Berlin audience shows interest in Ukrainian composer’s music based on Shevchenko’s poem
Pravda Ukraine
The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra has performed its fifth concert at the Berlin Philharmonic on Sunday, 27 October. The performance and the selection of works, including Tristium by Ukrainian composer Sviatoslav Lunov, attracted the interest of Berlin audiences and critics.
Source: Berliner Morgenpost; Ukrainska Pravda.Zhyttia
Details: Sviatoslav Lunov composed his triptych for strings in 2004, with the sound design based on the impermanence of water and time. “The element of water in the monochrome of strings,” the composer described it.
Lunov’s twenty-minute string piece was first performed in 2008 under the baton of the renowned conductor Roman Kofman. This time, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra performed it, led by German conductor Felix Krieger.
“In addition to the poems by Ovid and [Osip] Mandelstam, the source of inspiration was a folk song by Taras Shevchenko, which praises the Dnipro River [“The Dnipro roars and groans” – Ukrainska Pravda.Kultura]. Lunov’s elegy is perhaps the most internationally successful contemporary work from Ukraine,” says music reviewer Volker Tarnow.
The author noted that Lunov’s triptych is not innovative nor inferior to foreign works.
The orchestra also performed two works by German composer Robert Schumann, namely the Rhine Symphony and the Violin Concerto in D minor. The soloist in the latter was violinist Dmytro Udovychenko, winner of the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Competition.
Promoting the Ukrainian music in Germany
In 2023, the Berlin Philharmonic became a sponsor of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and a platform for promoting Ukrainian orchestral music.
“These pieces of music [performed by the orchestra] should have been part of the repertoire of German orchestras long ago, but due to the dominance of Shostakovich and the focus on Russia, they were pushed out, which prevented the awareness of a rich culture that was oppressed in Eastern Europe. Ironically, only Russian aggression has forced us to open our eyes and ears to these cultural achievements,” wrote music reviewer Volker Tarnow.
It is noted that the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra has become one of the most important musical formations in Germany, representing Ukrainian composers: “In recent years, it has revolutionised the repertoire in the Western world by performing works by less-known Ukrainian composers, including symphonies by masters of the past such as Borys Liatoshynskyi and Levko Revutskyi, as well as outstanding contemporaries Valentyn Sylvestrov and Yevhen Stankovych.”
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