[Canceled] Ukrainian Dreams

Pianist Violina Petrychenko sees the popularization of Ukrainian classical music and culture as her biggest aim. She has been living and working in Germany for many years, actively performing solo programs and being a part of chamber ensembles throughout Europe. After the beginning of the tragic events in Ukraine, she even performs the music of her native land composers at her concerts and wants to show the world how rich and diverse Ukrainian culture is.

On the stage of the Lyudkevych Concert Hall of the Lviv National Philharmonic, the pianist will perform with well-known soloists: Liliya Nikitchuk (mezzo-soprano) and Lidiya Futorska (violin), who have also been actively performing the compositions of Ukrainian composers in Ukraine and in various European countries for many years.

In the “Ukrainian Dreams” program, Violina Petrychenko, Liliya Nikitchuk, and Lidia Futorska will take everyone through bright stops of Ukrainian music and essential pages of our culture.

Mykola Lysenko‘s melancholic and lyrical piano miniatures will be the beginning of the musical event. Being the founder of the Ukrainian professional composer school, the romantic Lysenko managed to “weave” folklore elements, typical romantic imagery and melody into small piano pieces, and what is most interesting, subtly recorded emotions of excitement and sadness in the sounds.

An important role in Ukrainian culture was also played by Karol Mikuli, Chopin’s student, director of the Galician Music Society and its conservatory, and a key figure in Lviv’s musical life in the second half of the 19th century. At our event, the performers will present his vocal cycle “7 Lieder” for voice and piano after German and Austrian poets, which will be performed in Ukraine for the first time.

Few people know the name of the 19th-century Ukrainian composer Alois Jedliczka, but he was one of the first authors of the music for the famous play “Natalka Poltavka” by Ivan Kotlyarevskyi. Subsequently, individual numbers of this musical accompaniment formed the basis of the piano fantasy «Memories of Poltava. Natalka Poltavka». The folk song element of Poltava Oblast became for Jedliczka the opus magnum, so much did he like to collect folklore and make arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. This enthusiasm can be read quite well in the Fantasia, which will be performed this evening.

Being a student of Lysenko, Levko Revutskyi adopted many of his traditions. Stalin’s terror made a great impression on him, led to a mental crisis, and gave up composing at an early age. His creative period lasted only five years. His “Song” for piano is extremely poetic and melodious, and the composer himself singled it out as his favourite among his great symphonic and choral works. Revutskyi dedicated the “Song” to his son Yevhen on his 10th birthday.

Viktor Kosenko is a composer of poetry: his music is full of subtle moods of sadness and melancholy. With his creativity, he created an organic unity of Ukrainian melos and the achievements of Western European music. The composition “Dreams” for solo violin will be performed by Lidiya Futorska.

The music of Valentyn Sylvestrov, who is also called the “master of silence”, always creates a special atmosphere. His music will give the program a meditative tone. The composer himself has repeatedly noted that we live in a world that is too loud; therefore, in contrast to loudness and noise, his music often moves between the subtlest gradations of piano and pianissimo.

“The essential is often hidden in the little things,” the composer believes. That is why the spontaneity of emotion, laconicism, aphorism and maximum transparency and fragility of the image are also important for Sylvestrov. These elements of the composer’s work can be found in two cycles, “Five pieces” for violin and piano and “Five songs” after the poems of Ivan Franko, which will complete the musical evening.

Artists: 

• Violina Petrychenko, piano
• Liliia Nikitchuk, mezzo-soprano
• Lidiia Futorska, violin

Program:

• Mykola Lysenko (1842–1912). «Chant triste», «Moment of despair»
• Alois Jedliczka (1821-1894). «Memories of Poltava. Natalka Poltavka» / Fantasy on the themes of Ukrainian folk songs
• Karol Mikuli (1821–1897). 7 Lieder for voice and piano, Op. 27 (1880):
  • “Es muss was Wunderbares sein” (Lyrics by Oscar von Redwitz-Schmölz)
  • “Ich wollt’, meine Schmerzen ergössen sich” (Lyrics by Heinrich Heine)
  • “Das Veilchen” (Lyrics by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben)
  • “Wandrers Nachtlied” (Lyrics by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
  • “Du bist mein Frühling” (Lyrics by August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben)
  • “Sehnsucht” (Lyrics by Joseph Christian Freiherr von Zedlitz)
  • “Barcarole” (Lyrics by Joseph Christian Freiherr von Zedlitz)
• Levko Revutskyi (1889–1977). “Song”
• Viktor Kosenko (1896–1938). “Dreams”
• Valentyn Sylvestrov (*1937). Five pieces for violin and piano:
  • Elegy
  • Serenade
  • Intermezzo
  • Barcarole
  • Nocturne
• Valentyn Sylvestrov. Five songs based on poems by Ivan Franko:
  • «Твої очі» («Your eyes are a luminous sea»)
  • «Ой ти, дівчино» («Oh you, young lady»)
  • «Розвійтеся з вітром» («Be gone with the whirlwind»)
  • «Сипле сніг» («Strewing, strewing is the snow»)
  • «Хоч ти не будеш квіткою цвісти» («Though you will not blossom»