Granite

Artists:

• Bohdana Gabrielyan, soprano
• Volodymyr Shchygil, baritone
• National Honored Academic Chapel of Ukraine “Dumka” (Yevhen Savchuk, artistic director, People’s Artist of Ukraine)
• INSO-Lviv Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic
• Raymond Janssen, conductor (Netherlands)

Program:

• George Gershwin. Symphonic poem “An American in Paris”
• George Gershwin / Jack Jarrett. “A Tribute to Gershwin” (“Dedication to
• Gershwin”) for choir and orchestra
• George Gershwin. Excerpts from the opera “Porgy and Bess” (concert version arranged by Russell Bennett)

We invite you to a concert by the INSO-Lviv orchestra and the “Dumka” choir under the direction of the Dutch conductor Raymond Janssen. The “Granite” concert is a metaphorical dialogue between music and the energy of the city, it is a combination of emotional subtlety and material strength. This evening will be not only a journey into the world of music, but also a source of reflection on our stability, indomitability and ability to create new things on the solid foundation of the past.

Gershwin’s works, which will be performed by the INSO orchestra and the “Dumka” choral chapel, embody the urban soul, where every note is raging with the atmosphere of the streets of New York and Paris. In his symphonic and vocal works, George Gershwin combines the classical and the modern like an artist working with granite, forming the new from the old. His music is both a building material and an architectural wonder. It carries the rhythms of the city, the light and shadow of its contrasts, opens up new facets of emotions and impressions. At the concert in the Lviv Philharmonic, the artists of the INSO orchestra, like master sculptors, will “carve” shapes out of sound, filling the space with acoustic architecture, and the singers of the legendary “Thoughts” will enrich these shapes with deep meanings and bright images. Their voices will echo in the depths of consciousness, like an echo in the granite walls of a big city.

Gershwin’s sincere and original music is also like granite. In its reflection, you can see the various facets of the human soul, which, like a rock, remains solid even in the face of the harshest challenges of time. More than one generation of Ukrainians experienced these challenges. Remember at least the Revolution on Granite, which occurred in October more than 30 years ago. However, the Ukrainian people still stand and will stand in the fight for their independence. And the names of his real Heroes will forever remain on the granite tablets of his memory.