CONCERT NOTES: Juliana Osinchuk wins rave reviews for concert in Washington (02/25/01)

CONCERT NOTES

Juliana Osinchuk wins rave reviews for concert in Washington

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - There is no achievement without risk, and the West Garden Court of the National Gallery of Art is a risky venue for a musician.

While the lofty, enclosed neoclassic courtyard, with its fountains, tropical plants and massive columns, provides a magnificent setting for a recital, its uneven acoustics and lack of visual contact with a large part of the audience that listens from behind plants and pillars are challenges a performer can only overcome with a level of artistry that makes these drawbacks seem insignificant.

Pianist Juliana Osinchuk did just that February 4 in what a leading Washington music critic called a "spectacular piano recital...that avoided music's beaten paths and presented one revelation after another."

Among the revelations reviewer Joseph McLellan found was the work of Ukrainian composer Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938). Writing about the recital in the February 15 Washington Post, he singled out Kosenko's "moody, brilliant" Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, which Ms. Osinchuk showcased in her performance. This one-movement work "breathes vibrant new life into the traditional sonata-form structure," he said and expressed his surprise that "a piece of music as powerful as (this) had to wait nearly 80 years for its Washington premiere performance."

Ms. Osinchuk, who began her music career in New York but now lives in far-off Alaska, has favored the nation's capital with five performances in as many years. And in most, she has introduced her audience to the works of Ukrainian and Alaskan composers.

In the National Gallery recital, Ms. Osinchuk also played a Washington premiere of "The Fragile Vessel," which contemporary Alaskan composer Philip Munger composed for her and in a tribute to her principal teacher, Nadia Boulanger. It was, wrote Joseph McLellan, "a rigorous test of a pianist's speed, power and accuracy - a test that Osinchuk passed with flying colors."

The program provided a taste of the musical tradition that formed Ms. Osinchuk as an artist, including two pieces by Ms. Boulanger's teacher, Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) - the Nocturne No. 9 in B Minor and the Impromptu No. 3 in A-flat - which, observed Mr. McLellan, "explored her sense of form and powers of expressive subtlety," and Ms. Osinchuk's "crisp and sometimes stormy performance" of the Intermezzo in A-flat by Boulanger's friend, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963).

The recital began with the Sonata in B-flat, Op. 24, No. 2 of Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), in which, the reviewer said, Ms. Osinchuk "demonstrated her ease in legato phrasing and small dynamic nuances;" featured two "high-energy" jazz-flavored Americana pieces by Morton Gould (1913-1996), "Rag-Blues-Rag" and "Boogie Woogie Etude"; and closed with a "virtuoso treatment" of the Allegro Appassionato in C-sharp Minor of Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921).

Ms. Osinchuk became a pupil of Ms. Boulanger in Paris following her formal debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of eleven. She also studied at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris, at Tanglewood and at the Juilliard School of Music, where she received a doctorate degree in musical arts.

She has performed in the major concert halls of New York, Washington, London, Amsterdam, Salzburg and Kyiv, and has served on the faculty of Hunter College of New York City and the State University of New York at Purchase. Ms. Osinchuk currently resides in Anchorage, Alaska, where she concertizes, teaches privately and is the director of chamber music for the Anchorage Festival of Music.

This was the third time in one year that Washington Post music critic Joseph McLellan focused attention on Ukrainian composers and soloists in his reviews. Last February he lamented the fact that composer Myroslav Skoryk was not better known in this country after hearing his Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano performed at a Washington Group Cultural Fund concert featuring violinist Solomia Soroka and pianists Myroslava Kysylevych and Oksana Lassowsky. In October, Mr. McLellan focused on Skoryk's Concerto No. 3 for piano and string quartet and percussion as performed by Volodymyr Vynnytsky and an ensemble of musicians from the Washington Opera Orchestra. The performance launched the TWG Cultural Fund's 2000-2001 benefit series on behalf of obtaining musical instruments for the Lviv Conservatory.

Mr. Vynnytsky returns to Washington March 4 to perform in the fifth concert in that series - a musical tribute to Taras Shevchenko, with soprano Anna Bachynsky and tenor Roman Tsymbala, as well as the Lisova Pisnia bandura duo.

And the National Gallery of Art on March 18 will feature another Ukrainian pianist in its Sunday evening concert series - Mykola Suk, who will perform works by Liszt, Haydn, Thalberg and Kolessa.

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