Ukrainian Classical Music - can you help?

[Alan Howe]

And of course I have that CD. Multiple spelling options don't help!

[eschiss1]

Darn that Cyrillic alphabet

[Alan Howe]

No: darn the multiple different attempts at translitteration!

[adriano]

I like Boris Lyatoshynsky's Symphonies. They were recorded in Kyev in 1993-4 and issued on Marco Polo.

[Christopher]

I hope the moderators won't mind if I give a shout-out to this very worthy website - https://ukrainianlive.org

U-Live is a project aimed at recording for the first time the music of Ukrainian composers across the ages, as well as unearthing older recordings which have remained locked-up and out of reach.

Contrary to what many outside the country would have people believe, Ukraine has always had its own composers writing music across the full range of the classical spectrum, not just folksy operas of limited appeal. Their late romantic music, for example, easily holds its own against Russian/German/Polish etc composers of the same period and would be a revelation to the musical world. And yet they remain unknown.  It's telling that a large number of them were repressed (ie murdered or imprisoned, and their scores burned) by the NKVD in the 1930s.

I understand that U-Live is driven by Collegium Musicum Lviv under the conductor Ivan Ostapovych and the poet Taras Demko (http://collegiummusicum.com.ua/), with whom I am in touch.

If you go to https://ukrainianlive.org/composers you will see the composers they have worked on (many many of which are from "our" preferred era, and the many recordings they have which you can listen to if you download the app.

But - they need financial support, and have a fundraising page where you can make one-off or regular donations. If 1,000 people gave $5 a month...etc (I'm one of them..).  Please do consider it!  https://www.patreon.com/UkrainianLiveClassic

Works by the composers Kosenko, Barvinsky, Stepovy and Bortkiewicz are among the newly-discovered unsung works that members of this Forum have taken the trouble to say have given them much pleasure.

The current political situation and a possible invasion of the country by Russia gives an added poignancy to this request: if Ukraine should be turned into scorched earth, its cultural legacy risks being lost forever without projects such as these.

Given the recent developments in Ukraine, the guys at Ukrainian Live have decided to make all the scores which they hold publicly available, free of charge.  Follow this link - https://ukrainianlive.org/ukrainian-scores - you make the request (name of composer and piece of music) and enter your email address.  If they have it they will send it.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks Christopher. I imagine IMSLP will put in a bulk order!

[Christopher]

I had obviously missed the Akimenko Violin Sonatas CD - perhaps I should investigate it. Thanks, Eric.

I hadn't realised Blumenfeld was born in Ukraine. He's a known quantity, of course.

And Gliere is another composer that people might not realise is from Ukraine. His staggering 3rd "Ilya Murometz" symphony being the subject of one of the longest threads on this forum. Born in Kyiv, of mixed Ukrainian German and Polish heritage. Studied at the Kyiv School of Music which later became the Kyiv Conservatory - he was appointed its director in 1914.

[eschiss1]

and Lyatoshinsky's teacher, iirc; the latter completed Gliere's violin concerto, I believe...

[eschiss1]

IMSLP doesn't put in orders at all, afaik, but editors/uploaders (and sometimes there -are- IMSLP-organized projects, it's true...) do...

Amidst all the other destruction, I expect the universities and libraries in Kharkiv, e.g., are probably lost

[der79sebas]

Excusez-moi, but calling Bortkiewicz or Gliere "Ukrainian composers" is ridiculous, as it would be to call Mahler a Czech composer (with the difference that Czechia sort of existed then, whereas Ukraine did not).

[eschiss1]

I think more to the point is less "where were they born" but "how did they regard themselves."
Eg whether Kuhlau was actually Danish, ...

[Alan Howe]

From Wikipedia:

Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz was born in Kharkov, Russian Empire (in present-day Kharkiv, Ukraine) on 28 February 1877 in a Polish noble family (father, Edward Bortkiewicz; mother, Zofia Bortkiewicz née Uszyńska) and spent most of his childhood on the family estate of Artemivka, near Kharkiv. Bortkiewicz received his musical training from Anatoly Lyadov and Karl von Arek at the Imperial Conservatory of Music in Saint Petersburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Bortkiewicz

Glière was born in Kyiv, Russian Empire, on 11th January 1875.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Gli%C3%A8re

It's strictly anachronistic to describe Bortkiewicz or Glière as 'Ukrainian' in the modern sense as there was no independent Ukrainian state until 1917. However, I'm pretty sure they would have regarded themselves as Ukrainian by origin and culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine

[Alan Howe]

Excusez-moi, but calling Bortkiewicz or Gliere "Ukrainian composers" is ridiculous, as it would be to call Mahler a Czech composer (with the difference that Czechia sort of existed then, whereas Ukraine did not).

Well, Wikipedia describes Mahler as Austro-Bohemian!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler

And with that - back to the topic, please.

[eschiss1]

I would add that more of the Bortkiewicz article needs to be read than that.

[der79sebas]

"I'm pretty sure they would have regarded themselves as Ukrainian by origin and culture."

This is exactly my point: Bortkiewicz and Gliere would definitely NOT have regarded themselves as Ukrainian, whereas Lyssenko and Lyatoshinsky surely/probably would.