Virtuosos 43. FOR SHEVCHENKO

It’s amazing how one artist managed to awaken the hearts of millions of descendants – Shevchenko’s Kobzar was one of the books that Mykhailo Starytskyi and Mykola Lysenko secretly read in their youth. It was the sense of freedom he gained in his youth that inspired the composer to create uniquely Ukrainian music for many years and to capture Shevchenko’s legendary masterpiece in music.

For half a century, Lysenko worked on Music to Kobzar, choosing a path identical to Shevchenko’s combination of folk art and academicism that resulted in 82 pieces organized into seven series. Even the most ardent admirers of Shevchenko and Lysenko would not be able to fit such a volume of music into one program, so the soloists-baritone Stanislav Badrak, cellist Yaroslav Myhal, and pianist Myroslav Drahan limited themselves to selected compositions after Shevchenko’s texts.

Artists:

• Stanislav Badrak, baritone
• Yaroslav Myhal, cello
• Myroslav Dragan, piano

The program includes music by Sydir Vorobkevych, Denys Sichynskyi, Stanislav Liudkevych, Yakiv Stepovyi, Valentyn Silvestrov, and Bohdana Frolyak.