Contrasts 31. Vita&Morte

Performers:

• Stepan Syvokhip, oboe (UA)
• Andrii Pavlov, violin (UA)
• Ustym Zhuk, viola (UA)
• Denys Lytvynenko, cello (UA)
• Myroslav Drahan, harpsichord (UA)
• Oksana Rapita, piano (UA)
• Violina Petrychenko, piano (UA)
• Chamber Choir “Gloria” (UA)
• Lviv Virtuosos Academic Chamber Orchestra (UA)
• Volodymyr Syvokhip, conductor, moderator (UA)

Program:

• Yurii Laniuk (*1957, UA). Chamber Music for strings, piano, harpsichord, and percussion (1989), dedicated to Andrzej Nikodemowicz
• Oleksandr Shchetynsky (*1960, UA). Bach’s Labyrinth for string orchestra (2025)
• Karmella Tsepkolenko (*1955, UA). Chamber Symphony No. 7 (2025)
• Maksym Kolomiiets (*1981, UA). The Valley of Seven Suns (To all the bright souls who keep us safe) for violin, viola, and string orchestra (2024), world premiere
• Oleksandr Rodin (*1975, UA). Largamente for cello and string orchestra (2023)
• Bohdana Froliak (*1968, UA). Music for Anngel for oboe and orchestra (2024)
• Nocturne for piano and strings (2008/2025) from the Suite for Cello in C
• Hanna Havrylets (*1958–2022, UA). Stabat Mater for choir and orchestra (2002)

True life and death in art always appear already transfigured into a certain artistic image. This time, we invite you to a concert that becomes a simulation of the passage between these two states: a journey in which the eternal play of being and non-being is revealed through the power and symbols of sound.

Illusions of presence will be evoked by compositions dedicated to notable artists. For example, Oleksandr Shchetynsky’s work, being heard in Lviv for the first time, unfolds as a journey through a labyrinth of sound webs, in which brief quotes from Book I of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier occasionally appear and vanish. According to the composer, the micropolyphonic texture and extensive use of quarter-tones add to the music’s sense of illusion. The memory of Hanna Havrylets, the composer’s sister who passed away in 2022, is preserved in Bohdana Froliak’s Music for Anngel.

Yurii Laniuk expressed gratitude to his teacher, Andrzej Nikodemowicz, through the dedication of his Chamber Music. He recalls that it was their conversations that inspired him to write: “We talked about philosophical and religious topics, though how could we? I was just a student, and he was already a renowned and widely performed composer. It was probably then, under the influence of those conversations, that I first felt the desire to become a composer.”

Reflections on the present became the cornerstone of the idea behind the Seventh Chamber Symphony by this year’s jubilarian, Karmella Tsepkolenko. The first attempts to create this symphony date back to 1998, but the work was interrupted and set aside for decades. Only in 2020, during the pandemic, did the composer return to the old score and complete it. After the Seventh Symphony, Tsepkolenko once again turned to the chamber format, treating the string orchestra not as a homogeneous group but as an ensemble of individualities. The work consists of four movements, with a total duration of about 12–13 minutes, revealing the full spectrum of the contemporary string orchestra’s sound.

Dzvenyslava Safian