ALMA

Performers

• INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra
• Students of the INSO-Lviv Academy
• Yurii Bervetskyi, conductor

Program

• Vasyl Barvinskyi. “String Quartet for Youth on Ukrainian Folk Themes”
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “Symphony No. 25 in G minor”
• Vasyl Barvinskyi. “Ukrainian Rhapsody”
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “Symphony No. 40 in G minor”

At the beginning of spring, the city resonates differently. The light lingers longer, the air becomes more transparent, and the inner pulse attunes itself to the depth of G minor, a key that holds both tension and illumination. The entire program of the ALMA concert by the INSO-Lviv Academy is shaped within this tonal sphere. The evening brings together Ukrainian and European traditions, strengthening the bond between generations as music rooted in cultural memory is entrusted to those entering the orchestral world, transforming heritage into personal experience and artistic maturity.

A central place in both the program and Ukrainian culture belongs to Vasyl Barvinskyi, whose life was marked by repression, destroyed manuscripts, and years of silence. Today his music returns as an essential part of the national legacy. The “String Quartet for Youth on Ukrainian Folk Themes” delicately introduces folk melody into the камерне texture and cultivates the art of listening within an ensemble. The “Ukrainian Rhapsody” carries this same intonational source into the orchestral realm. It is based on two folk songs, “Teche richka nevelychka” and “Maksym kozak Zalizniak”, which Barvinskyi reimagines and unfolds into a vivid symphonic narrative.

In dialogue with Barvinskyi stands the European classical tradition represented by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his two symphonies in G minor. Symphony No. 25, often referred to as the Little G minor, was composed when Mozart was seventeen, yet it is charged with dramatic intensity and youthful audacity. Symphony No. 40, the Great G minor, is among the most recognizable symphonic works in the world, its principal theme long embedded in film, advertising, and popular culture. Together these two symphonies demonstrate how a single key can encompass a wide spectrum of human experience, from youthful impulse to profound inner drama.

The INSO-Lviv Academy bears the symbolic name Alma, a Latin word meaning nourishing and sustaining. It is an institution in which the orchestra becomes an environment for professional formation and the stage a space of responsibility. Here young musicians enter tradition not through abstraction but through direct orchestral practice, collaboration with mentors, and immersion in the major repertoire.

Alma is a space of growth and open possibility, where a new generation of musicians is shaped through the transmission of experience, mentorship, and the union of youthful energy with professional maturity.