Yulia Drukh, Gryta Tatoryte

Duo di improvvisazione

Duo di improvvisazioneThis work is conceived as a free prelude – a spontaneous duo improvisation that unfolds freely in its form. The piano takes on a percussive-atmospheric role and plays a single note, the E flat. Within this tonal space, rhythm and timbres are experimentally explored, which is done through techniques such as damping and tearing the string as well as imitating a clock ticking by means of a plectrum. The right pedal remains pressed for the most part and provides an increased sonority; the piano body is also used as a percussion instrument and played with knuckles and palms. The clarinet part, inspired by klezmer music, develops in a special way over the course of the piece: it builds up physically and musically in parallel. The work begins as the clarinetist successively assembles the instrument – at first only from the mouthpiece and pear. This gradual emergence directly reflects the musical development. The clarinet part unfolds not only technically, but also emotionally – from initially plaintive motifs to boundless cheerfulness at the end. At the same time, the piano tone also "blossoms" in the final section, making the joint musical development of the duo particularly clear. Julia Drukh is a German-Russian clarinetist. After studying with Wolfgang Meyer, she completed her postgraduate studies with distinction with Norbert Kaiser. She looks back on many years of work as an orchestral musician. Since October 2024, she has been principal clarinetist at the Theater Plauen-Zwickau and holds a teaching position at the HMDK Stuttgart. She is a prizewinner of international competitions, performs as a soloist and chamber musician at home and abroad, and is one of the few clarinetists who have mastered both the German and French systems at the same high level. Gryta Tatoryte is a Lithuanian-born pianist and piano teacher. She began playing the piano at the age of six and was accepted at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art School in Vilnius at the age of ten. After graduating from high school, she studied at the Karlsruhe University of Music, where she completed her piano studies with distinction until her concert exam. In addition to her concert activities, she has been teaching at the Karlsruhe University of Music since 2013 and has also been working as an academic assistant at the Freiburg University of Music since 2024.