Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963)

[Alan Howe]

Dating, I think, from 1917, here is his PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OvG19v_ic

[Alan Howe]

...and some lovely solo piano music here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078W941YQ/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

[Mark Thomas]

The Piano Concerto is a very attractive, rather Lisztian work isn't it?

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes, I agree - really delightful.

[Christopher]

Let's hope its a better performance than the other one which was posted up here once.  I think I wrote that it sounded like a great concerto badly played.

[Alan Howe]

The pianist is excellent, the orchestra perfectly acceptable while not top-tier.

[Mark Thomas]

This really is a very persuasive performance. Barvinsky's Piano Sonata is also available on YouTube and is equally appealing, with a  stunningly poetic opening. The man clearly had substantial talent, but most of his music is lost apparently.

[Christopher]

This really is a very persuasive performance. Barvinsky's Piano Sonata is also available on YouTube and is equally appealing, with a stunningly poetic opening. The man clearly had substantial talent, but most of his music is lost apparently.

Yes he was repressed (though not, I think, murdered, unlike Horilij, Leontovych and others).  According to Ukrainian-language wikipedia:  In early 1948 he was arrested. He was forced to sign a document in the MGB : "I allow my manuscripts to be destroyed." And the manuscripts were destroyed. Then there was the long exile for 10 years to the Mordovian camps. Upon his return from exile (1958), he concentrated all his efforts on recovering from the memory works whose manuscripts were destroyed during his arrest (he worked on it until his death).    https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Барвінський_Василь_Олександрович

Clearly from an exceedingly talented family - on wikipedia (at any rate, and in various languages) his siblings, both parents, children, uncles, father-in-law, grandparents, and great-grandfather all have their own entries for being writers, poets, academics, scientists (discoverer of X-ray), politicians, diplomats....

[Christopher]

Dating, I think, from 1917, here is his PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OvG19v_ic

The pianist, Violina Petrychenko, has put up so much on youtube by Ukrainian composers.  Most are works for solo piano, or small chamber works. She's clearly a driving force behind discovering the unsung works of her own (unsung) country and that's to be heartily applauded. 

[Mark Thomas]

Indeed. Petrychenko has released a CD of smaller piano works by Barvinsky which are uniformly lovely and very well played. She has also recorded piano works by Kosenko, amongst others, I see.

[Oliver Fraenzke]

It is a pity, that composers like Barvinsky got lost due to political circumstances. How cruel to burn his scores in front of the university he taught for many decades, while he was prisoned.
Violina Petrychenko is one of the few, rediscovering the Ukrianian composers: She made some CDs with music by Barvinsky, Kosenko, Shamo and so on.

For those reading German, here you can find an interview and a review of her Barvinsky-CD:
http://www.the-new-listener.de/index.php/2017/12/08/stalin-sah-es-nicht-gerne-dass-es-in-der-ukraine-eine-eigene-kultur-gibt/
http://www.the-new-listener.de/index.php/2017/12/06/ein-komponist-ohne-noten/

Petrychenko really is an outstanding pianist, who fights for the music she loves. I was lucky to cooperate with her to prepare reprints of Kosenkos piano music. One could literally see the flame burning inside her while thinking about this music!

[Christopher]

So, Oliver, you worked with her?  How fascinating.  Is she looking at other Ukrainian composers as well?  I am particularly interested in Skorulskyi (who wrote a piano concerto....I have the score, but only a version for 2 pianos)

[dhibbard]

Christopher... is there any way you could get the full score?   When uploaded into Sibelius, you can really hear the full sound of the piece.

[Christopher]

I have asked around for it but no luck. Will ask some more.

Which pieces have you had success with on Sibelius, David? You've mentioned it a few times but I don't think you've yet shared any, if I'm not mistaken.  Would be fascinating to hear.

[dhibbard]

Even though Barvinsky had destroyed his manuscripts.  (or was forced by the KGB).... there were several books he had written that were published in the West.... and also the orchestral work Ukrainian Rhapsody (1911) and several others were published by Forberg in Germany including Ukrainian Wedding (1914) Overture Poem (1930) and several pre WW2 chamber works.   His book Ukrainian Folksongs and Composers was published in 1914 in Prague.   See also I Kowaliw: Barvinsky an outline of his life and works (Toronto, 1964)...  so at least some of his works had been published before his arrest... also his book on Ukrainian Folksongs had several of the most famous Ukrainian folksongs he used in his works..   His arrest in 1946 (after the war) may have partly been because his works had been published in Germany by Forsberg.. fortunately, those printing plates survived.