De-focus
for violin, viola and symphony orchestra
2024

Hearing constantly registers the most prominent sound events around us and focuses attention on them. We hear everything else in our surroundings, but most sounds often remain on the margins of our awareness. This work is an attempt to listen in a noisy city, not to individual events, but to the sonic whole. It’s like taking a photograph without adjusting the focus and allowing everything to spill out. You close your eyes and lose the understanding of what you are listening to and what you are hearing.

Premier: Lithuanian National Philharmonic 
Vilnius 2024 02 10

Performed by:
Kristina Morozova (violin);
Monika Kiknadzė (viola);
Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra;
conducted by Modestas Pitrėnas.



Recorded by LRT Klasika

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The piece was commissioned by soloists Kristina Morozova and Monika Kiknadzė. The premiere of “De-focus” took place during the concert titled “Orchestra Up Close.” On this evening, the musicians of the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra have the opportunity to perform solo and present their chosen programs, accompanied by their colleagues in the orchestra.

The idea for the piece emerged from confronting the imagined position of the soloists with the surrounding orchestral soundscape. Their part is an inseparable part of that sound, while simultaneously offering a unique perspective. In the piece’s cadenza, the entire orchestra closes their eyes, as do the soloists, and everything blends into a single harmonious whole.