SOUNDS AND VIEWS: Premieres to remember (10/06/96)

SOUNDS AND VIEWS

Premieres to remember

PART IV

As I wrote before, Ukraine has been referred to as "a singing nation." Please note that no one called Ukraine a "country of (musical) performers," despite its many musicians. For complex reasons instrumentalists are still not, even today, appreciated as much as singers or choirs. This is true in Ukraine itself and in the diaspora, where many soloists have enjoyed star status among audiences of the West.

Violins and pianos age differently. Like wine that mellows with the years, violins and violas improve with the passing of time. Unlike the piano, the fiddle is the only instrument able to approach the sound of the human voice and, as we shall see, Ukrainian violinists have been quite vocal on the international stage.

Until 1950 or so, however, the only soloist of note concertizing in North America was Donna Grescoe of Carnegie Hall fame. She was not easy to follow until a mega-star, likewise from Canada, made his entrance.

A violinist's violinist

Born in 1932, Steven Staryk's brilliant career encompassed incredible activity and the kind of musicianship that made him a top soloist of his generation and winner of international competitions. He also became concertmaster of the world's leading orchestras and a teacher whose students also joined premiere symphonic ensembles.

Mr. Staryk retains high favor with Canadian composers, who entrusted him with a series of premieres. The violin concerti of George Fiala (premiered October 11, 1974, in Winnipeg), Talivadis Kenins (August 31, 1974, in Vancouver), Srul Irving Glick (October 24, 1976 in Victoria) and Paul Hoffert (July 1976, near Collingwood, Ontario) - were all dedicated to Mr. Staryk. Likewise, Lothar Klein's "Paganini Collage," first performed on April 13, 1971, was originally composed for the violinist.

The above information was culled from the 1981 edition of the "Encyclopedia of Music in Canada," which declares that "there is nothing in the violin repertoire which is beyond Staryk's technical ability," but also refers to a certain coolness and almost Olympian detachment of the virtuoso.

Mr. Staryk owns instruments by such violin makers as Guarneri and Stradivari with which he has amassed a staggering list of recordings. His "400 Years of the Violin" cycle is a first-time ever anthology (see J. Creighton's "Discopaedia of the Violin," Toronto, 1974).

Student of Heifetz

The year 1941 saw the birth of several outstanding artists, such as Paul Plishka, Alexander Slobodyanik and Eugene Gratovich.

Having studied with Jascha Heifetz, Mr. Gratovich has cultivated his teacher's refinement and purity of tone. An authority on composer Charles Ives and an enthusiast of intellectual values in general, Mr. Gratovich appears to favor the same qualities in his own recreative style. Such an approach can be noticed in his recordings of Ukrainian romantic music by Viktor Kosenko, Mykola Fomenko, Mykhailo Hayvoronsky, Vasyl Bezkorovainy et al. (I have not heard his CD of Ottorino Respighi or of Virko Baley.)

American conductor/composer Ralph Shapey (born 1921) wrote a "Fantasy for Violin and Piano" for Mr. Gratovich and his wife, the pianist Sylvia Golmon. They premiered it in the presence of the composer at New York's Merkin Hall in 1987.

Mr. Gratovich also premiered the "Violin Concerto in One Movement" by American composer Raymond Wilding-White (born 1922), at the Music Shell in Grant Park, Chicago on August 7, 1991.

When writing of romantic music for violin, one cannot forget Stanyslav Liudkevych's alternatingly charged and lilting show-piece titled "Chabarashka," introduced to America by Yuri Mazurkevich.

Born in 1941 in Lviv, Mr. Mazurkevich studied at the Moscow Conservatory with the legendary David Oistrakh and became laureate of three international competitions. Mr. Mazurkevich has premiered the Sonata (for violin solo) by Peter Kopronski (Canada), a Sonata by Svoboda (USA) and a work by Kalosch (Hungary). His playing is marked by a very rich tone and intense creativiness.

Played on Paganini's violin

Needing no introduction or fuss is tall and slender Oleh Krysa, the aristocrat of bow and the four strings. It will suffice to say that he was one of the select few ever permitted to handle the bow and violin once owned by master Nicolo Paganini.

Trained by David Oistrakh, Mr. Krysa's own art, however, is less muscular and more lanky - very much like the man himself. He has recorded for many labels and feels equally at home with Baroque elegance as well as with Bartokian energy or Prokofiev's angularity.

Mr. Krysa premiered several modern works written especially for him, such as "A Paganini" (To Paganini) for solo violin by Russian avant-garde composer Alfred Schnittke (born 1934), as well as another work by Viacheslav Artiomov, likewise from Russia.

More recently Mr. Krysa and his wife, pianist Tatiana Tchekina, premiered the Sonata for violin and piano by the Australian Edward Kovi. The event took place at the International Fest of Chamber Music held in Australia in Townsville City, North Queensland, in July 1991.

Viola virtuoso

The immortal Paganini also came alive in the hands of another contemporary artist, namely, Yuri Bashmet. Aside from prestige gained at competitions abroad, this soloist was always well known and welcome in Lviv, where he mastered the rudiments of his instrument - the viola.

About a generation ago a sonata for viola was discovered and identified as an unknown work by Paganini. Printed in 1975 the score was premiered in Lviv by Mr. Bashmet, who performed the virtuoso piece as originally written, i.e., without simplifications.

Mr. Bashmet also premiered Dmitri Shostakovich's swang song - his Viola Sonata Op. 147, composed in 1975 and dedicated to Yuri Bashmet's teacher, who had instilled in his student taste and technique to spare. (See "Muzyka," Kyiv, No. 3, 1978, p. 21.)

Quartet extraordinary

When one gathers two violins, a viola and cello, resulting in a string quartet, there are infinite possibilities providing the musicians stay in tune. Needless to say the celebrated contemporary Leontovych String Quartet has no such problems. Founded in 1971 in Kyiv, the quartet is regarded as one of Ukraine's finest chamber ensembles. It was laureate of the 1978 Leo Weiner International Competition in Budapest and recipient in 1989 of Ukraine's prestigious Lysenko Award for popularizing Ukrainian chamber music.

Currently its members are: Yuri Mazurkevich first violin; Yuri Kharenko, second violin; Borys Deviatov, viola; and Volodymyr Panteleyev, cello. These four virtuosi in ensemble have premiered works by Chary-Nuryma (Kazakhstan, 1983), Sadoyan (Armenia, 1985), Dmitriev (Russia, 1990) and Svoboda (USA, 1996).

On the other hand the legendary string quartet owned by the son of the last hetman of Ukraine (as well as Russia's ambassador to Austria) residing in Vienna, has been detailed in literally thousands of sources. Count (later Prince) Andriy Rozumovsky, titled Graf Andreas Rasumoffsky, had at his disposal a sumptuous palace complete with one of the best quartets of the day, in premiering the latest chamber music.

Among Rozumovsky's closest friends was Beethoven, who dedicated his three String Quartets Op. 59, (which incorporate Ukrainian - usually referred to as Russian - folk melodies) to the count. The custom-made scores, ready by the year 1807, were immediately premiered by Rozumovsky's ensemble.

This much is common knowledge. What is less known in Ukrainian circles, however, is that Beethoven dedicated his magical Symphony No. 6 ("The Pastorale") and the monumental Symphony No. 5, considered one of the greatest symphonies ever written, to both Count Rozumovsky and to Prince Lobkowitz.

PART IV

Premieres to remember: an addendum