Music In Old Lviv. Opening

Performers:

• Serine de Labaume, soprano (France)
• Yarema Pavliv, violin
• Virtuosos Academic Chamber Orchestra
• Serhii Burko, conductor

Programme:

• Mykola Kolessa. Suite In the Mountains
• Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1791–1844). Six Songs, Op. 21, dedicated to Emilia Schröder, arranged by Volodymyr Duda
  • Aus dem Französischen des J. J. Rousseau / Wie der Tag mir schleichet
  • Die Entzückung
  • An die Bäche
  • Seufzer
  • An Sie
  • Le Baiser
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Laudate Dominum, K. 339
• Mykola Lysenko. Dumka-Shumka
• Levko Kolodub. Suite of Ukrainian Folk Songs
  • Dance
  • Lullaby
  • Pishla b na muzyky
  • Oi, rode moi, rode
• Myroslav Skoryk. Spanish Dance

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart had perhaps the worst possible name for a composer — and lived with it all his life. The younger son of a genius, he spent decades working in Galicia: teaching, conducting and composing. His Six Songs, Op. 21, dedicated to Emilia Schröder, will be performed in a new orchestral arrangement by Volodymyr Duda. This is not the music of a genius — it is the music of a good composer who understood tenderness and was not afraid of it. In Lviv, its performance carries an additional meaning: it will be heard at home.

Alongside it in the programme is the father to whom he was compared throughout his life. Laudate Dominum, K. 339, in which the soprano rises above the orchestra, is one long melody that does not seem to want to end. One of those pieces after which, for a few seconds, no one in the hall moves.

The Ukrainian part of the programme is substantial and dance-filled: Mykola Kolessa’s In the Mountains, Lysenko’s Dumka-Shumka featuring violin soloist Yarema Pavliv, Levko Kolodub’s Suite of Ukrainian Folk Songs — from Lullaby to Oi, rode moi, rode — and Skoryk’s Spanish Dance.

Serin de Labomme is a French soprano of Korean-American heritage. She began playing the violin at the age of four before turning to singing, studying in Paris, Milan and Aachen. José van Dam described her voice as “natural and agile.” Since March 2022, she has given eleven charity concerts in support of Ukraine in Berlin, and at the end of May she came to Lviv — simply to sing for the people. Now she returns to perform at the festival’s opening.