Zuk Duo premiers new Ukrainian works in "Music from Ukraine" chamber concert (02/02/97)

Zuk Duo premiers new Ukrainian works in "Music from Ukraine" chamber concert

MONTREAL - The faculty of music at McGill University will present the Luba and Ireneus Zuk Piano Duo with the participation of Eugene Husaruk, violin, and Marcel Saint-Cyr, cello, in a concert of Ukrainian chamber music, on Monday, February 10.

The concert program will consist entirely of works by composers from Ukraine. The program will feature world premieres of works for two pianos written for Luba and Ireneus Zuk: Dramatic Triptych for Two Pianos (1993) by Lesia Dychko from Kyiv, and Three Dances for Two Pianos (1995) by Myroslav Skoryk from Lviv. Antiphons (1992) by Oleksander Krasotov from Odesa will have its North American premiere.

The program will include also Sonata Op. 18 for Violin and Piano by Viktor Kosenko, performed by Messrs. Husaruk and Zuk; and a group of works for cello and piano, Dumka by Vasyl Barvinsky and Lyric Piece and Dance by Mykola Dremliuha, performed by Mr. Saint-Cyr and Ms. Zuk.

Profs. Luba Zuk and Marcel Saint-Cyr are members of the McGill Faculty of Music. Mr. Zuk is professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and Mr. Husaruk is associate concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

The concert will be held in Pollack Concert Hall, 555 Sherbrooke St. W., at 8 p.m. For additional information call the McGill concert office, (514) 398-4547 or 398-5145.

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Regarding the composers whose works will be performed:

· Lesia Dychko (born 1939), is a prolific composer known primarily for her compositions of choral music, which have been performed in several European countries and in North America. She has also written works for solo voice and for orchestra, as well as ballet scores and an opera. Ms. Dychko studied at the Kyiv Conservatory. As member of the executive of the Ukrainian Composers Association, she has been highly active in recent years in the promotion of national and international musical events. Her "Dramatic Triptych" (1993) was written for the Zuk Duo, inspired by their concert at the Second International Kyiv Music Fest. In this work elements of Ukrainian ritual chants, folk songs, and folk dances serve as the thematic basis for three contrasting movements with distinct pianistic sonorities.

· Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963), a native of western Ukraine, was a prominent and influential composer in the first half of the 20th century. Professor and director of the Lysenko Institute of Music in Lviv, his major output was in instrumental music. The work "Dumka" for cello and piano is imbued with melodic and rhythms patterns inherent in Ukrainian folk music; it is also characteristic of his neo-romantic style, incorporating impressionistic touches and expressive lyricism.

· Composer and musicologist Mykola Dremliuha (born 1917), studied at the Kyiv Conservatory, where he was later a professor of composition. He has composed both large- and small-scale works. His "Lyric Piece and Dance," arranged for cello and piano by Petro Pshenychka, are based on Ukrainian folk music.

· Composer and pedagogue Oleksander Krasotov (born 1936), studied at the Odesa Conservatory where he has been a professor of theory and composition for many years. He has composed numerous works in various genres. "Antiphons" (1992) was written as an exploration of two-piano sonorities, emphasizing primarily the percussive aspect of the instrument. Following serial techniques, the work features the alternation and superimposition of a chorale-like theme and toccata-like sections, resulting in an energetic virtuoso work.

· Composer, pianist and pedagogue, Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938) studied at the Petrograd Conservatory and taught at the Zhytomyr Music Tekhnikum, at the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute in Kyiv and at the Kyiv Conservatory. His Sonata Op. 18 for violin and piano, evokes the character of typical Ukrainian melodic and rhythmic patterns with sometimes surprising harmonic changes.

· Myroslav Skoryk's (born 1938) "Three Dances for Two Pianos" (1955) points to the composer's interest in popular music traditions. The work is a sophisticated pastiche of several idioms. It is full of wit with moments of surprise, and marked by original musical insights.

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