Sergei Vasilenko

[ancestralvoices]

Merry Merry...

Does anyone know if there's a recording of the Symphony No. 1 by Vasilenko? I found a computer generated recording of it on YouTube, and am now very interested in finding it done by a real orchestra. So beautiful and rather sad, which I love.

Guys and gals, I rarely post — but I lurk often and have discovered so much from this wonderful site. Thank you for all your knowledge.

[ancestralvoices]

...also, I can at least perhaps give back by mentioning a neo-romantic Ukrainian composer whom, I believe,  has not been mentioned much, if at all, on this site. His name is Mykola Kolessa and although he lived from 1903-2006(died age 103), his three works on YouTube are purely romantic. Two symphonies and a Ukrainian Suite.

[ancestralvoices]

Sorry, I must say one more thing on this very quiet Christmas night. Christopher, you made my day today. The Ukrainian composer I would never have discovered had you not brought him here -  Yakiv Stepovy, and his jewel of a piece(so short and emotionally charged) called Prelude to the Memory of Taras Shevchenko, has moved me perhaps more than any other unsung discovery. Thank you kindly, good sir. So so much. I've listened to every performance I could find on YouTube — and believe that this little piece, had it been composed in another place, another time, and in perhaps a nation without the horrible tumult I've been shamelessly learning about because of you(let alone now), may have become a part of the standard repertoire. That's the joy of this website. You never know what certain readers are experiencing in their lives, and if just one, one discovered piece provides a reader with what I've been given — then this forum is perhaps more impactful than is realized. You, Christopher, have given me a gift!

https://youtu.be/DIzNJes-h7w

[semloh]

Oh, a truly beautiful piece of music. Thanks for the link. 

[Christopher]

Thank you for your kind words ancestralvoices and I'm glad that I've enabled this discovery.  I do hope that as Ukraine gains evermore national self-confidence, it will be emboldened to rediscover its own composers from the era that we love.  It could be that those we have shared here are just a glimpse of a huge treasure.  The composers whose music we have discovered on here certainly give reason to hope that that is the case: Stepovy, his brother Yakymenko (aka Akimenko), Kosenko, Bortkiewicz, Lysenko, Lyudkevych, Barvinsky, Leontovych, Verbytsky, Kalachevsky, Sokalsky, Ryabov,... and Skorulsky, many of whose works HAVE been recorded and sit inaccessibly in Ukraine Radio archives (don't get me started).  Check out Jury Znatokov too on youtube - died in the 1990s but absolutely within our style.

On Vasilenko (Ukrainian-style surname but he was absolutely Russian by all accounts) - no I'm afraid I've not come across a recording of his first symphony.  You are right that the computer version does hint at an attractive piece.  Those of his works which have been recorded don't do it for me - harmonic but not melodic if that makes sense.

[ancestralvoices]

Thank you, Christopher. I'm going to try and find more works by Stepovy. I will go to the Ukrainian YouTube and google translate and see what is there.
So moved by him. So thrilled, as I was away from my family this Christmas season.
Again, you brought me joy on that lonely but fruitful Christmas night. I'll never be able to thank you, and Thomas and Alan et al, enough for this beautiful forum.

[Christopher]

Let us know how that goes ancestralvoices, I'll be interested to see what you find.  His name in Ukrainian is Яків Степовий (middle, or patronymic, name is Степанович = Stepanovych, meaning his father called Stepan).  In Russian it would be Яков Степанович Степовой.  Note that his official/birth surname was Yakymenko/Якименко (Akimenko/Акименко in Russian) - I imagine he changed it to distinguish himself from his composer brother.

His wikipedia pages in various languages contain music files:

https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Степовий_Яків_Степанович
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakiv_Stepovy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Yakov_Stepovoy

You should probably set up a thread on him, given that this thread is about Vasilenko....