The XIX International Lviv Early Music Festival, which was held at the Myroslav Skoryk Lviv National Philharmonic from August 9-14, ended this weekend. Musicians from Ukraine, Poland, Germany and France presented original music programs from the Ukrainian and European Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque.

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XIX Lviv Early Music Festival: the second and third days

On Saturday, August 13, the combination of the instruments became a discovery: a rare nyckelharpa, which is still widely used in Scandinavian traditional music today, and an exquisite harpsichord, a symbol of aristocratic baroque music. Olena Yeremenko and Anna Ivanyushenko introduced to the audience unique instrumental colors.

The concert have featured the works of Italian early baroque composers Giovanni Pandolfi and Giovanni Battista Fontana, composers of the high baroque era (Arcangelo Corelli, Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel and Georg Philipp Telemann). Olena Yeremenko and Hanna Ivanyushenko also introduced the listeners to a sonata by Swedish composer Olof Åhlström.

Фото: Едуард Іванюшенко

Live stream of the concert here.

The sixth and final day of the Festival, August 14, was marked by two concerts by European musicians. During the first, visitors to the Lviv Philharmonic live and online plunged into the fairy-tale atmosphere of the musical story of the German performer Norbert Rodenkirchen about the figure of a mysterious flutist who, according to legend, enticed the children away from the town of Hamelin with his music in the year 1284.

Norbert Rodenkirchen, an internationally renowned specialist in medieval flute music, has long been fascinated by the figure of the Pied Piper and was inspired to embark on a search for musical sources with close regional and temporal connections. He struck lucky with the melodies of Prince Wizlaw III of Ruegen and his teacher, the so-called “Unghelarte” [“the Untaught”], augmented by ancient Slavonic dances from Northern Poland and the tunes of German minnesingers of the late 13th century. The narrator of the ancient texts became Ukrainian poet Ostap Slyvynskyy.

Фото: Данило Бедрій

Live stream of the concert here.

In the end, the program “Discordia / Concordia” was the bright conclusion of the Festival, which gathered many fans of early music and caused loud applause. The leading European medieval music ensemble “Sequentia”, Norbert Rodenkirchen and Benjamin Bagby, performed ancient epic works discovered and reconstructed in their own experience.

The musicians performed lost songs and instrumental pieces from the Frankish world between the 8th and 10th centuries. Framed by instrumentally performed sequences and verse melodies from the monastery of St. Gallen, we perform epic songs in Old High German and Latin, singing of the tragic confrontation between father Hildebrand and his long-lost son Hadubrand, the dark and sad description of the pitiful battle between brothers (Fontenoy, 841), and a German monk’s advice to the living on how to prepare for the end of time.

Фото: Данило Бедрій

Live stream of the concert here.

The organizers of the Festival, as well as the International Art Council of the Festival, express their gratitude to all listeners, performers and supporters of the 19th edition of this event! “At the Edge of Time” is the slogan of this year’s Festival, which turned out to be extremely relevant. We believe that the art of music is more relevant than ever in the darkest times, and we are proud to have accepted the challenges and spent these 5 concert days with you.

Profit from ticket sales will be donated to the military unit A 4076, and charitable donations from online live streams will be used to support musicians who stay in Ukraine during wartime.

Muses will not stay silent. Glory to Ukraine!