SOUNDS AND VIEWS: Ukrainian composers in refreshing recordings (02/04/96)

SOUNDS AND VIEWS

Ukrainian composers in refreshing recordings

by Roman Sawycky

Tape 1: "Lilea Wolanska Sings Lysenko." Taras Filenko, piano; Ukrainian Broadcasting Symphony, Ivan Hamkalo, conductor. LW. Productions, Canada. LW0192 (Stereo cassette).

Tape 2: "Lilea Wolanska Sings Songs by Composers of the Ukrainian Diaspora." Taras Filenko, piano; Ukrainian Broadcasting Folk Orchestra, Valery Varakuta, conductor. Orchestral arrangements by U. Yatsenko. L. W. Productions. Canada LW0292

Soprano Lilea Wolanska and pianist/musicologist Taras Filenko have been active both in Europe and in North America in live performances and in recordings. As a researcher/performer Dr. Filenko has lectured on newly discovered works included, in part, on the above cassettes. Such unity of the scientific and the artistic aspects of music seems to indicate new vistas for unjustly neglected repertory.

Opera

Despite isolated, past views to the contrary, Mykola Lysenko is the founder of Ukrainian national opera. Someone had to do it, for opera is not only well but flourishing over a century later. Tape I contains arias from such "warhorses" as "Taras Bulba," "Natalka Poltavka" and the rarely recorded "Chornomortsi" and "Nocturne" - the "minute opera."

Ms. Wolanska's soprano sounds vibrant and pleasing, while the Ukrainian Broadcasting Symphony - a solid, large orchestra - is captured with miking not too closely positioned. The over-all sound is live with reverb tastefully measured. There's a bit too much treble for my taste, but this is quickly corrected with a touch to the right control.

Piano

M. Lysenko's "March" from L. Starytska-Cherniakhivska's drama "Hetman Doroshenko" had languished up to now in an unpublished holograph dating from 1911. But studied and presented here by Mr. Filenko in what sounds like a world premiere recording, it proves to be a viable piece performed with both fluency and commitment.

"Ukrainian Rhapsody" No. 2 (Op. 18, is likewise successful in spite of stiff competition from past live performance standards set by Roman Sawycky Sr. or Lydia Artymiw, and classic recordings by Rada Lysenko (the composer's granddaughter) or Maria Krushelnytska. The second rhapsody, possibly Lysenko's top work for piano solo, is most welcome here in up-to-date sound. Too bad, though, that the rarely played Piano Sonata was not included; it would be interesting to see if this score can fly or at least sound. (Dated 1875, it is the first Ukrainian sonata for the modern concert grand piano composed in Ukraine.)

As soloist, Mr. Filenko projects the music with conviction and with an instrument of rare sonic quality.

Art songs

Besides large forms, Lysenko was noted for art songs for the solo voice. A selection of them is artfully sung here by Ms. Wolanska with precise but aesthetic support from Mr. Filenko.

"Asters" (Iyrics by Oleksander Oles) still sounds fresh after all its years before the microphone. On the other hand, I just don't remember ever hearing the Hrebinka or Mickiewicz texts from a loudspeaker before. These rare flowers are suitably evaluated and recreated.

The dreamlike "Misiatsiu Kniaziu" (Princely Moon) is not quite what composer Vasyl Barvinsky made from the Franko Iyrics years later, but someone had to do it first, and Lysenko "de facto" introduced many new texts into Ukrainian music well ahead of other composers.

Lysenko's music inspired by Shevchenko is special, and much of it has yet to be equaled, let alone surpassed. Here, the sad musings of a lonely girl ("Oy Odna Ya Odna") are logically recorded by a soprano. (The distant recording of this item by heroic tenor Modeste Menzinsky, while touching, had also been "politically incorrect.")

Another blossom never meant to blush unseen is "Sadok Vyshnevyi Kolo Khaty". (The Cherry Orchard by the Dwelling). Its pastoral gentleness invites comparisons to Tchaikovsky's music to the same poem, scored likewise for soprano with piano underpinning. It should be noted, however, that Tchaikovsky composed not to the original Ukrainian by Shevchenko but followed a later Russian translation. While occasionally more profound, the Tchaikovsky never reached the popularity of the Lysenko original, accorded a loving reading in the issue before us.

What should also be underscored is the simple but significant fact that all selections on Tape 1 consist of original works by Lysenko without any folk song settings. I found this approach to the founder of the national school in Ukrainian classical music both bracing and refreshing.

Diaspora

Tape 2 focuses on art songs by composers active outside Ukraine. In recent years these became subjects of research by Mr. Filenko, who has returned a number of them to the active catalogue in this particular issue. Some items here were recorded with the original piano accompaniments, while others took on more elaborate garbs of orchestral enhancement.

The sequencing begins with Larysa Kuzmenko's "My Ukraine." This presents a gentle synthesis of folk roots and the current theme of faithfulness to one's homeland in its hour of need (accentuated by that purposely chosen folkish sound in the orchestra).

Ihor Sonevytsky of New York (born 1926), among other themes cultivates the religious and is represented by seven selections. Although "Our Father" has been offered for choir via the strong devotion of Alexander Koshetz or Mykola Leontovych, this is the first version for solo voice I have heard, and it still manages to sound original and inspirational. Sonevytsky has also composed music to choice texts by Lesia Ukrainka and Bohdan Ihor Antonych; his piano parts often utilize imitation techniques and are examples of work by a successful composer and able pianist.

Most gratifying are the late romantic achievements by Mykola Fomenka (1894-1961), with typically saturated harmonic richness as well as skill and inventiveness in the solo vocal line. Out of the five items by Fomenko, three are restless and searching songs on the theme of spring, complete with cascading streams and surging of new life. Only a master of the voice with piano medium could conceive and transmit such thrilling climaxes of lush romanticism. His intensely patriotic "Liubit Ukrainu" (For Love of Ukraine) got the author of the Iyrics - Vasyl Sosiura - in serious trouble when this became a hit song h North America in the mid-1950s.

While not in the same league with Sonevytsky or Fomenko, Vasyl Shute (1899-1982) was very much a part of emigre music efforts. In his case, orchestral accompaniments are appreciated more than the original piano (also used), since the symphonics are not unlike colorized versions with added appeal.

The rarely heard female composer Stefania Turkevych-Lukianovych (1908-1977) proved to be quite adventurous. She ventured into uncharted territory and flirted with atonality. Her piano writing can be a challenge even for the accomplished pianist. She is an excellent example of a "genuine article" composer in mediocre and anti-intellectual surroundings frozen by emigrant realism. The three selections never recorded before offer a glimpse of a legacy yet untapped.

Sensitive creativity was a signature of Fedir Yakymenko (1876-1945), who favored the poet, Oles. The small scale of his sonic sketches takes on an intimate, chamber quality with a focus immediately exquisite if vulnerable. The three miniatures, all first recordings, express the "credo" of fragile spirit that lingered about for 50 years yearning to materialize.

Leo Wolansky (U.S.), perhaps the least known, chooses only the biggest names in Iyrics, namely Shevchenko and Ukrainka. As a songwriter he prizes sincerity above all else, and his music is open and immediate.

Aside from the recognized Fedir Yakymenko, Paris served as a creative scene also for the unfamiliar Fedir Yevsevsky (1899-1969). His was mainstream neo-romanticism that did not exclude a bold piano engaging the soloist. Ms. Wolanska therefore ends the cassette with a final mystery of "death, which, having stealthily opened paradise's door, seals your lips so you will not betray its secret" (H. Mazurenko).

Conclusion

I had a field day with this review. The Wolanska/Filenko team sounds well rehearsed in its unity of purpose, but both artists also apparently practiced spontaneity and came to the microphone well-suited to the repertory of their choice. Generally speaking, the orchestral accompaniments are soundly conceived, conducted and recorded with minimal brashness. Intonation problems, long associated with Ukrainian orchestras, seem to be misfortunes of the past and intrude no more.

Both cassettes come complete with bilingual programs and bios of the performers - succinct but not sketchy either. The English annotations on the separate art songs are not merely idiomatic but show creativeness in themselves (rarely the case in releases of this type).

Exact timings are provided, but birth and death dates of composers would have placed them in needed perspective not obvious from their music alone.

In short, these releases break new ground ("chornozem" being fertile) and present both educational values and entertainment appeal on a consistently competent technical level indispensable in contemporary audio. The recordings themselves originate from media studios in Ukraine, while the release tapes are chromium dioxide cassettes.

Each tape is priced at $12 (U.S.) and may be ordered by sending a check or money order to: Dr. Taras Filenko, 73 Alexander St., Edison, NJ 08820; or to: Lilea Wolanska (L.W. Productions), 11319 46th Ave., Edmonton, Alberta T6H OA4.

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Note: At the time of this writing a third cassette by Wolanska/Filenko has been released for distribution. Titled "American Retro," the tape features U.S. composers as re-arranged by Dr. Filenko. It has received positive advance notices from American musicologists and will be reviewed later this year in this column.

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