While listening to the profoundly perceptive performance by the pianist Jurgis Karnavicius ofthe entire cycle of 20 etudes, we move together through a shimmering, gentle landscape of changinglight: there is a special peace in his playing that does not mean stagnation; rather, it is a slow,deep process, similar to the movement of light through the space of a room when morning is justbreaking. This music creates the impression thatthe pianist becomes a mediator between two silences- the silence that was before the first note, and the silence that will remain after it fades.Thus, the etudes here take on not only the form of sound, but also a slow, plastic movement thatcontinues long after the hands lift from the keys. Some etudes fly with an inexorable driving force,their rhythms echoing human steps, heartbeats, a kind of internal engine. Others unfold like meditations,stretching time until it almost evaporates. A portrait of Philip Glass emerges, not ju