| Year of Composition: | 1988 |
| Duration: | 4 |
| Instrumentation: | str orch |
Programme note
This short four-minute virtuosic tour de force for string orchestra is numbered among the most frequently performed Lithuanian orchestral pieces of the past two decades. Few musical works by Lithuanian contemporary composers have travelled as wide and far as and with similar success as this one. In response to its instant and continuing popularity, the composer also reworked it for accordion duo, quintet and, most recently, accordion solo.
This unfading popularity may well be due to the impetuous and ‘diabolical’ nature of the music itself, as the title suggests. According to Tamulionis, ‘diavolesca’ refers both to wicked fast tempo and to the interval of the tritone (nicknamed diabolus in musica since the time of Guido of Arezzo), around which the whole intonational vocabulary of the piece is constructed.
Veronika Janatjeva
Released recordings:
CD St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius. - Kristupas Records 002, 2001
