Ukrainian themes in Western music to be highlighted at UIA concert (01/18/98)

Ukrainian themes in Western music to be highlighted at UIA concert

by Roman Sawycky

NEW YORK - The Chamber Music Society of the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York, the artistic director of which is Mykola Suk, will be heard in a rare program titled "Ukrainian Themes in Western Music" on January 24 at 8 p.m. The concert - more than a year in preparation - will include selections from Loeffler, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Hummel, Rands and Beethoven.

Featured performers are Oksana Krovytska, soprano; Mr. Suk, piano; the Leontovych String Quartet; Vyacheslav Bakis, piano; and guest artist Maria Elena Tobon, flute. The concert is sponsored by the Self-Reliance (N.Y.) Federal Credit Union.

One wonders why master artists or writers did not concern themselves with Ukrainian themes, while master composers left so much evidence to the contrary. This concert offers a tantalizing taste of what is out there waiting to be heard.

Alsatian American composer Charles Loeffler (1861-1935) spent his childhood near Kyiv (late 1860s) and later recalled those musical impressions in major works. He was, therefore, a cosmopolitan impressionist drawing from many sources, fashioning his music carefully with skill and sensitivity. "Les Veilees de l 'Ukraine," based on Gogol (Mykola Hohol), is a suite of four movements, originally scored for violin and orchestra. It premiered in 1897 with the composer as soloist and the Boston Symphony under Arthur Nikisch. The work's bright harmonics incorporate Ukrainian modal flavor, song fragments and an exuberant folk humor often found in Gogol. The suite was never published or recorded; this performance makes use of the original manuscripts.

Franz Liszt's (1811-1866) grandiose canvases were sometimes followed by delicate miniatures completing his own portrait of a romantic hero. Liszt, who toured in Ukraine, spent an entire year there in 1847. The ancient ballad of tragic love, attributed to the legendary Kozak songstress Marusia Churai, "Oy Ne Khody, Hrytsiu," served as base material for Liszt's "Balladed' Ukraine," part of the set "Glanes de Woronince" (The Voronyntsi Sheaf).

Taras Shevchenko's poetry emerged in works by Mussorgsky and Prokofiev, while Tchaikovsky and his protégé Sergei Rachmaninoff preferred the bard's bucolic or broading moods. Rachmaninoff, a frequent visitor to Ukraine, chose three Russian translations by Pleshcheyev and Bunin, dealing with the theme of fate, the cornerstone of his own musical oeuvre. All three songs, penned in 1893 and 1906, are monologues or vocal declamations with well-developed piano parts, which may serve as duets for voice and piano.

One 18th century tune, "The Kozak Rides Beyond the Danube," was never surpassed in terms of world acceptance when compared with other Ukrainian melodies. Not a folk song, it was penned by the Kozak poet S. Klymovsky and depicted the sweet sorrow of parting lovers. It served the Austrian-Bohemian piano virtuoso, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837), who came up with the most delightful, classic trio on this material (Vienna, 1818). The richness of color, ornamentation and dynamic motion surpass even the Beethoven chamber piece on the same tune.

Among Beethoven's (1770-1827) most splendid works are the three String Quartets Op. 59, commissioned by and dedicated to the Ukrainian Count Andrii Rozumovsky. Until recently, Western musicology had simply assumed the folk themes employed in the set were Russian. (The count's roots were not well publicized, and he was the ambassador of Russia.) The late Yakov Soroker documents in his definitive volume "Ukrainian Musical Elements in Classical Music" (Toronto: CIUS Press, 1995) that such "obligatory" analyses have been erroneous. Soroker supports the view that Beethoven preferred Ukrainian folk songs to the Russian, due to the closeness of Ukrainian melodies to the European music system.

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