DATELINE NEW YORK: Taking note of fine music (11/22/98)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Taking note of fine music

by Helen Smindak

In the years since Ukraine gained its independence, the Ukrainian diaspora in North America has been entertained by a succession of musical and dance troupes from Ukraine. With a few exceptions, such as the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, whose performance at Carnegie Hall in September was ragged and uneven in quality, these touring ensembles have delivered the goods in exemplary fashion, radiating enthusiasm and dedication to their work as they demonstrated the national propensity for music and dance.

A recent addition to the ranks of exceptional Ukrainian musical groups is the Kiev [Kyiv] Camerata, a virtuoso orchestra of 32 string players led by the highly respected conductor and composer Virko Baley. Kiev Camerata's illustrious performance last month at New York Merkin Concert Hall proves that top-notch musicianship and direction can produce superlative results.

Crisp, controlled artistry

In its New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall on October 26, the Kiev Camerata revealed the finely honed, sensitive artistry that has been extolled by critics during recent tours in Germany, Austria, Greece and Russia. The performance, featuring Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht" (Transfigured Night) Op. 4, and Tchaikovsky's "Serenade for Strings" was rich and gloriously textured, yet crisp and controlled, inspiring members of the modest-sized audience to such praises as "exquisite" and "absolutely rapturous."

Sadly, no critics from the New York press were present; undoubtedly, the Kiev Camerata performance would have stirred them to similar tributes.

A noteworthy item: despite the fact that the concert was part of Merkin Hall's Time Out for Music series, designed to present compelling musical programs within an early-evening format, there were only a few Ukrainians in the audience. Apparently, Monday evenings are not favored by our music buffs.

"Transfigured Night" was composed for string sextet in 1899 as an extension of the poem idea to chamber music. The lush chamber version presented by the Kiev Camerata was Schoenberg's original 1917 arrangement for string orchestra.

John Schaefer, music director of WNYC Radio in New York, who previewed the Kiev Camerata debut CD on his program last year, described "Transfigured Night" as one of the last great flowerings of late Romanticism.

Tchaikovsky's glorious "Serenade for Strings" in C Major, Op. 48, a great favorite with Tchaikovsky audiences as he traveled about the world conducting concerts of his own works, includes three movements that progress from a slow introduction through a beautiful waltz and a grave elegy to the finale, which features a barge haulers' work song from the Volga River region and a boisterous folk dance. The interpretation by the Kiev Camerata was liquid, lovely and powerful: the strings responded brilliantly to Mr. Baley's poised and masterful direction.

At the end, there was sustained applause for the orchestra and Mr. Baley, who returned several times to the stage to take bows with the orchestra. Musicians and conductor later mingled and talked with concert-goers during a post-concert reception.

The New York concert was part of the ensemble's first U.S. tour, beginning in Baltimore and ending at the Yale School of Music in New Haven, Conn., and featuring the distinguished Ukrainian pianist Mykola Suk (at all venues with the exception of New York).

Reviewing Camerata's Yale performance in the New Haven Register on November 3, Dennis Cashman referred to the ensemble's "impassioned and stylish playing and some provocative insights in familiar places." Mr. Cashman wrote that Mr. Suk revealed himself "a master craftsman" as the soloist in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and flutist Bohdana Stelmashenko "bewitchingly" captured the ending of the vigorously played gavotte in Prokofiev's "Classical Symphony."

He concluded: "This distinguished concert fully justifies the Camerata's aspirations to status as a world-class ensemble."

The Kiev Camerata is the resident ensemble of the Kyiv Music Fest and the International Vladimir Horowitz Competition. The orchestra was created from the union of the Kyiv Philharmonic's ancient music ensemble, Harmonia, and the Chamber Music Ensemble of the Ukrainian Union of Composers.

The ensemble has a repertoire that features more than 200 works by world-renowned composers and includes many Ukrainian composers, and is also involved in deciphering and restoring early Ukrainian music for modern instruments.

Maestro Baley, whose 60th birthday was celebrated during the tour, was born in Ukraine but has spent his creative life in the United States and considers himself a citizen of the world. He is equally at home composing and conducting, and his birthday year is being celebrated with many performances of his work, such as Continuum's February concert of his music at Merkin Hall, which featured the world premiere of "Klytemnestra." Reviewing that concert in the New York Post, Shirley Fleming pronounced Mr. Baley's music "vibrant, dramatic, communicative, much of it framed by extra-musical allusions that place it in a solid context."

Mr. Baley is the recipient of the 1996 Shevchenko Prize for Music from the Ukrainian government (the first American so honored) and many American awards. He founded and was for many years conductor and music director of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra in Las Vegas. In 1989 he co-produced and wrote the music for the film "Swan Lake: The Zone," the first Ukrainian film ever to receive a prize at the Cannes Film Festival (it won two top awards).

Mr. Baley's recordings include a Cambria CD trilogy of his chamber music, "Orpheus Singing," featuring the violin concerto "Jurassic Bird" and "Dreamtime." As the longtime principal conductor of Kiev Camerata, he has led the ensemble in recordings for two CDs of orchestral music by composers ranging from Mozart to Ivan Karabyts on Troppe Note/Cambria, a new international label.

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