Toccata Classics TOCC 0036 Notes
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VIKTOR STEPANOVYCH KOSENKO “ine composer in the Brahmsian mould. […] This is one of the Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances, Op. 19 irst releases on the new Toccata Classics label, and if the exem- plary standards of this collection are anything to go by collectors by Natalya Shkoda are in for a treat. Anthony Goldstone contributes a lengthy and insightful essay on the music, and with his wife, Caroline Clem- Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko (1896–1938) was one of the most important Ukrainian mow, plays these unfairly neglected scores (four are premiere recordings) with a majestic command that suggests far greater composers, teachers and performers of the irst half of the twentieth century. His familiarity with these rare gems than can surely have been the symphonic heritage includes the Heroic Overture (1932), Moldavian Poem (1937) and two case. In their inspired hands the almost symphonic weight of the concertos, for violin (1919) and piano (1928). Among his chamber scores are a Classical Op. 13 Variations possess an emotional depth and power that Trio for violin, violoncello and piano (1927), a string quartet (1930); and sonatas for sweeps the listener along in its wake, while the six Op. 53 Waltz- violin and piano, viola and piano and violoncello and piano (respectively 1927, 1928 es turn out to be enchanting miniatures that leave one thirsting for more once their alloted ten minutes is up. The recording […] and 1923). His compositions for voice include a large number of romances, choruses, combines warmth and detail to perfection, with an impressive songs for children and folksong arrangements. His works for piano solo feature three weight and depth to the sound.” sonatas (1922, 1924 and 1926–28), two concert waltzes, Op. 22 (1931), two sets of concert Julian Haylock, etudes, including Eleven Etudes, Op. 8 (1922–23), and Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances, Op. 19 (1927–29), six ‘poems’, including the Fantastic Poem, Op. 11, No. 3 (1921), and Two Poem-Legends, Op. 12 (1921), and a generous number of shorter pieces, among “In his extensive accompanying notes, Benjamin Folkman makes them preludes, mazurkas, nocturnes and the Twenty-Four Children’s Pieces, Op. 25 a case for Ramey as a composer simultaneously rooted in a still- dominant high Romanticism (Ramey grew up in Illinois in the (1936). Kosenko’s piano music is the result of an organic synthesis of the late-Romantic late 1960s) and in the ‘sardonic nihilism’ of Prokoiev […] But piano tradition and elements of the national musical style: without directly citing any Ramey has his own voice, and it’s interesting to follow it through particular folksong in his music, Kosenko uses melodies, harmonies and modes that link its various changes in register across the years, though its con- sistency, right from that early Sonata, is never in doubt. He’s also his compositions with Ukrainian folk-music. Some of these elements involve doubling a master of pianistic colour, as all of the works recorded here tes- the melody in thirds, sixths or tenths in another voice, using numerous ‘open’ iths, tify. […] Stephen Gosling […] is clearly completely at home with the composer’s style and turns in performances that are assured incorporating pedal points, and the frequent use of modes, especially Dorian, Lydian and uterly convincing, and beautifully recorded.” and Phrygian. In addition to the Romantic and folk inluences, Kosenko’s Eleven Etudes Ivan Moody, in the Form of Old Dances, Op. 19, show the impress of neo-Classicism. Although Kosenko was born in St Petersburg (Ukraine was a part of Russia at the 2 time), his family spoke Ukrainian as their native language. In 1898 they moved to Warsaw. Stepan Kosenko, Viktor’s father, served in the military and expected his son to become a military oicer as well, but Viktor chose music as a profession. One story tells of the young boy’s extraordinary musical abilities. His older sister, Maria, would become very jealous when someone else in the family played her music and so she used to lock it up if she was going to be away. On one occasion she came home to ind that someone else seemed to be playing her music. When she opened the door, she discovered her litle brother trying to play Beethoven’s C minor Sonata, Op. 10, No. 3 – not from her music but by ear. In 1915, ater atending numerous symphonic concerts and taking piano lessons in Warsaw, Kosenko entered the upper-division piano class at the St Petersburg Conservatory and began his studies with the pianist Iryna Miklashevskaya. During his entrance exam to the Conservatory, he amazed the commitee members by his sight-reading abilities: he carefully looked at the piece he had to sight-read, set it aside, and performed it from memory – irst in the original key and then in the one to which he was required to transpose it. At the Conservatory Kosenko also studied composition and theory with Mikhail Sokolov, himself a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, and worked as an accompanist at the Mariinsky Theatre, largely for inancial reasons. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1918. P Kosenko spent the years 1919–29 based in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr; most of his family were already living there by the time he inished his studies. During his Zhytomyr years, Kosenko performed extensively, taught and composed music. He was a co-founder of the Zhytomyr Chapter of the Leontovych Musical Society, which played an important role in popularisation of Ukrainian piano music. With the violinist Volodymyr Skorokhod and the cellist Vasyl’ Kolomyitsev he formed a piano trio which – usually playing from memory – gave over 250 free concerts in various Ukrainian cities and villages during 1919–23. In September 1922, in Zhytomyr, Kosenko presented the irst concert of his own music, and in 1924 he was invited to give a composer’s recital at the Association of Contemporary Music in Moscow. The inal phase of Kosenko’s brief life, from 1927 to 1938, is associated irst with 3 Kharkov (Kharkiv), which was at that time the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Klatzkin pour la Musique Contemporaine Américaine dans la section clavecin (2000) et piano Republic, and then with Kiev (Kyiv). The Association of the Proletarian Musicians of (2005). Ukraine, based in Kharkov, invited him to give a composer’s concert in 1927; he was En 2005, Natalya Shkoda a intégré la faculté de musique du Scotsdale Community College en invited back in both 1928 and 1929, the audience there consistently receiving him with Arizona où elle enseigne le piano, en cours particulier et en groupe. Plusieurs de ses élèves privés ont remporté des concours locaux ou nationaux. Natalya Shkoda réside actuellement à Lubbock, enthusiasm. In the 1928 concert Kosenko performed his Classical Trio and selected pieces Texas, avec son mari, Dr Sergey Smirnov, Maître assistant en ingénieurie mécanique à la Texas from the Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances, Op. 19. In the late 1920s, some of his music Tech University. was published in Kharkov, too. In 1929 The Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama in Kiev ofered Kosenko a teaching Traduction : Baudime Jam © 2006 position in piano, chamber music and musical analysis, which he accepted. In 1934 he began teaching also at the Kiev Conservatory. During the 1930s he composed music for ilms – Stalin’s preferred art-form – and for children, and worked as an adjudicator and critic. He was also deeply interested in learning and gathering the folk-music of Moldova, which by now was an autonomous part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic. Kosenko lived most of his life in considerable poverty, although he appeared not to notice it. He had no privacy, since the Soviet system required him (and everyone else) to share accommodation with a number of other families. But despite his penury he would oten bring in people of the street, give them food and lend them money – even if it let nothing for himself. His material discomfort, though, must have been alleviated by the happiness of his private life. In February 1920 he had married Angelina Kanepp, who was older than him and had two children from her irst marriage; she was to survive him by almost 30 years. Kosenko’s love and admiration for Angelina was unchangeable and deeply touching. Although his concertising and his teaching position in Kiev forced him to spend most of his time away from her and his step-daughters, Raisa and Iryna, who chose to stay in Zhytomyr, he would write to Angelina every day while away from home and was very disappointed if she was unable to reply to his leters instantly. In 1938, thanks to Angelina Kosenko’s numerous requests, the government inally awarded the family a private three-room apartment in Kiev. In March 1938 Kosenko’s wife and step-daughters joined him from Zhytomyr and all four of them moved into their 4 Originaire de Kharkov (Kharkiv), en Ukraine, irst private apartment. In summer 1938, when Kosenko was already seriously ill with Dr. a obtenu une médaille d’or the kidney cancer that would kill him only a few months later, the government awarded comme pianiste et compositeur à l’École Spéciale him the prestigious Order of the Red Banner. Intensive medical treatment brought no de Musique pour Enfants Doués de Kharkiv improvement in his condition. Angelina was beside her husband during the last moments en 1994. En 1992–93, elle avait obtenu la Bourse of his life, which ended on 3 October 1938. Nationale du Jeune Compositeur d’Exception en During the last decade of his life and immediately ater his death, Kosenko’s music Ukraine.