Petersburg, my mother and aunt were concert pianists, and my father was an opera baritone. So while not everyone was professional everyone else played music. I was playing the piano when I was three or four. I also played the violin and sang, and was called a ‘wunderkind’. But for me there was no other choice and it was to be the piano. If you haven’t started by the time you are seven it is too late! By the time I was 7 – I made my debut with an orchestra at the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius that same year – I was in the school for gifted children in Vilnius and continued studying for the next 19 years, ending up in Moscow and then Paris.”
Lithuanian resistance
Although she is Lithuanian to the core, Ms Rubackyte lives in Paris and Geneva. “For years, under Soviet rule, I was denied a passport because I was a member of the Lithuanian resistance and when things changed in 1989 Paris was my first destination. I won the Concours international Les Grands Maîtres Français, which brought several engagements … and stayed! ”
The passport denial was just one of the things that has made her life challenging and she is writing a book on the advice of many reporters who say her story will make compelling reading! With her husband, who is an internationally renowned medical doctor and author of 13 books translated into 10 languages, Ms Rukackyte is writing up her story, every day reading a chapter by telephone to her mother for comment!
She is giving masterclasses in Paris and Geneva and preparing for a year of multiple engagements, some of which are linked to the Lithuanian celebrations.
“The South African tour includes three recitals – in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Knysna – and then it is on to Budapest and more engagements in Paris and Geneva. I feel like I am a gypsy because of my commitment to my ‘black sailing ship’, my piano.”
It’s a lucky combination that she is coming here. She was a member of the UNISA International Strings Competition jury two years ago, and made some good friends who wanted to bring her here. For her part, she invited the winner that year, Daniel Ciobanu, to play in Vilnius Piano Festival that she is directing. The CPO’s invitation came together with the celebrations of Lithuanian statehood in Pretoria.
“I knew that the CPO is a good orchestra, I have heard this from colleagues and the conductor of my concert Jochen Rieder, who has an excellent reputation. I offered the CPO several concerti and I am delighted they chose the Schubert/Liszt Wanderer Fantasy. This is a rarely played orchestration of a piece for solo piano which I premiered in my 5th Vilnius Piano Festival in 2017 last November and it was so well received. I am delighted to have another opportunity to play it again.
“Liszt is so much part of me, my identity is wrapped up in him.”
Her discography of some 30 titles includes the complete “Years of Pilgrimage” by Liszt, his Complete Concert Etudes, and a Schubert/Liszt CD. In 2015, she played the complete “Years of Pilgrimage” at Bayreuth, and at the 10th Liszt Festival in Raiding and in 2016 she performed Liszt’s 12 etudes d’exécution transcendante at Radio France Montpelier Festival.
But there’s so much more! Read more about her www.muza.fr
Who: CPO with Muza Rubackyte (piano) and Jochen Rieder (conductor)
What: Eine Schubertiade: A Symphony Concert
Where: Artscape Opera House, Cape Town
When: 8 February, 2018 at 8pm
Info, book: www.cpo.org.za/ Artscape Dial-a-Seat 021 421 7695, http://bit.ly/MuzaRubackyte
WS
