Ieva Jokubaviciute's Lullaby Mozart

Charles T. Downey, Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute opens new GWU concert series
Washington Post, October 20, 2011

Music of Tribute: Alban Berg, I. Jokubaviciute, M. Dix

George Washington University inaugurated a concert series Tuesday night named in honor of Stanley Yeskel, an avid amateur musician who died in 2002. The series, endowed by his son Peter Yeskel, a GWU graduate, will invite leading musicians to perform and interact with students. The first free concert, by prominent pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, drew a disappointingly small audience to the Abrams Great Hall at the Marvin Center, but word of the series will surely spread.

Jokubaviciute has impressed me in the past for her performances of contemporary music, but here she turned to Mozart, sadly not a felicitous choice. She played a selection of shorter, one-movement pieces — two fantasies, a rondo, an adagio — emphasizing their softer mysteries with an excessively veiled touch and overzealous application of the una corda pedal. The result was a little precious and dainty but not really beguiling, so well behaved that it became, at times, soporific. [Continue reading]

SEE ALSO:
A Chat with Lithuanian Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute (Playbill Arts, December 15, 2010)

Steve Smith, Ieva Jokubaviciute and Vladimir Valjarevic on Berg (New York Times, November 12, 2010)

Charles T. Downey, Belgian work highlights duo's lyrical contemporary evening (Washington Post, April 15, 2010)

Ieva Jokubaviciute playing Debussy and Chopin at the Freer Gallery of Art (March 4, 2004)