Music Information Centre Lithuania has released a digital sheet music publication – a transcription of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis’ symphonic poem In the Forest for piano four hands. This edition was prepared by Piano Phase Project pianists Monika Lozinskienė and Anna Szałucka, and the sheet music itself can be found in the e-shop musiclithuania.com.

The idea for the transcription was born in 2023 in Canada, when the duo members Monika and Anna were exploring the forests of the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia, where the artistic project Sound Meditation was being filmed, exploring the rich natural landscape of the region and its similarity to Čiurlionis’ spiritual and symbolic inspirations. In 2025, marking the 150th anniversary of Čiurlionis’ birth, this piano arrangement becomes a tribute to the composer’s work. In the transcription, the pianists sought to reveal both the colorful orchestral nature of the original and to convey the symbolist character of the work through the intimate sound of the piano. The work has been supplemented with new dramatic solutions – solo cadenzas and a virtuoso ending, maintaining respect for the original but opening up new layers of interpretation.

"For us, Čiurlionis' work is a bridge between music, poetry, visual arts, and his deep connection with nature. In creating this transcription, we realized that in Lithuanian tradition, the forest is not just a backdrop – it is a living, breathing organism with its own soul. This folklore and the composer's personal philosophy treat nature as a spiritual experience. We drew inspiration from this cultural context, emphasizing the lyrical and atmospheric sounds of the symphonic poem in our transcription," say the pianists.

This transcription embodies the duo's goal of conveying classical music in a contemporary, bold, but authentic way. According to them, it is not enough to simply perform classical music – it needs to be rethought, translated into today's language, and given a new context. As they themselves say, classical music must be alive, changing, relevant, and sound in such a way that the listener hears not only the era, but also themselves.