In Yevhen Petrychenko’s project Concerto Grosso with a Positive, the focus will be on the present, changing for the better every second because of special people. It is easy to see these people in the pitch black because they are agents of change and initiators of innovations in society. They are creators, they are passionate. 

So, this project is about the creators of beauty in times of horror, about light in times of pitch darkness, and about positive in times of total negativity.

Our “big concert with a positive”, as we interpret the “concerto grosso with positive” (“positive” is also the name of the portable organ used in the work), combines two dimensions: real and virtual.

The first dimension is revealed in the traditional way of classical music. From number to number, the performers tell their enlightened stories about love, faith, beauty, hope, nature, care, and responsibility. The underlying texts of these monologues are extremely affective and resonate with the present, because their creators are true and sincere contemporaries: Roman Melish, Oleksandr Kozynets, Nadiya Kosarevych, Victoriia Amelina, and Volodymyr Vakulenko.

The virtual dimension is an augmented reality that each viewer will be able to create themselves using their own smartphone (all they need to do is download a special mobile application). Each musical number is illustrated with drawings by graphic designer Ruslan Motko. And in these animated drawings, one can easily recognize the fantastic animals of Mariia Prymachenko and the characters of Polina Raiko’s Oleshky Painted House, the flowers of Kateryna Bilokur and the dandelions of Anzhelika Rudnytska, the characters from Antonio Correia’s murals and Banksy graffiti.

The author of the project is composer Yevhen Petrychenko: “The contemporary space is overwhelmed with militant energy, and there are absolutely clear reasons for this. The energy of the “Concerto Grosso with Positive” is the exact opposite, it should restore and revive very simple and understandable things in a person (contemplation of the sunset, touching a loved one, a sense of comfort and family security, etc.), which we often forget about, which are often lost in a militarized society. If you like, it’s a therapeutic work.”

Artistic Director of Liatoshynskyi Capella: Early Music Ensemble, Natalia Khmilevska says: “The modern world is like the world of the Baroque era. It does not know peace, it is spontaneous and metaphorical, beauty and ugliness, life and death, spirituality and sensuality, instant and eternity, high and low coexist in it at the same time.”

Artists:

• Liatoshynskyi Capella: Early Music Ensemble 

of the National House of Music (Kyiv)

Vocal Ensemble:

• Nataliia Khmilevska, soprano, director of the Early Music Ensemble
• Olesia Liuba, soprano
• Vladyslava Pryimachuk, mezzo-soprano
• Olena Tsyhankova, mezzo-soprano
• Roman Melish, countertenor
• Maksym Lishchuk, tenor
• Volodymyr Sokolovskyi, baritone
• Kostyantyn Lenchyk, bass

Instrumental ensemble:

• Nataliia Fomenko, positive organ, harpsichord
• Tetiana Andriievska, violin
• Tetiana Voynarovska, violin
• Kateryna Markova, violin
• Tetiana Nguen, violin
• Andrii Chop, viola
• Tetiana Hrechanivska, cello
• Dmytro Tretiak, double bass
• Ihor Tarnovetskyi, theorba

Program:

Yevhen Petrychenko (1976). “Concerto Grosso with Positive” (2023) world premiere

• “The Stars”
• “He” (text by Roman Melish)
• “Swallows and Hares”
• “The Dream Carrier” (text by Oleksandr Kozynets)
• “Ukrainian Wedding” (an arrangement of the wedding song “Oh, how the mother gave her daughter”, recorded in Rybinske village, Volnovakha district, Donetsk region. Sung by Tryhub Olha, born in 1918).
• “Dandelion’s Birthday” (lyrics by Volodymyr Vakulenko)
• “Daddy’s Lullaby” (lyrics by Volodymyr Vakulenko)
• “The Violinists”
• “He Knows” (lyrics by Victoria Amelina)
• “Heavenly Flowers”
• “She” (lyrics by Nadia Kosarevych)
• “The City”

Moderator is Polina Kordovska