Performers:

• Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
• Polina Lebedieva, conductor

Program:

• Felix Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture, Op. 21
• Carl Nielsen – Aladdin Suite, FS 89
• Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor
• Yevhen Stankovych – Music from the ballet-fantasy “The Night Before Christmas”

The program is a journey through worlds where Shakespearean fairies, Eastern legends, Hungarian dances, and Ukrainian Christmas magic meet. Four works, four distinct universes, united by the power of orchestral imagination.

Mendelssohn was only seventeen when he wrote one of the brightest works in world music, inspired by his family’s readings of Shakespeare. In the Overture, the young composer revealed a flash of genius: orchestration as transparent as morning air, a fairy-tale world of enchantment, delicate humor, and a vivid sense of theatricality.

Carl Nielsen — a symbol of Danish musical modernity, a composer who merged classical tradition with the temperament of the 20th century. His Aladdin is more than just an Eastern tale; it is an orchestral spectacle created for a grand Copenhagen theater production. After a scandalous premiere, Nielsen reshaped the material into a suite — and thus was born one of the most dazzling examples of “symphonic theater.” Here one hears the scent of spices, the shimmer of percussion, the brilliance of woodwinds, and the frenzy of rhythms — music that feels almost cinematic.

The most famous of all Liszt’s rhapsodies is a true icon of Romanticism. Two forces collide within it: the slow, contemplative Lassan, breathing with epic melody, and the explosive, whirlwind Friska, where a storm of dance and brilliance comes alive. In its orchestral version, the music shines with cinematic colors — no wonder it has become a star of countless films and animated features. This rhapsody is a national hymn to passion, virtuosity, and freedom.

The program concludes with a work by Yevhen Stankovych — the sonic world of Ukrainian Christmas, where shchedrivkas and carols coexist with the devil, Solokha, love, and playful folk humor. The composer created multilayered, polystylistic music: from lyrical scenes to grotesque and sparkling orchestral wit. You listen — and feel the presence of the living Ukrainian soul: warm, ironic, festive.