Zuk Duo presents music of Canadian composers in Montreal (02/25/01)

Zuk Duo presents music of Canadian composers in Montreal

by Fran Ponomarenko

MONTREAL - On February 2 at the Pollack Concert Hall of McGill University, the internationally renowned Canadian Ukrainian piano duo team of Luba and Ireneus Zuk presented a concert of music by three contemporary Ukrainian composers, as well as an important piece by the Canadian composer Healey Willan (1880-1968) and a composition by the Spanish composer Manuel Infante (1883-1958).

This was a rare treat for the Montreal audience because it is not very often that one gets to hear modern classical Ukrainian music. In fact, Luba Zuk and her brother Ireneus Zuk are very special ambassadors, for among other commitments - teaching at McGill University and directing the School of Music at Queen's University, respectively, and performing as soloists - they have dedicated themselves to presenting Ukrainian composers to international audiences around the world.

In conversations with Prof. Luba Zuk I have often heard her say that it is a pity that non-Ukrainians are most familiar only with our folk culture because Ukrainian culture is not now (nor has it ever been) exclusively folk culture, important and sacred as that is. Ukrainian culture developed alongside Western European culture and often migrated beyond the borders of Ukraine; in turn Western influences were also felt by artists in Ukraine. To assume that Ukrainian culture is synonymous with folk culture (as is done far too often by the uninformed) is to shortchange many great composers and artists from Ukraine, as well as to minimize what the Ukrainian nation produced and what it has to offer. As a result, Luba and Ireneus Zuk have a vast number of fascinating world-class Ukrainian composers in their repertoire: Bortniansky, Kosenko, Lysenko, Kos-Anatolsky, Liashenko, Revutsky, Fiala, Fomenko, Skoryk, Dychko and others.

Of the Ukrainian compositions that were presented at this concert, a number had a strong neoclassical bent, and some had a blend of neo-folkloric and neo-classical tendencies. Among these were "Ukrainian Dance" (1979) by George Fiala, with its dissonant harmonies and incisive rhythmic figures reminiscent of Stravinsky. The composer was in the audience and there was a charming moment during the concert when the Zuk Duo came out and announced that they were going to replay the Fiala piece and then asked the composer to rise and acknowledge the applause of the audience.

Also presented was "Suite No. 1" (1992) by Zhanna Kolodub, a piece that was written for the Zuk Duo. It consists of five contrasting movements based on Ukrainian folk songs and dances but is composed in a distinctly neoclassical and neo-folkloric style. A different mood was created with Lesia Dychko's "Dramatic Triptych"(1993, revised 2000), also composed for Luba and Ireneus Zuk. This complex and intense work evokes ancestral chants and folk rhythms of old Ukraine in a very effective modern pianistic style.

In addition to these composers the audience also heard a major work by the Canadian composer Healey Willan titled "Variations and Epilogue on an Original Theme" (1915), as well as the graceful and melodic pieces "Musiques d'Espagne" by Manuel Infante. At the end of the concert the Zuk Duo played two encores, with an adumbration of the same flawless technique they had demonstrated in the previous pieces and thus providing a fine conclusion to a memorable aesthetic experience.

I was riveted by the Zuk Duo's performance - the virtuosity of their play, the purity and crispness of the created sounds, the vigor and lyricism of their touch, as well as the rapport between brother and sister - all these made for a very intense, stimulating and most delightful evening. This was piano duo playing at its finest.

Luba and Ireneus Zuk are indeed "Merited Artists of Ukraine," the title they were awarded in 1999 "for significant personal contribution to the popularization of Ukrainian culture in the world and notable creative achievements." They are equally fervent ambassadors of Canadian music and Canadian composers, and, as such, surely deserving of the Order of Canada.

Fran Ponomarenko is affiliated with the department of English at Vanier College in Montreal.

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