To the Last Day of Summer-2022

The concert program consists of two sections that complement each other. It has repetitions and diversity at the same time. Violinist Orest Smovzh says:

“For me, the most important goal of the first block of the program is to play all the works for violin and piano ever written by Satie and Britten. What a pity that together they last a little less than 30 minutes! And although this is not what attracted me to this choice, there is something else in common: Satie wrote these plays in France during the First World War. And in Britten’s creativity, the military theme, although very elegantly demonstrated, is present from the very beginning of his work. He is known as the creator of the monumental “War Requiem”, but he has a number of works written in his youth in an articulated pacifist manner. The Suite, the premiere Britten heard in Barcelona, ​​surrounded by the Spanish Civil War, has the same tangent.

The idea of ​​our program with Maksym Shadko arose from completely abstract thoughts, sympathies for composers, and anticipation, the desire for summer. I was listening to Britten’s Piano Variations (1965) and discussing abstract piano programs at the same time: so from the combination of my very old love of Britten and my recent fascination with Satie, I decided that there might be a very unusual concert that I would go to.

Both composers give me a feeling of musical “freshness”. That’s why I wanted to hear them in the company of works that evoke similar feelings in me, and in the company of periods of creativity of composers that create a feeling not of “lightness”, but of some transparency, ease and sincere non-dramatic delight. This is a sonata by 10-year-old Mozart, a rondo by Beethoven, written by him even before his most famous works, Cage‘s Nocturne with extraordinary fragility. And also, as a fan of Finnish music, I couldn’t help adding a piece by the Finnish composer Hirvela, and for the same reason, a piece by the Ukrainian author Vyshynskyi appeared in the program.

For a very long time, I have admired Mozart’s works, written during his childhood and adolescence. In it, even more than in other works, a child’s play with genres and instruments is noticeable, but there is also a very sincere emotionality in them. In Beethoven’s Rondo, one can already see the person who will write his 10 violin sonatas and many other works.

The work of the Finnish composer Hirvelä was written with the thought of a scene from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, where a dream, a feeling of guilt, and being haunted by voices in the head are mixed. The music itself is semi-playful, such that it can cause fever with its changeability and certain theatricality. I wouldn’t say that it is exactly about the road to madness, but I think it captures the richness and slight (sometimes ironic) creepiness inherent in the English playwright. From one point of view, it is interesting to play music of a composer with whom I am not personally familiar and who does not suspect about our concert with Maksym Shadko, but from another point of view, except for Vyshynskyi, this also applies to all other composers of the concert.

In Vyshynskyi‘s composition, the title itself is primarily a sequence of notes “C”, “A”, “G”, and “E”, but there is also an obvious stylistic appeal to Cage’s music. This is also a certain spatiality, rigidity, listening, the idea of ​​meditation, and the use of instruments as sound objects of the noise type. And the first line of the violin is a small salute to “Six Melodies” by Cage.

During this “Muses Are Not Silent” project, I don’t want to think about the Ukrainian victory (for me, this word has a lot of weight, it’s hard to pronounce physically, and it’s a lot of fatigue). I want to concentrate on the way to it. How do I think musicians can help along the way? To find people who need music and create an opportunity for that music.”

Artists:

• Orest Smovzh, violin
• Maksym Shadko, piano

Program:

• Erik Satie (1866–1925). “Choses vues à droite et à gauche (sans lunettes)” (1914)
  Choral hypocrite
  Fugue à tâtons
  Fantaisie musculaire 
• Benjamin Britten (1913–1976). Suite, ор. 6 (1935)
  Introduction. Andante maestoso
  March. Allegro alla marcia
  Moto perpetuo. Allegro molto e con fuoco
  Lullaby. Lento tranquillo
  Waltz. Alla Valse: Vivace e rubato
• Erik Satie. “Autre Choral” (1914)
• Benjamin Britten. “Reveille” (1937) 
• Erik Satie. “Embarquement pour Cythère” (1917) 
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Sonata KV 27 (1781)
• Jouni Hirvelä (1982). “Macbeth Fragments” (2014)
• John Cage (1912–1992). “Nocturne” (1947)
• Vitalii Vyshynskyi (1983). “CAGE Meditation on Strings and Beyond Them” (2014)
• Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Rondo, Wo O41

Moderator: Polina Kordovska

Live broadcast provided by:
Andrij Zelenyj, camera
Mykola Khshanovskyi, live broadcast director
Marian Lesiuk, sound director
Bohdan Sehin, producer

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“Ukraine–2022. Muses Are Not Silent” is a concert series in support of Ukrainian musicians during the russian armed aggression. Online concerts will become a platform for the uniting of the Ukrainian music community, as many musicians participating in these concert programs have become internally displaced people and have found shelter in Lviv.

We provide a free opportunity for the whole world to watch concerts on the official YouTube channel of the Lviv National Philharmonic. At the same time, we suggest our listeners from abroad make charitable donations to Ukrainian musicians who have stayed here in Ukraine.

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