Light and Shadows

Artists:

• József Örmény, piano
• Academic Chamber Orchestra “Lviv Virtuosos”
• Roman Rewakowicz, conductor

Program:

• Mykola Lysenko. String Quartet in D minor arranged for string orchestra
• Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Concerto for piano and string orchestra
• Valentyn Silvestrov. 3 Serenades for piano and string orchestra
• Mieczysław Karłowicz. Serenade for string Op. 2
• Myroslav Skoryk. “Diptych” for string orchestra

“Lviv Virtuosos” conclude the concert season with the contrast of light and darkness, life and death, love and hate, the quintessence of the deepest feelings. After all, in the end, one wants to leave a memorable mark. It will be shared with the orchestra by one of the outstanding conductors of Eastern Europe, Roman Rewakowicz.

Roman Rewakowicz has been establishing Polish-Ukrainian cultural relations for many years and is an ambassador of Ukrainian music in Poland and Polish music in Ukraine. Thus, on the conductor’s initiative, the “Days of Ukrainian Music” were founded in Warsaw, which are organically connected with the activities of the Pro Musica Viva Foundation he created. In Ukraine, concerts of Ukrainian-Polish music with the participation of Roman Rewakowicz are held with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland and in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Kyiv.

The five works selected for the program not only represent the music of neighboring countries, but also create a holistic architecture of the evening, balancing between drama and romance. Thus, the evening will begin with the String Quartet of Mykola Lysenko. The composer completed it in his young years of studying in Leipzig. Lysenko combined the influence of the classical Viennese school in the quartet with the recognizable melody of Ukrainian songs.

Lysenko’s delicacy will be contrasted by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s Concerto for Piano and Strings, a rich and dramatic work with an atypical structure: just two short movements at a fast pace and a virtuoso solo performed by pianist József Örmény.

The light after such an emotional whirlwind will be Valentyn Silvestrov’s airy and tender Serenades. Their deceptive simplicity is a real challenge for the orchestra, because in order to create the effect of music that seems to be born from the listener’s memory, it is necessary to reproduce the most subtle and quiet nuances.

The romantic mood of Silvestrov’s music will be continued by Mieczysław Karłowicz’s Serenade. According to the conductor, the key to this work is in its leisurely pace, when even in a packed hall you can be alone with beauty and have enough time to be absorbed by it.

And the evening will conclude with Myroslav Skoryk’s “Diptych”, in which the Maestro embodied two elements, two opposite poles, between which human life is stretched – peace, sorrow and unbridled energy, stillness and action, as the very names of the pieces say: “Lamento” and “Perpetuum mobile”.