NOTES FROM THE PODIUM
by Virko Baley
Of recordings, fame, freedom of information
PART I
One can state with some security that favorite neighborhood record stores are not exactly overflowing with CDs of Ukrainian composers or performers. Yes, there are recordings by the celebrated pianists Alexander Slobodyanik (on Angel, and at the moment out-of-print) and Lydia Artymiw, but she is better, and properly, known as an American pianist, having been born, raised and trained in the United States.
There is, of course, Paul Plishka. But in terms of Ukrainian products, the situation has been rather dismal with an occasional release featuring this composer or that artist.
One can purchase on Le Chant du Monde (LDC 278 1021/23) Shostakovich's opera "Katerina Ismailova" as performed by the Kiev Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theater, conducted by Stepan Turchak, a historically important recording. The Canadian label Analekta in 1990 released a CD (AN 2 8901) of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique" and Yevhen Stankovych's Suite from the Ballet "Prometheus" as performed by the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, Ihor (Igor on the label) Blazhkov conducting.
There are, of course, the excellent recordings of Bortniansky's Choral Concerti released on Melodiya CDs in 1990 as performed by the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir, conducted by Valery Polyansky.
At this point let me quickly disarm those who will howl and ask: But what of the multi-LP set of the 35 Sacred Choral Concertos performed by the Millennium Choir, Wolodymyr Kolesnyk conducting, in celebration of 1,000 years of Christianity in Ukraine? That particular set, in spite of the enormous amount of funds invested, ended up as a vanity publication, manufactured and distributed by the Ukrainian Millennium Foundation, c/o Ukrainian Resource and Development Center of Grant MacEwan Community College. In spite of good intentions, its distribution was limited to the Ukrainian community in North America.
For those of us interested in Ukrainian composers and performers, it has always been an archaeological expedition. I well remember the old days when appointed by their, for the most part, miserable pressings (the noise ratio was at times more distinct than the quiet passages).
Since the demise of Melodiya, things in Ukraine have become even worse: there is no record company as yet (there seems to be an Audio Ukraine in the offing), and without a partner in the capitalistic West (on the order of Russian Season/Le Chant du Monde, Art & Electronics/MCA Records, joint ventures that exist in Moscow) there is no hope that one will develop in the near future.
Of the ethnic labels operating in North America, Yevshan is the best known and with the largest catalogue. But its main staple is the folk/pop market, with only an occasional foray into the classical music arena, and there, mainly as a mail-order distributor. There is a rumor that the company intends to release a CD of the music of Myroslav Skoryk. That is an act to be applauded if Yevshan can also hook into a viable distribution network.
On the other hand, things are beginning to change in that, at least, Ukrainian music and performers are beginning to appear on established international labels. Three more or less recent releases attest to that: the French Erato Disques last February released a disc devoted to the three piano sonatas and the cello sonata by Valentin Silvestrov, and the Swedish BIS has issued two in a series of projected recordings featuring the artistry of the violinist Oleh Krysa. These two recordings continue the company's plan to record all of Alfred Schnittke's music. The first is made up of the Violin Concerti Nos. 3 and 4, and the second consists of Concerto No. 2 for Cello and Orchestra and Concerto Grosso No. 2 for Violin, Cello and Orchestra. Both CDs that feature Mr. Krysa have been available in the U.S. for a number of months now, while Mr. Silvestrov's still awaits a U.S. release (it was released in Europe in March 1992).
Of the two composers, Mr. Schnittke is the better known and is possibly the most frequently performed of all living composers.
Mr. Silvestrov is just now beginning to make serious inroads into the world arena. He recently signed an exclusive contract with Peters Verlag in Frankfurt, Germany, one of the more important publishing houses, and they are planning on releasing a CD of his 4th and 5th symphonies. Within the next few months the label Etcetera (distributed by Qualiton Imports) is planning to release the Lysenko Quartet's performance of his Two String Quartets and the youthful Quartetto Piccolo.
In March 1993 Olympia Digital Recordings will release a CD of various works conducted by Virko Baley that also includes Mr. Silvestrov's "Postludium" for piano and orchestra. Later in the spring his new work for piano and orchestra will receive its premiere as part of the prestigious Berlin Festwoche.
Silvestrov was honored by the first "festival" dedicated to his music in the city of Ekaterinenburg (Sverdlovsk), Russia, which was organized by the pianist on the Erato recording, Alexei Lubimov and Andre Boreiko, the conductor of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, in late January through February 4, 1992.
Mr. Lubimov has been a champion of Mr. Silverstrov's music for many years. It is ironic that such a festival occurred on the territory of Russia, rather than Ukraine.
The truism about "the prophet in his own land continues and will continue to operate. Nevertheless, one can now say with a certain degree of accuracy that Valentin Silvestrov has become an international name in music.
As Silvestrov's music begins to gain greater recognition, comparisons between him and Schnittke will be inevitable, because both composers have dealt with the death of the avant-garde, and thus, to a certain extent, with what appeared to be the death of European cultural sensibility. This aesthetic produced an evolutionary ideology which implies that things must continually move forward in a historically inevitable way, a sort of Darwinian survival of the most evolved.
But nature has a way of confounding artistic prognostication, and it now seems that the supposition of the death of the European and American avant-garde was premature. Music has digested its accomplishments, and has begun to try to find a synthesis between the new and the old.
Both Schnittke and Silvestrov are good examples of this way of working (as are John Adams, Henryk-Mikolaj Gorecki, Bernard Rands, etc.). Of the two, Schnittke is the more obviously modern, formally and stylistically adventurous, and reminds me in many ways of the 19th century composer Meyerbeer.
Schnittke plays with being avant-garde. Silvestrov (with few exceptions, such as Symphony No. 2 and "Drama") uses the advanced techniques with much less interest in formal experimentation. Schnittke's achievement is to be above all modern. The two composers I would compare in another way: Schnittke is like the French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard, while Silvestrov is more like Ingmar Bergman.
Silvestrov's great achievement is to have created a genuinely consistent synthesis between the needs of the new and the eternal verities of the human condition. In other words, in his best works (such as the Second Piano Sonata on this CD, the fourth and fifth symphonies, "Meditation" for cello and chamber orchestra, first string quartet and the Shevchenko cantata (still, by the way, unperformed in the land where "choruses" are such an important part of the culture that brags so much about its choral tradition) he has managed to create a totally comprehensible structure. Silvestrov's formal experimentations are more content-driven. In Schnittke they have a life of their own, often ironic, virtuosic and deliberate.
Silvestrov has embraced the European tradition, while Schnittke tends to use it as if it were a solitary improvisation of an absorbed guerrilla trying to make sense using a disintegrating common language. Thus, as the styles turn on each other, the work becomes a house of mirrors, each with its own affectation, and as the sound-image moves from one to the other, it changes accordingly. Silvestrov attempts to hide this discrepancy, to show the common link between the new and the old, and to show that the old is eternally renewable - a concept generally viewed as reactionary in the more advanced circles.
Both composers are struggling towards a new synthesis, but Silvestrov is more interested in the expression of the face, Schnittke in the expression of the body. Both show remarkable brilliance, and both have achieved an instantly recognizable style.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 10, 1993, No. 2, Vol. LXI
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