Vladas Jakubėnas: The Song of the Exiles and The Deportees and Other Choral Songs

The Lithuanian Vladas Jakubėnas (1904–78) is one of a lost generation of Baltic composers. A student of Schreker in Berlin, he returned home to help build the musical culture of his country. But the Nazi invasion and Soviet occupation drove him into exile and, after five years in refugee camps in Germany, he settled in Chicago, playing an important role in the Lithuanian diaspora in North America. These choral songs show the deep identification of his late-Romantic style with the folk-music of the land he was forced to leave behind.

Vilnius Municipal Choir Jauna Muzika Jurgita Mintautiene, soprano Gintautas Skliutas, tenor Dainius Jozenas, piano Vaclovas Augustinas, conductor

1. O I Would Go
2. The Song of the Exiles and the Deportees
3. Our Mother’s Tongue
4. At Evening Prayer
5. Many Lovers Have I Had
6. Hush, Little Sister
7. Jesus, Thou art my Life
8. O, If I Only Could See Him
9. Here I Am, O King of Glory
10. In Silence Thou art Celebrated
11. Over the Seas, Beyond the Nemunas River
12. Oh, Father is Giving His Dear Daughter Away
13. I Used to Walk in my Garden
14. Oh. A Girl is Growing, Growing
15. Mother Raised Her Daughter
16. High Hills, Level Meadows
17. A Little Bird is Sitting, Perched
18. Across the Seas