1902 – Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine – 2022

On September 27, 1902, 120 years ago, the orchestra, which immediately became and later remained an integral part of the city’s musical history, made its first appearance on the stage of the newly created Lviv Philharmonic.

The inaugural concert of the Philharmonic and its orchestra, performed under the baton of the chief conductor Ludwik Chelyanskyi, was a major event in Lviv at the time and gathered a large number of listeners in the hall of the former Skarbka Theater (today, the National Drama Theater named after Maria Zankovetska). The famous Ukrainian composer and musicologist of the time,  Anatol Vahnyanin, expressed his enthusiastic impression upon attending this festive event: “Every orchestral work under Chelyanskyi’s conducting, comes out remarkably finely tuned, detailed and clean, with all the subtleties, full of nuances, effective and with real artistry. The orchestra of the Lviv Philharmonic took the listeners by storm, one might say, and it itself took a respectable place next to such famous orchestras as Vienna, Prague, and Dresden ones, whose productions we had the opportunity to hear in our lives.“

120 years sharp after that moment, the now world-renowned ensemble – Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine invites all friends and fans to the Lyudkevich Concert Hall to celebrate this important date together. This evening, the orchestra will perform under the baton of the chief conductor Teodor Kuhar. Dmytro Tkachenko will be the soloist of the evening.

The event’s program will symbolically connect the past with the present, it will intertwine essential points in the history not only of the Academic Symphony Orchestra but also of Ukrainian music, culture, and Ukraine as a whole.

For the first time in many decades, an early orchestral composition by Stanislav Lyudkevich – “Ukrainian Capriccio” – will be performed on the Philharmonic stage.

The program will continue with Yevgeny Stankovych’s violin concerto with orchestra No. 2, a composition of powerful lyrical and expressive emotionality. The work of our outstanding contemporary is an embodiment of the wealth of expressive possibilities of the violin. They are woven into the symphonic canvas together with Ukrainian folk intonations and passed through a deep human feeling. Dmytro Tkachenko, its first performer in 2006, will perform solo at the Concert. The performance of this creative opus by Yevhen Stankovych will be a significant and memorable moment of the event, as one of the leading Ukrainian composers will celebrate his 80th birthday in September 2022!

The Ninth Symphony of Antonin Dvořák, also known by its subtitle “From the New World”, will close the event. Creating this piece at the end of the 19th century, the Czech composer recorded his impressions of the American continent, its music, and folklore in the score. Back at the time, America was a new, unexplored world for Europeans, which aroused considerable interest and admiration. In a way, Ukraine has now become the New World for everyone; Ukraine and its people, who bravely oppose russia, protecting and defending the most important thing – Independence!

Artists:

• Dmytro Tkachenko, violin
• Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine
• Theodore Kuchar, conductor

Program:

• Stanislav Lyudkevych (1879-1979). Ukrainian Capriccio
• Evhen Stankovych (1942). Violin concerto No. 2
• Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904). Symphony No. 9 in E minor “From the New World”