2nd Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw

2nd Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw
For the second time, we present to you the “Days of Ukrainian Music in Warsaw”. Encouraged by the very good reception of audiences and critics, we have decided to once again introduce our music lovers to Ukrainian music, which is not known in our country. You will read many of the composers’ names for the first time. Reading their biographies and listening to their works will certainly make us realise that here is a very interesting musical tradition taking place across the eastern border – a direction generally unpopular today.

This time, two concerts – a chamber and an oratorio – will present older and newer Ukrainian music. The absence of an a cappella choral concert does not allow us to show the beginnings of this music with its apogee in the works of Maxim Berezovsky, Artem Wedel and Dmitry Bortniansky. Speaking of professional Ukrainian music of later times, it is necessary to begin its presentation with Mykola Lysenko, who played a role in Ukrainian music similar to that of Stanislav Moniuszko in Polish music – interpreting the folklore of his culture in a 19th-century romantic manner. Lysenko’s songs to words by Taras Shevchenko represent a very important combination of great literary and musical creativity. In the chamber concert, composers such as Vasyl Barvinsky, without whom it would be difficult to imagine the development of Ukrainian musical culture – in this case in Western Ukraine – are featured alongside composers who did not leave much of a legacy – Siczynski, Stepovy, although their songs are certainly vocal gems. Perhaps we will also be delighted by the freshness of invention of Lesa Dyczko, a composer from Kyiv. Alongside the song repertoire, you will encounter two instrumental pieces – Fragments by Bohdana Frolyak and Post Scriptum by Valentin Silvestrov. The first piece – a work by a young composer from Lviv – oscillates around Hutsul folklore in a very interesting way, bearing witness to the fact that anonymous-archetypal folk culture is still a rich source of inspiration. Post Scriptum – a work by an artist with a very clear and formed face, is a kind of meta-commentary to what has come before in the concert. It is the essence of the need to find beauty, harmony, a dimension of contemplation and meditation …

The oratorio concert will present two works – Palimpsests by Yuriy Laniuk and A Word on the Expedition by Igor, son of Svyatoslav, grandson of Oleh Yevhen Stankovych. Palimpsests – meaning successive writing on parchment that has been cleared of previous writing – make us reach lost or hidden meanings. In this piece, the composer uses poetry by Vasyl Stus and stanzas from the Apocalypse of St John in Greek. But doesn’t there sound an echo of Ukrainian dumka in this sonority? The Old Russian epic about the expedition of Igor, Prince of Kiev, brings back the old dramas and – who knows – maybe today it wants to warn us and move us back to the past. We attend the first performance of the work.

Roman Rewakowicz