I have heard Gabrielé many times over the past few years whilst she has been perfecting her studies in London .A very serious artist and her seriousness on stage does not reflect the charm and simplicity of this delightful young lady from Lithuania.Her playing has always been of supreme intelligence and with a refined sense of style but above all there is a fluidity and purity of sound that I have noticed is very much part of her Lithuanian heritage.

Rokas Valuntonis,Milda Daunoraite and recently Kasparas Mikzukis have all come to London from Lithuania with an impeccable technical preparation and inborn musicianship and all with a fluidity of sound that comes from being completely relaxed and with a natural flexibility that must be something in the air in those parts!

It was demonstrated immediately with the first pieces that she chose to play by Rameau .Crystalline beauty of the melodic line was etched and sculptured with purity and with ornaments that unwound with refined beauty and were just sounds that glowed in this rarified atmosphere of the civilised elegance of a bygone age.They were indeed ‘Tendres Plaintes’ of hidden sentiments .’Les Cyclopes’ on the other hand was a perpetuum mobile of beguiling and hypnotic drive with precision and passionate delicacy.

I have heard her Scriabin on other occasions but Gabrielé is an artist who reacts with chameleonic character to her different surroundings.Today there was a more dream like atmosphere to the first movement where the whispered opening was gradually swept up on a wave of sumptuous sounds as the melodic line emerged like jewels sparkling in this rarified atmosphere.Notes that were mere sounds of shifting harmonies that enveloped the rich melodic line.The second movement too was less driven today and more like a sea of sounds that allowed her to build up gradually to the sumptuous climaxes and the great romantic melodic outbursts that were swept up on this wave of sound.

The little miniatures by Mompou were played with a simple nursery tale elegance.It was good to hear ‘Le Jeunes Filles’ again which is of such beguiling beauty and I have not heard it since the late Nelson Freire would often play it as an encore.Gabrielé played it with the same exquisite simplicity of purity and beauty.

It was a good preparation for Janacek’s Sonata that is of haunting austere beauty quite unlike any other composer.It is a voice that Gabrielé played with introspection and deep nostalgic feeling.A delicacy and kaleidoscope of sounds that made one wonder why we do not hear this work more often in the concert hall.

Ravel’s ‘Oiseaux tristes’ found the ideal interpreter in Gabrielé where the luminosity of sound was of a piercing purity of deep melancholy over kaleidoscopic murmurs of an austere rarified atmosphere .

The three Etude Tableaux showed off her mastery of the keyboard with the sumptuous sounds of searing intensity of the E flat minor with a wondrous sense of balance that allowed the melody to rise above this blistering passionate outpouring.The simplicity of the D minor where the quite considerable technical difficulties just disappeared as she wove a magical web of sounds.There was a tumultuous call to arms with the D major Study where she played like a woman possessed throwing herself into the fray with courage and bravura.

Greeted by an ovation for a quite exceptional recital of refined elegance and passionate commitment she offered the simple beauty of the slow movement of the Haydn B minor Sonata that demonstrated even more her intelligence and quite considerable artistry .

Lithuanian pianist Gabrielé Sutkuté has already established herself as a musician of strong temperament and “excellent precision and musicality” (Rasa Murauskaite from “7 days of Art”). She has given many concerts and performed in numerous fesOvals throughout Europe and appeared in prestigious halls such as the Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Steinway Hall UK, the Stoller Hall, the Musikhuset Aarhus and Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall. In addiOon to being a soloist, Gabriele frequently performs with chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras. In 2023, she performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the YMSO at the Cadogan Hall, conducted by James Blair. In 2020, she performed Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Grammy-nominated Kaunas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Markus Huber, and was also invited to play with the renowned Kaunas String Quartet in Lithuania twice. Gabriele is a winner of twenty international piano competitions where she also received numerous special awards. She was awarded the 1st Prize at the Chappell Medal Piano Competition 2023 and won the 2nd Prize and the Audience Prize at the Birmingham International Piano Competition 2022. She was also the recipient of the presOgious Mills Williams Junior Fellowship 2022/23. For her musical achievements, Gabriele received Lithuanian Republic Presidents’ certficates of appreciation six times. From 2016-22, she had been studying with Professor Christopher Elton and received her Bachelor of Music Degree (First Class Honours) and Master of Arts Degree with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. Gabriele graduated from the Artist Diploma course at the Royal College of Music in July 2023, where she had been studying with Professor Vanessa Latarche and Professor Sofya Gulyak. 

Gabrielé Sutkuté at Leighton House ‘a star is born’

Gabrielé Sutkuté takes Mayfair by Storm ‘passion and power with impeccable style’

Gabriele Sutkuté at St Marys Refined musicianship and artistry

Gabrielé Sutkuté plays Grieg with the YMSO under James Blair at Cadogan Hall