Programme

• Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983). Duo for Flute and Oboe, Op. 13 (1945)
• Gilles Silvestrini (b. 1961). Hôtel des Roches Noires à Trouville (No. 1 from Six Études for Solo Oboe, 1984)
• Gilles Silvestrini (b. 1961). Potager et arbres en fleurs. Printemps, Pontoise (No. 2 from Six Études for Solo Oboe, 1984)
• Hanna Havrylets (1958–2022). Ex libris for solo violin (1994)
• Karmella Tsepkolenko (b. 1955). Feeling of Solitude (1996)
• Alice Shields (b. 1943). Aurora — duo for violin and oboe (1987)
• Nino Rota (1911–1979). Three Duets for Flute and Violin (1973)

Performers

• Silvia Fudela — violin
• Volodymyr Lushchenko — flute
• Stepan Syvokhip — oboe

Flute, oboe and violin rarely appear without the support of a piano or an orchestra beneath them — a harmonic and textural foundation to lean on. This evening offers something different: these instruments in solos and duets, where nothing sounds but the lines themselves. The programme reaches from Argentina in 1945 to present-day Lviv, and along the way the players reveal their instruments from an unexpected side.

Alberto Ginastera opens the programme with an early Duo for Flute and Oboe. The Argentine had not yet become the modernist he would later be known as, yet the sharp rhythm and astringent harmony that make him instantly recognizable are already here.

The two pieces by Gilles Silvestrini — a French oboist and composer — are drawn quite literally from paintings: one looks out at Monet’s seaside hotel in Trouville, the other onto Pissarro’s springtime garden in Pontoise. The oboe retells Impressionist painting in sound, catching the same shimmer of light.

In their works, Hanna Havrylets and Karmella Tsepkolenko speak more of inner things. Ex libris, with the violin alone on stage, is like a signature on a flyleaf — brief and personal. Feeling of Solitude hides nothing of its subject in the title: this is music about solitude, and it must be played in solitude too.

Toward the close, the programme brightens. Aurora by the American composer Alice Shields is named for the goddess of the morning dawn. And the final word goes to Nino Rota — yes, the same Rota whose music runs through Fellini and The Godfather. His three duets for flute and violin arrive like a last warm summer breeze let into the room: a simple melody, Mediterranean light, nothing that needs explaining.