Stanyslav Lyudkevych (Ukraine, 1879-1979) - concerti

[Christopher]

The following were posted up on youtube throughout 2021 by the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBV_UIJ7Zog - Concerto for piano and orchestra in D minor (composed 1916). World Premiere
Marta Kuziy - piano
Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
Orchestration - Oleg Zaruma
Recorded on December 23, 2020


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqYJKa8eKis - Piano Concerto in A Minor (composed 1917). World Premiere
Andriy Makarevych - piano
Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUAgOnS2ess – Violin Concerto (composed 1945, outside "our" era but (a) being completist, and (b) I think it fits stylistically.  Not a world premiere, but only movts 2 and 3 have ever been available, I presume the previous recording of the 1st movt must have been lost)
Adrian Bodnar - violin
Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
Recorded on December 11, 2020

[Richard Moss]

Christopher,

Thanks v much for these wonderful uploads.  I'm listening to the VC as I type (and if that is not romantic I'm a chinaman!)  Do you have and info  (timing/tempi?) on the movements of the A minor PC - YOUTUBE only gives the total duration and performers.

Best wishes

Richard

[Christopher]

Hi Richard - I'm glad you are enjoying these.  I don't have that info atm - youtubers quite often add that kind of info in the comments below the video, so I will monitor that page and post up should they appear.

[Richard Moss]

Christopher,

I didn't realise that info might be in the comments - I'll try and remember to look in future -tks for the tip!

Also I found on YT a couple of his symphonic poems (Chaconne & Song of a Young Man, iirc) from his later years but still sort of 'romantic' in style but equally some other later works (e.g. a Symphony) NOT in that vein at all (hard to believe it was the same composer?!)

Anyway, I remember from several earlier UC posts quite a few other Baltic / Georgian / Ukrainian etc. composers coming to light that otherwise we would never have heard of, so please keep up the good work and bring these to our attention. 

Best wishes, seasons greetings and keep safe

Richard

[Alan Howe]

I thought the VC was quite pretty, definitely romantic in style, but ultimately of only slight interest - sorry. Mind you, the soloist plays rather well. I note that the composer was named People's Artist of USSR in 1969, which suggests that later on he turned out music according to the criteria approved by the Communist Party.

The PC in D minor is of greater interest, being earlier, but again I found it meanders rather - is the finale missing? Its companion in A minor is more advanced harmonically - again I found little of interest save for a lot of huffing and puffing leading nowhere in particular, especially in the finale.

I'm really sorry to write in this way, so I'll leave this thread to those who find the composer's music more congenial than I.

[Christopher]

Also I found on YT a couple of his symphonic poems (Chaconne & Song of a Young Man, iirc) from his later years but still sort of 'romantic' in style but equally some other later works (e.g. a Symphony) NOT in that vein at all (hard to believe it was the same composer?!)

Well he lived to the age of 100 (I understand his widow was alive until just a few years ago!), in a period which saw such monumental change in music as in everything else, so it's not surprising if his musical output covered a spectrum of styles.  Just by being from Lviv he will have been the citizen of six or seven different states without needing to leave his front door! (Hapsburg empire, Tsarist Empire, Poland, Ukrainian People's Republic, West Ukrainian People's Republic, USSR, Third Reich, USSR again.  And independent Ukraine 12 years after he died.

Thanks for unearthing the chaconne, I didn't know of that piece.  I like it. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=695euuxqorI
Chaconne for symphony orchestra
Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
Live recording in LyudkevychFest (Lviv 2017)

[eschiss1]

I'm surprised to hear a chaconne (an ostinato/passacaglia work) described as a "symphonic poem" though!

[Christopher]

I thought the VC was quite pretty, definitely romantic in style, but ultimately of only slight interest - sorry. Mind you, the soloist plays rather well. I note that the composer was named People's Artist of USSR in 1969, which suggests that later on he turned out music according to the criteria approved by the Communist Party.

The PC in D minor is of greater interest, being earlier, but again I found it meanders rather - is the finale missing? Its companion in A minor is more advanced harmonically - again I found little of interest save for a lot of huffing and puffing leading nowhere in particular, especially in the finale.

I'm really sorry to write in this way, so I'll leave this thread to those who find the composer's music more congenial than I.

You shouldn't feel like you have to withdraw from a thread if you don't like the piece posted up on here Alan.  Nor apologise - it's not as if anyone here wrote it.  And I for one value that kind of granular critique, being incapable of it myself !

[Mark Thomas]

later works (e.g. a Symphony) NOT in that vein at all (hard to believe it was the same composer?!)

Following up on Richard Moss' comment above, the Subcarpathian Symphony is a complete anachronism. Maybe it was a deliberate pastiche, perhaps in response to some Soviet diktat because, although composed in 1952, it's basically sub-Glazunov. A pleasant and undemanding listen certainly, although the first movement is twice as long as it needs to be and the last is pretty vacuous, but it could have been written 80 years earlier and raised few eyebrows, the musical language being less advanced than in the two piano concertos from 1916/17, never mind the later pieces. As well as the recording on YouTube, there's a better one from the 1980s on Soundcloud by the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra under Fedir Gluschenko.

[Alan Howe]

You shouldn't feel like you have to withdraw from a thread if you don't like the piece posted up on here Alan.  Nor apologise - it's not as if anyone here wrote it.  And I for one value that kind of granular critique, being incapable of it myself !

I simply thought I'd said enough - if I'd said any more it would have been rather more trenchant and dismissive, I fear.

[Holger]

If anybody is really interested in Lyudkevych's symphonies, all three are available on a CD-R (which contains mp3s and flacs) which can be bought on Discogs:
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/14661022-Stanislav-Lyudkevych-Symphonic-Works
I actually have it since I am a completist when it comes to Soviet symphonies. However, I couldn't say I would rate these works particularly highly. A few days ago, I was already about to type a reply which would have resembled what Mark wrote earlier today. The same holds for the A Minor symphony, by the way, which is from 1963 (and recalls Tchaikovsky, moreover parts of the scherzo are derived from Mussorgsky's "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks"). I don't think this approach is related to Soviet politics, in fact – basically any Soviet composer active in 1963 (to take the A Minor symphony) wrote in a (partially far!) more advanced idiom. I would guess that he simply wrote works resembling the music which was dear to him.

Maybe Lyudkevych's best works are among his cantatas which usually transport decisively heroic messages (based on texts by Ukrainian 19th century authors like Taras Shevchenko or Ivan Franko), at least they usually convey a lot of energy and are fun to listen to. His works in more 'abstract' genres tend to be weaker in general. Altogether, even if his music is not unpleasant at times, I don't consider him to be a composer of greater significance (even though he is a kind of legend in Lviv). A few days ago, and at almost the same time as when this discussion on Lyudkevych was started if I recall correctly, Sergei Vasilenko was mentioned as well, a Russian composer of about the same generation. I wouldn't regard him as a particularly outstanding figure either, but he was certainly a much more accomplished composer.

[Christopher]

later works (e.g. a Symphony) NOT in that vein at all (hard to believe it was the same composer?!)

Following up on Richard Moss' comment above, the Subcarpathian Symphony is a complete anachronism. Maybe it was a deliberate pastiche, perhaps in response to some Soviet diktat because, although composed in 1952, it's basically sub-Glazunov. A pleasant and undemanding listen certainly, although the first movement is twice as long as it needs to be and the last is pretty vacuous, but it could have been written 80 years earlier and raised few eyebrows, the musical language being less advanced than in the two piano concertos from 1916/17, never mind the later pieces.

The Sub-Carpathian region came under Soviet control in 1945, but a partisan/guerilla campaign continued against the Soviets for quite a few more years (led by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.  This could well have been behind any diktat (just my speculation).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prykarpattia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army