THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF UKRAINE 24 CONCERT PROGRAM Yevhen Stankovych Monday, February 13, 2017 Suite from the ballet 8:00pm The Night Before Christmas I. Introduction II. Oksan and Koval Volodymyr Sirenko III. Kozachok conductor Dima Tkachenko Yevhen Stankovych violin Violin Concerto No. 2 I. Largo (Molto espressivo, Rubato) The National Symphony II. Allegro Orchestra of Ukraine III. Largo Intermission This concert is generously Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky supported by the Ihnatowycz Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 “Pathétique” Family Foundation and the Temerty Family Foundation. I. Adagio – Allegro non troppo II. Allegro con grazia III. Allegro molto vivace IV. Finale: Adagio lamentoso MEDIA PARTNER I hope you enjoyed the pre-concert lobby performance of the Toronto-based Ukrainian Art Song Project, with Canadian superstars Krisztina Szabó and Russell Braun, accompanied by Albert Krywolt! On stage, we welcome our guests, The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. This orchestra has a long tradition of music-making, and it is a rare privilege to hear them here in Toronto. Conductor Peter Volodymyr Sirenko is joined by soloist Dima Tkachenko. Yevhen Stankovych is Oundjian perhaps the most distinguished Ukrainian composer of his generation. His ballet Music The Night Before Christmas is a truly colourful work, joyful and celebratory, Director masterfully orchestrated. His Second Violin Concerto is very different— rhapsodic and lyrical, with a dark intensity that builds relentlessly to a passionate and dramatic final section, before closing quietly with a moving hymn. The second half of the concert features Tchaikovsky’s wonderful final symphony, the “Pathétique”. We so often speculate on whether or not the final moments of the finale are a farewell to the world that we can overlook the sheer beauty and sparkling high energy of the rest of the music. 25 THE DETAILS Yevhen Stankovych, composer By working within his own parameters, he fell out of favour with Soviet cultural authorities and The Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych is was rarely given opportunities to have his works one of the most outstanding figures in the world performed or recorded outside the USSR. His of music at the end of the 20th century. The conflicts with the system continued until the collapse of the USSR gave him the opportunity demise of the USSR. to establish contacts with the world, resulting in recordings of his music by various companies Beginning with his first compositions, and the performance of his works by performers Stankovych declared himself a composer of in other countries, bringing him wide recognition dramatic temperament, not averse to emotional as one of the most individualistic and eminent risk. His works reflect his defiance and, at the composers of our time. same time, his optimism. Stankovych uses music as a means of expressing his philosophical and The composer does not subscribe to any of the dramatic thoughts. contemporary tendencies in composition. At the beginning of the 1970s, he started developing his Stankovych’s uniqueness lies in his pronounced own manner and style which can be called “new affinity with the vernacular, in his blending of universalism” or “independent universalism”. folk motifs with orchestral colours, reproducing Without a doubt, new universalism is one of the aspects of folk song and of traditional Ukrainian most promising tendencies in the development folk polyphony. A composer, he believes, cannot of music. New universalism is the combination create music in isolation from his cultural lifeline of the most effective techniques of music in and should work to extend that lifeline to his the 20th century and the profound emotions of audience. The composer’s elaborate polyphonic music composed in previous centuries. It is the textures and meditative lyricism are reminiscent bridge connecting the past, the present, and the of the strict instrumental style of Baroque music, future of music. while the full-bodied, affected melodies with an obvious post-romantic colouring give his The regime of socialist realism, enforced with music warmth and expressiveness. His music greater fervour in the Soviet Ukraine of the 1970s is remarkable in many respects, showing his than in Russia, attempted to create barriers emotional freedom, consummate technical to external influences. Yevhen Stankovych is mastery, and flexibility of form. recognized as the leader of the group of young Ukrainian composers who, in the early 1970s, This is why Yevhen Stankovych’s music differs brought down those barriers and introduced radically from the music of his contemporaries; innovation in their techniques and themes. his music is unique in its internal fulfillment, 26 emotional intensity, originality, and logical world adequately expresses the tragedy; Requiem- view. Without repeating his musical elements, Kaddish “Babyn Yar” for tenor, bass, chorus, and he is nevertheless constant in creating his own orchestra; and A Poem of Sorrows for orchestra. musical universe. All of these factors explain his Prior to 1991, Yevhen Stankovych’s works popularity as a composer, both with the public were regularly censored or banned by Soviet and with musicians. authorities. The folk opera The Flower of Yevhen Stankovych is one of the composers the Fern was banned for its use of traditional who reinvigorated in a natural and distinct Ukrainian folk melodies and their interpretation manner the way to connect the tradition of in a contemporary genre. The score, sets, and folklore with the most contemporary techniques costumes were destroyed by Soviet authorities. of the avant-garde, thus creating a new style Excerpts from the work were first performed by of music (for example, The Flower of the Fern, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in 1988. The 1976). Other composers in the former USSR ballet Ol’ha was repeatedly censored and was started to emulate Stankovych, with a number of not performed in its original form until after 1991. ballets, oratorios, and operas in this style written The ballet The Agony: Rasputin (originally titled and performed in the 1980s. Prometheus) was also severely censored; the work was first performed with its original music He was one of the first composers, not only in and libretto in 1989 in Skopje, Macedonia. Ukraine, but also in the former Soviet Union who started developing the principles of polystylistics Shortly after the explosion of the Chornobyl as well as collage (Sinfonietta in modo collage, reactor, Yevhen Stankovych wrote the first of 1970; the ballets Maiska nich [May Night] several works commemorating the present and Nich pered Rizdvom [The Night Before and historical tragedies which took place Christmas]). in Ukraine. In September 1991, following Ukraine’s declaration of independence, he Yevhen Stankovych is a pioneer in the rebirth wrote Requiem-Kaddish “Babyn Yar” on the of the neo-Romantic style in the second half 50th anniversary of the tragedy at Babyn Yar, of the 20th century (Symphony No. 4 “Sinfonia memorializing the annihilation of Jews in Lirica”, 1976). At the beginning of the 1980s, Ukraine, and the score to the film Izhoy (The he developed his own musical system, which Outcast) about the plight of a Jewish family in he calls “polyphony of layers”. One of the Ukraine fleeing the Nazis. These works were fundamental philosophic underpinnings of the the composer’s gift to the Jewish community of polyphony of layers is an acceptance of the Ukraine. He completed this cycle with Black Elegy development of music as a multidirectional (premièred by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra) and complex process, which may develop and Requiem for those who died of famine, the either in synchronicity or independently and at first work dealing with the Chornobyl tragedy and a distance from one another. Symphony No. the second concerning the 1932–1933 famine in 5 (A Symphony of Pastorals) was the first work Ukraine that killed over six million Ukrainians. written in this manner. Other works written in this manner include Dictum, which was By Olena Korchova, musicologist, PhD written shortly after the Chornobyl tragedy Associate Professor, Tchaikovsky National and is regarded as the only composition that Academy of Music of Ukraine 27 THE DETAILS Yevhen Stankovych Born: Svaliava, Ukraine, Sep 19, 1942 20 Suite from the ballet 26 Violin Concerto No. 2 min The Night Before Christmas min Composed: 2006 Composed: 1992 The composer offers the following thoughts According to Ukrainian musicologist Edward on this work: Jaworski, this ballet “is based on the novel of “The form of the concerto is not conventional Nikolai Gogol from the cycle Evenings on a Farm except, perhaps, for its outline. The musical near Dikanka, which was also used for the librettos language and other means of expression of operas by Tchaikovsky (Boots), Rimsky-Korsakov were created exclusively from an internal (The Night Before Christmas), and M. Lysenko awakening and aspirations, as if everything on (Christmas Night). Created in 1992, Stankovych’s this earth comes from one maxim: that the ballet demonstrates an emotional freedom and present is the past, and the past can be the an artistic and imaginative richness that is future.” inherent in his music.” Cadenzas and violin-part editing for Violin “With extensive experience in the genre of ballet Concerto No. 2 by Ukrainian violinist Dima (other works include Princess Olga and Prometheus), Tkachenko. Yevhen Stankovych implemented a new form with clear aesthetic criteria and with his own original Notes translated from the original Ukrainian concept. Although the story ‘The Night Before by Olena Jatsyshyn Christmas’ already exists in the opera genre, neither Lysenko nor Rimsky-Korsakov fully developed its theatrical and entertainment qualities, wealth of customs, beliefs, and fantasy. Perhaps Yevhen Stankovych for the first time in Ukrainian music turned to a genre like ballet pasticcio that allowed him to freely operate in different stylistic layers.” According to Yevhen Stankovych, “The music tapestry of my ballet [The Night Before Christmas] is based fully on Ukrainian folklore and reflects all that is inherent in Gogol’s story.