Polish-Ukrainian musical dialogues in Ukraine
CONCERTS
The “Pro Musica Viva” Foundation and the Chamber Ensemble “Kiev Soloists” with the status of a National Cultural Institution of Ukraine realised a series of concerts entitled “Polish-Ukrainian Musical Dialogues” in nine cities of central and eastern Ukraine. “Polish-Ukrainian musical dialogues”. The repertoire of the concerts was filled with works by Polish and Ukrainian composers selected to represent different generations – from acknowledged masters to younger artists who have already revealed their talent. Such a juxtaposition showed the creative tension between Polish and Ukrainian music and gave the audience the opportunity to read stylistic parallels and differences.
The concerts of the Kiev Soloists Chamber Ensemble under the name “Polish-Ukrainian Musical Dialogues” are a kind of culmination of my long-standing efforts to bring Polish and Ukrainian music closer together. From the memorable “Evening of Premieres” in Lviv in 1995, which gave birth to the Contemporary Music Festival “Contrasts”, where many Polish works and Polish performers were presented, through a series of concerts in 2013 with the music of Witold Lutoslawski with the participation of 10 Ukrainian orchestras of important cultural centres in Ukraine to the four Festivals “Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw”, as well as many other ventures that have presented Polish music in Ukraine and Ukrainian music in Poland – these are the bridges that, thanks to the favour of various institutions and individuals, I have managed to build over these already more than 20 years of my organisational and conducting activities. I would particularly like to single out the Lviv ‘Contrasts’ Festival, where at its inception we broke the Soviet aesthetic paradigm. And although this was not entirely successful, performances by the percussion virtuoso Stanisław Skoczyński, the esoteric composer Mieczysław Litwiński, the ‘Nonstrom’ Ensemble, soloists, choir and orchestra of the Krakow Philharmonic under the direction of Krzysztof Penderecki, the arrivals of symphonic orchestras from Warsaw – the Polish Radio Orchestra and the “Sinfonia Varsovia” Orchestra – have built up an aesthetic breadth which to this day places “Contrasts” among the most important platforms for contemporary music in Ukraine. It is also the place where Bohdana Frolyak, Bohdan Sehin, Mykhaylo Shved, Lubava Sydorenko, Zoltan Almashi – today’s leading Ukrainian composers of their generation – built their aesthetic world. I cannot fail to mention here the concert tour of the Polish Orchestra “Sinfonia Iuventus” in Poland and Ukraine, during which works by the above-mentioned and other Ukrainian composers, grantees of the “Gaude Polonia” programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, were performed. In 2015, with the Kiev Soloists Chamber Ensemble, we performed in Poland with a concert entitled ‘Concert of Ukrainian music – in solidarity with Ukraine’.
Roman Rewakowicz
Concert schedule: 16.05.2016 - Cherkasy, Concert Hall of the Cherkasy Philharmonic 17.05.2016 - Kirovograd, Concert hall of the Kirovograd Philharmonic 18.05.2016 - Kryvyi Rih, Concert Hall of the Music School 19.05.2016 - Zaporozhzhia, Concert hall of the Zaporizhia Philharmonic 20.05.2016 - Dnipropetrovsk, Concert hall of the Dnipropetrovsk Philharmonic 22.05.2016 - Kharkiv, Concert hall of the Kharkiv Philharmonic 23.05.2016 - Sumy, Concert hall of the Sumy Philharmonic 24.05.2016 - Poltava, Concert Hall of the Poltava Philharmonic 28.05.2015 - Kyiv, Concert Hall of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine Programme: - Tomasz Opałka (ur. 1983) – HemiSphere for string orchestra - Zoltan Almashi (b. 1975) - "Concerto grosso" for string orchestra - Igor Szczerbakow (ur. 1955) – Warum for string orchestra - Zygmunt Krauze (ur. 1938) – Aus aller Welt stammende for string orchestra - Maciej Zieliński (ur. 1971) – Shinning II - Oleksandr Shymko (b. 1977) - "Dreams of an Old Forest" for string orchestra - Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937) - "Silent music" for string orchestra - Wojciech Kilar (1932-2013) – "Orawa" for string orchestra Performers Chamber ensemble "Kyiv Soloists" Roman Rewakowicz - conductor