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Hartmann's Violin Concerto has been recorded by Joshua Bell with the INSO-Lviv under Dalia Stasevska and reportedly this will be released in July. I haven't heard any excerpts of this piece (or of much of his other work) to be able to assess if Hartmann's music will fall within the remit of this forum.  de Hartmann's dates were 1884-1956.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/jan/16/dalia-stasevska-joshua-bell-interview-ukraine-kyiv-russia

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/dalia-stasevska-conductor-dalias-mixtape-bbc-so-ukraine-b1142142.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_de_Hartmann

I apologise for troubling members with this, but I've not been able to resolve via other routes...

I have this piece in my library which is labelled as William Wallace's symphonic poem "The Passing of Beatrice" - but it is definitely NOT that piece.  Might anyone have idea what it is?!

https://www.mediafire.com/file/pg68mynr4931l3f/Wallace_-_The_Passing_of_Beatrice.m4a/file

Mykhaylo Skorulskyi's 1933 piano concerto has been recorded for the first time, in a live concert, and released today on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHp3VyEuVM8

Andriy Makarevych - piano
Luhansk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
Live recording from the concert in Lviv Organ Hall (31.08.2023)
duration - 17 minutes, in one continuous movement.

Mykhaylo Skorulskyi's Piano concerto is an important but forgotten page of Ukrainian music. A friend of Viktor Kosenko, a supporter of professional musical education in Ukraine, Skorulskyi still remains unknown to the general public, and his music is still waiting for its "star time".

This is the culmination of a project by the guys at Ukrainian Live Classics, with input from two external sponsors, of which I am one:

https://ukrainianlive.org/skorulskyi-piano-concerto

Concerto for Piano by Mykhailo Skorulskyi is an underrated page of the Ukrainian artistic heritage. A contemporary of Viktor Kosenko, a promoter of professional music education in Ukraine, Skorulskyi remains largely unknown to the general public, and his music still awaits its "high time". The piano concerto was performed in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then, the piece has not been performed on the stages, and its scores existed only in manuscript form, never published. Perhaps that's why so few musicians are familiar with the Concerto.

It's not the first time that the newly discovered score has come to life on the stage of the Lviv Organ Hall. The sheet music of Skorulskyi's Piano Concerto was discovered in Kyiv archives and handed over to the performers by the sponsors of the Ukrainian Live project. In the recording presented in the Ukrainian Live Classic mobile app, the piece was performed by the Luhansk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and soloist Andriy Makarevych under the conducting of Ivan Ostapovych.

A single-movement concerto for piano and orchestra was composed by Mykhailo Skorulskyi in 1933. At that time, the composer did not yet work on large-scale stage canvases, which he would turn to soon (operas, ballets, oratorios). Instead, he thoroughly explored chamber and symphonic genres, creating two symphonies. From 1915 to 1933, Skorulskyi conducted the Zhytomyr Symphony Orchestra, performing well-known symphonic works that stood out for their complexity and monumentality. Working with world masterpieces fueled the composer's creative ideas.

The romantic concerto for piano and orchestra is a single-movement form but has several sections, combining both lyrical and heroic episodes. The piece was written with grandiosity and effectiveness, characteristic of romantic composers such as Franz Liszt, Edvard Grieg, Frédéric Chopin, and partially Viktor Kosenko. Andriy Makarevych, the soloist at the Lviv Organ Hall, emphasizes, "Skorulskyi's concerto is different from Liszt's in its single-movement structure, presenting an extended and substantial first part of the cycle, unlike Liszt's concertos, where individual movements were united into a single form. Skorulskyi follows the traditional structure of the first part of the cycle precisely, with a clear reprisal after the solo cadenza and a preserved tonal plan".

The concerto genre implies a competition between the soloist and the orchestra. However, in Skorulskyi's concerto, it symbolizes not a struggle but mutual complementation. The composition features significant orchestral fragments, sometimes contrasting with the detailed piano part. Orchestral motifs and phrases are developed, creating a sense of unity. The orchestral part is intricately built by the composer, while the piano, in the best sense of the word, becomes its complement and ornament.

Mykhailo Skorulskyi's Concerto for Piano is profound, glorious, thrilling, and elevated – like an unexplored "fifth ocean" that every listener should discover to feel Ukrainian music's full power and beauty in the 20th century.

Backstory:

About 10 years ago I came across the Ukrainian ballet "The Song of the Forest" by Skorulskyi - while it's a staple of the repertoire in Ukraine, it's unknown in other countries.  The music blew me away and has remained one of my favourite pieces of all time. (Quite a few full recordings on youtube, including this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=688yJ3GWs9E&t=1s – and also 3 suites made from it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFsBTJuhtsE&t=6s - and its super popular (in Ukraine) encore piece, an Adagio for violin and orchestra, is here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzgOTVGGJTE

This prompted me to research what else Skorulskyi had written.  I found his symphonic poem Mykita the Tanner on youtube (and in our downloads section here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM0SQEHN0RQ&t=31s) - but nothing else substantial.

However I did find online the score of his piano concerto, but in a version for two pianos (ie no orchestra) - that score is here - https://www.mediafire.com/file/f0la266yycnrrpy/Skorulskyi_piano_concerto_-_two_piano_version.pdf/file.

This sparked off a years long hunt for the full score.  Together with a fellow enthusiast, we last year located it in a Kyiv museum, and prevailed upon them to scan and send it to us.

Meanwhile, we had sent the 2-piano version to UkrainianLive and they agreed to play and record it. That version can be heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6onBdgDw7w - played by Andriy Makarevych accompanied by Melaniya Makarevych (Andriy's sister) doing the piano-version of the orchestral part.

Naturally, upon finding the full score, we shared it with UkrainianLive and they agreed to perform and record it. UkrainianLive are based in  Lviv, west Ukraine, in the beautiful Lviv Organ Hall (a former church - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv_Organ_Hall). There, they host the exiled Luhansk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra which left Luhansk en masse following its illegal and hostile invasion and occupation by Russia (Luhansk is in east Ukraine).

The date of the concert was set for 31st August 2023, and I had the great pleasure of travelling by train from the Polish border and attending the performance, which was played to a packed and enthusiastic hall. The first half consisted of Vasyl Barvinsky's cello concerto (a very good performance which UkrainianLive will also soon release), followed by Skorulskyi's piano concerto.

So what do I think of it? Well it's growing on me.  It is most certainly in the late romantic style, in one sweeping movement.  Initially I thought "well I can't hum it" but then I have actually found myself doing exactly that.  So yes I like it and suspect I will like it even more tomorrow.  It's beyond me to "critique" a piece, and I hope others might.

The full orchestral score (handwritten!) is here - https://www.mediafire.com/file/by55mh41991kq67/Skorulskyi+-+Piano+Concerto+-+Manuscript+Score+-+full+orchestra.pdf/file

More about Skorulskyi here:  https://musical-world.com.ua/en/artists/skorulskyi-mykhaylo/

I apologise if this isn't appropriate here (in which case moderators please do delete!).  Does anyone have any contacts at Decca Classics (part of Universal)?

I bought a double CD of "The Official Album of The Coronation: The Complete Recording", a Decca Classics CD.  Over a third of the music is missing.  I wanted to give to classical-music loving friends overseas as an example of British music, and British performers, at their finest (I think most, whatever their views on the Monarchy, would agree that the music was pretty special, and exceptionally performed).

I rang the number given on Decca Classics website, my heart sank when I got someone very trendy saying "Universal Music", who then proceeded to tell me that she hadn't heard of "that album" or "the artists who sang it" and put me through to a dead voicemail box.  I rang again and got someone else, who insisted that Decca could choose to omit items on a CD that it had included on streaming. I would dispute this - if they had won the rights to produce the "Official" album, and call it "The Complete Recording", then something is wrong here!

The full list of works performed is listed here: https://www.deccaclassics.com/en/catalogue/products/the-coronation-of-their-majesties-king-charles-iii-and-queen-camilla-12992

 - however the following pieces are missing from the 2CD (they are ALL from the first hour of the ceremony, making me think an oversight has happened and that this should have been a 3CD):

- Bach: Magnificant anima mea
- Bach: Christmas Oratorio BWV248 Pt.5 "Sunday after New Year"
- Bach: Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied, BWV190
- Bruckner: Ecce sacerdos magnus
- Bach: Alla breve in D major, BWV589
- Holst: The Planets "Jupiter"
- Jenkins: Over the Stone
- Walton: Crown Imperial
- Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves
- Purcell: Trumpet Tune
- Handel: Solomon, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
- Handel: Joshua, Oh had I Jubal's lyre
- Handel: Flourish for an occasion
- Vaughan Williams: The Preludes for Organ "Rhosymedre"

I had particularly wanted it for the Bruckner "Ecce sacerdos magnus", an amazing piece I had never heard before!

This, I believe, could be rather a substantial find. There is nothing folksy or fleeting about it at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdyOgFomWm8&t=389s

Boris Kudrik (1897-1952, Ukraine)

Symphony in E minor

Chernivtsi Symphony Orchestra
Yosyp Sozansky - conductor

40 mins long.

A very serious work in the late-romantic style, with a passionate first movement (I particularly like its defiant finale, around the 14 minute mark).  Kudrik wrote it in the gulag prison camp in Mordovia in 1951, where he had been imprisoned since 1945.  He died shortly afterward, in 1952. It's described in the book excerpt below as his swansong, and as his salvation from the inhuman conditions in which he found himself.

More about him here (in Ukrainian, you'll need google-translate):
http://mus.art.co.ua/ukrainian-live-borys-kudryk-portret-kompozytora/
https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кудрик_Борис_Павлович

Boris Kudrik
(JUNE 10, 1897, ROHATYN - MARCH 28, 1952, POTMA STATION, DUBRAVLAG CAMP)

Kudryk Borys Pavlovych - Ukrainian composer, musicologist, folklorist and teacher. His work is sometimes considered by researchers as ,,a real anachronism and a kind of miracle in the development of modern Ukrainian music"* and compared with the music of Joseph Haydn**, but it would be more correct to attribute his legacy (and only partially) to the so-called ,,Galician Biedermeier"*** - a local manifestation in art, which poetized everyday life, glorified the lives of ordinary people, the beauty of rural nature and local folklore. In German and Austrian art of the 1830s and 1840s, this style was both the antithesis of the aristocracy of the classicist style and the tumultuous romanticism as a reaction to the events of the French Revolution of 1789. The mood of interwar Galicia contributed to the revival of this style with its tendency to seek harmony, simplicity and tranquility.

Borys Kudryk was born into a priest's family (perhaps that is why the basis of his future creative work is choral). He graduated from Rohatyn Gymnasium. Since childhood he played the violin, piano, sang in the choir.
He studied at the Academy of Music and the University of Vienna (he studied musicology, philosophy and German philology), later at the Polish Conservatory in Lviv and Lviv Universi-ty. Among the teachers who had the greatest influence on his development - Ukrainian and Austrian musicologist and composer, teacher of the Vienna Academy of Music Evseviy Mandychevskyy.

Contrary to a complex historical epoch, Kudryk's work is distinguished by a surprisingly light, childish worldview. Although the style of his works is quite diverse, they are all united by ,,childhood". According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the composer was always as if in a parallel reality, listening to only one audible otherworldly music. His musical erudition knew no bounds due to his phenomenal memory: any of the scores he knew, and there were many of them, he could reproduce by heart on paper with perfect accuracy.

The year 1945 turned out to be fatal for Kudryk.
He was in the third district of Vienna, which was later to be in the British sphere of influ-ence. A few months were not enough. Prior to the official demarcation, the Red Army began sweeping, and on April 11, the composer was detained by officers of the First Smersh Counterintelligence Division. The confusion in Kudryk's answers recorded in the transcripts of the interrogations testifies to the detainees' conscious desire to accuse the composer. He was eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property and sent to a camp in Mordovia. There, in December 1951, he fell ill with pneumonia complicated by hypertension and died in 1952.

Symphony in E minor
This is one of Kudryk's two symphonies written in the concentration camp. Ironically, before that, being free, the composer did not turn to this genre - the top in the musical genre hierarchy. He began writing the 40-minute work in May 1951, less than a year before his death. He did not have time to finish: there are gaps in the manuscript and there are no last bars. This work was a salvation for the com-poser, and despite the inhuman conditions, it did not lose the most important features of his work: tenderness and a certain amount of sentimentality. Even its sad nature refers more to Schubert's songs than to Mahler's despair.

The manuscript of the work is a ,,ragged" notebook with a hand-lined musical note and text written in pencil. Its premiere took place in August 2019 in Chernivtsi by the Chernivtsi Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yosyp Sozanskyi and edited by him. The amazing intertwining of folk-song intonations and extremely sincere personal expression creates a unique and recognizable style of this ,,swan song" by Kudryk.

Footnotes:
* Rudnytskyi A. Ukrainian music: historical and critical review -
Munich: Dnieper wave, 1963. - P.181
** The same.
*** This term was introduced into Ukrainian musicology by Kudryk himself, in particular in the article ,,We will all go to the meadow with braids". Musical-historical film of the Galician Biedermeier (3 occasions of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Mykhailo Verbytskyy
1815 - 1935). // Ukrainian music. - 2015. - Number 1-2. - P. 118-122.

 - from "The Forbidden Music", Collegium Management - Ukrainian Live Publishing, 2021, Publisher - Olexandr Savchuk, Kharkiv

Juhan Jürme (also known as Johannes Jürgenson) was an Estonian composer. Born 1896, died 1943.

He graduated from the Tallinn Conservatory (now the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater) in 1927, majoring in composition with Artur Kapp and organ with August Topman. He then worked as a (cinema) pianist, organist, choirmaster and composer. From 1942 until his early death, Jürme was a lecturer at the Tallinn Conservatory. In 1943 he died in a Soviet bombing raid on Tallinn.

Jürme is best known as a composer of vocal symphonic works on biblical themes. He also wrote the oratorio Nebuchadnetsar (1937), the opera Võõras veri ("Foreign Blood", 1939) and the well-known cantatas Pärast püha õhtusöömaaega ("After Holy Communion", 1927) and Memento Mori (1933). His choral and orchestral piece Rukkirääk ("The Corncrake", 1937), which is part of every Estonian song festival, is particularly popular.

"Memento Mori" was recently (March 2023) performed and recorded in Tallinn Cathedral, a performance dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the composer's death.

The recording can be heard here (41 mins long): https://youtu.be/PZv_kYeS9og

[Choral Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor]

I believe this includes works never previously recorded:

Choral Music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
London Choral Sinfonia, Michael Waldron

Release Date: 16th Jun 2023 - available now for pre-order
Catalogue No: ORC100247
Label: Orchid Classics
2 CDs

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9490843--choral-music-of-samuel-coleridge-taylor



Works:

Coleridge-Taylor: Arietta
Coleridge-Taylor: Benedictus
Coleridge-Taylor: By the Lone Sea Shore
Coleridge-Taylor: By the waters of Babylon
Coleridge-Taylor: Elegy
Coleridge-Taylor: In thee, O Lord
Coleridge-Taylor: Jubilate Deo
Coleridge-Taylor: Lift up your heads
Coleridge-Taylor: Magnificat
Coleridge-Taylor: Melody
Coleridge-Taylor: Now late on the Sabbath Day
Coleridge-Taylor: Nunc Dimittis
Coleridge-Taylor: O ye that love the Lord
Coleridge-Taylor: Sea Drift
Coleridge-Taylor: Song of Proserpine
Coleridge-Taylor: Summer is gone
Coleridge-Taylor: Te Deum Laudamus
Coleridge-Taylor: The Evening Star
Coleridge-Taylor: The Lee Shore
Coleridge-Taylor: The Lord is my strength
Coleridge-Taylor: Viking Song
Coleridge-Taylor: Whispers of Summer

[Vladimir Deshevov]

Radio Orpheus in Moscow has been busy recording the music of obscure, almost-forgotten composers.  I have downloaded from their website a fair number of orchestral and stage works by Vladimir Deshevov which I have put into our Downloads section.

(The other composers whose orchestral, choral or stage works have been recorded are: Arensky (his opera Rafael, probably not unsung enough for us?); Nikolai Golovanov - works already on here; Georgy Catoire Alexander - work already on here; Mosolov (1900-73) and Leonid Polovinkin (1894-1949) - too avant-garde for us; and Aleksei Zhivotov (1904-64) - too modern!  But DM me if any of these are of interest.)

Deshevov's works, I would say, fall on the cusp of our style and era - some are full-blooded Slavic-late-romantic (eg Russian Fairy-Tale) while others arguably step slightly over that line.

A very brief bio of Deshevov reads as follows:

Vladimir Deshevov. Franz Liszt from Tsarskoye Selo
https://ouverture.energy/en/news/vladimir-deshevov-tsarskoselskiy-list/
Russian composer Vladimir Mikhailovich Deshevov is one of the authors of constructive realism and creators of the first Soviet operas and ballets. He was born in St. Petersburg on February 11, 1889, and left this world in Leningrad on October 27, 1955.

His contemporaries often called him "Franz Liszt from Tsarskoye Selo" and "A fragile Elf with the Face of Chopin." Both statements perfectly met the character of an elegant, nervous, impetuous prodigy and virtuoso Vladimir Deshevov. He was a friend of Anna Akhmatova and Nikolai Gumilyov. He was also an officer in the army of Ferdinand Wrangel during the Russian Civil War, fought in Sevastopol and got a serious wound. Deshevov is a composer with a hard fate and rich musical heritage.

Deshevov's music is a vivid example of the radical avant-garde of the so-called "first wave." It is permeated with the energy of big cities, construction of industrial ''giants'', sharp rhythm and uncompromising desire to create something new. In the end of the '20s, Deshevov was stigmatized and cut off from the history of Russian music. Deshevov spent the siege in Leningrad. He wrote music for the radio, worked in fire brigades, was wounded during shelling, was ill and starved.

A lot of research was done to restore the composer's legacy as part of the project "Russian Composers' Heritage Revival." The Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra recorded Deshevov's symphonic poem "Russian Fairy Tale" (1947) and his suite to "Bela" ballet (1941). The Orchestra will perform both compositions for the first time at the II International Music Festival "Energy of Discoveries", which was founded by Unipro PJSC and Orpheus Radio.

A much much longer biography/commentary can be read on Radio Orpheus's website here (in Russian, you will need googe translate) - https://composers-heritage.ru/composers/DESHEVOV/

He has a Russian wikipedia page - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Дешевов,_Владимир_Михайлович
Vladimir Mikhailovich Deshevov ( February 11, 1889 , St. Petersburg - October 27, 1955 , Leningrad) - Soviet composer, Tsarskoye Selo musician-wunderkind, author of the first Soviet operas and ballets.

Father - mining engineer, inventor M. M. Deshevov; mother - chamber singer Anna Konstantinovna (née Loseva). In the family, who lived in Tsarskoe Selo since 1898 , everyone was fond of music, his father was a regular at concerts, studied music theory. Grandmother, Anna Konstantinovna Loseva, was a first-class pianist, possessed pedagogical skills and had a major influence on the development of her grandson's musical abilities.

Vladimir studied first at the Tsarskoye Selo gymnasium , where his brothers also studied: Konstantin (graduate of 1900, with a gold medal) and Sergey (graduate of 1905, future architect, co-author of the church-tomb of Oleg Bryansky in Ostashevo, author memories of childhood "Theatre for myself"); then - in the real school of Nicholas II , which he graduated in 1908 . He met and became friends with Sergei Prokofiev (later they corresponded). From 1904 he attended symphony concerts, which took place in Pavlovsk from May to September; in 1906 he took private lessons in music theory and solfeggio from the young composer A. Pashchenko. He constantly visited the Arensov house together with Vasily Komarovsky , Nikolai Gumilyov , Nikolai Punin and others.

In 1908 he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory ; among his teachers: in the piano class - professors A. A. Winkler and L. V. Nikolaev , in harmony - V. P. Kalafati , in strict style - A. K. Lyadov , in instrumentation - M. O. Steinberg and practice - at the conductor A. V. Gauk . The development of the musician was followed with interest by A. K. Glazunov , B. V. Asafiev . In 1913, Deshevov's piano study was performed in St. Petersburg at a concert by the singer Zabela-Vrubel . He graduated from the conservatory in 1914 .

With the outbreak of war , he was drafted into the army, fought until the beginning of the February Revolution . Then he ended up in Elisavetgrad , where he worked as a secretary in the department of public education and taught piano and music theory at the city school. Later he taught in Sevastopol , where in 1921 he organized together with Sobinov and headed the People's Conservatory. In Sevastopol, the future composer and theorist of bell art, Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev , took lessons from him in the theory of composition .

In October 1922 he returned to Petrograd. Belonged to the left wing of the Leningrad composers. He was close to the Oberiuts . Darius Milhaud , who visited Leningrad in 1926, spoke highly of Deshevov's music (after that, Milhaud and Deshevov corresponded animatedly for several years). He taught at musical technical schools, acted as a conductor in drama theaters.

He wrote music for more than 30 dramatic and 5 musical performances, including the performance of the Leningrad Marionette Theater Gulliver in the Land of the Lilliputians (1936); many works were not staged or immediately removed from the repertoire. He worked in the cinema: he wrote music for the animated film Mail (1930 , based on the poem of the same name by Marshak), for the films Fragment of the Empire, Servant of Two Masters, Academician Pavlov and others.

Most of Deshevov's works remained in the archives, much has not been preserved. The systematic study of his heritage is just beginning. Since the late 1990s - early 2000s, Deshevov's compositions have been increasingly performed in Russia and abroad, along with the legacy of Roslavets, Mosolov, Alexei Zhivotov, Leonid Polovinkin and other representatives of the post-revolutionary musical avant-garde in Russia. A number of his works were performed by Oleg Malov, Valery Popov, Anton Batagov and others.


Among the music which I have uploaded is the music to his ballet "Bela".  "Bela" is the first of the five stories that make up Mikhail Lermontov's great 1839 novel "A Hero of Our Time". Bela is a Circassian princess with whom the protagonist of the five stories, Pechorin, falls in love.  His pursuit of her inevitably leads to her disgrace and death.

Did Grieg write a second piano concerto? I just came across this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mDawU3VUtY

It says:  E. Grieg - V. Beliaev Concerto  №2 for piano and orchestra.
Chamber orchestra "The seasons"(Dnipro, Ukraine), conductor Dmitriy Logvin, soloist Artur Nikulin

(The soloist Artur Nikulin is the one who played the Kosenko pc that so many on here have liked.)

The Latvian Music Information Centre (LMIC) has just released an album of songs for mezzo-soprano and piano by the Latvian composer Emilis Melngailis (1874-1954).  The album is called "and a birch and grasses..."

Ieva Parša - mezzo-soprano
Andrejs Osokins - piano

https://www.lmic.lv/en/skani/catalogue?id=223
brochure - https://www.lmic.lv/uploads/images/album/brochures/20220331_223_LMIC%2060%20iTunes%20booklet.pdf

It comes combined with music from another composer, Kristaps Pētersons, born in 1982.

[Volodymyr Femelidi]

Volodymyr Femelidi (1905–1931).
Ukrainian composer and conductor of Greek descent.

Ukrainian Live have just released a restored recording of this composer's Symphony, written in 1927.

I. Moderato. Vivo
II. Adagio. In memoriam
III. Allegretto. Scerzo. Youth
IV. Allegro. Final

Performed by: Symphony Orchestra of Ukrainian Television and Radio, conductor Leonid Balabaychenko (1963, re-recorded under the direction of sound engineer Yuriy Vynnyk in 1984)

https://ukrainianlive.org/femelidi-volodymyr

You have to download their app to your smartphone or tablet to listen to it.  It's an attractive enough piece, unmistakably Slavic and late-romantic, and had he lived longer he would probably have come to regard it as a student work.

Life would not have ended so early but for pneumonia, which destroyed the weakened body and became fatal in the fate of Volodymyr Femelidi - Ukrainian composer and conductor.

There were Greeks in his family, and Odesa became his hometown. Not surprisingly, the boy's fate was like a stormy sea and waves swaying from side to side. His mother was a musician, his father was a writer - the parents passed on their son the love for art, developing his skills and personality. Perhaps that is why Volodymyr did not immediately understand his mission in life and chose the profession of a historian. It took three years to understand: "Being a musician is what I'm called for!" He left his first place of study and entered the Institute of Music and Drama in two faculties at once - composition and conducting, which he successfully completed.

There was a storm in the composer's life. In the wake of his success as a composer, after the premiere of the ballet "Carmagnola", Volodymyr Femelidi got involved in work so actively that he stopped caring about his health. He was already sick when on the way to a concert where he was to conduct his Carmagnola, he was caught in cold rain - thus this storm drowned him.

The composer`s short but prolific life replenished the Ukrainian cultural fund with 17 completed and 2 sketches of works, including sonatas, romances, symphonies, operas, and ballet.    https://www.patreon.com/posts/meet-volodymyr-66415073?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWRpc19rZXkiOiJpYToyZjBhMjYwNS02NmFmLTQ4M2MtODAxZi1lZTljMWE0ZDhhMjciLCJwb3N0X2lkIjo2NjQxNTA3MywicGF0cm9uX2lkIjo2NzQ5MDM1MH0.s5TA-weUncPeBA-yyKE3Dz-JQqEFT3sr3IPEkWvwPCE


He was born into an aristocratic family and grew up an inquisitive child, had a phenomenal memory, excellent musical hearing, played the piano, wrote poetry, and was fond of theater. Volodymyr inherited his love for music and art from his mother, and his passion for literature and history came from his father.

In 1921, Femelidi became a student of the historical faculty of the Odesa University, but still took the path of a musician. In 1924, after completing his studies at the university, he entered the Odesa Music and Dramatic Institute: as a composer, he studied under professors Vasyl Zolotariov and Porfyriy Molchanov, and started conducting under Hryhoriy Stolyarov. During his student years, Volodymyr Femelidi wrote his first works in various genres: Concerto for violin and orchestra, Concerto for piano and orchestra, Symphonic poem Undina (to the lyrics of V. Zhukovskyi), Piano Sonata, Trio for Piano, Violin, Cello, String Quartet, Danza exotica (Exotic Dance) for string quartet, Three Romances for soprano with chamber ensemble. An important stage in the composer's career was the creation of the first Symphony (1927). The same year Femelidi debuted as a conductor at professor Stolyarov`s students' concert.

In 1928, the young composer created a few new works: Classical Symphony № 2 (in the style of the XVIII century.), a vocal cycle Eight songs on Jewish themes, and music for the Jacinto Benavente`s play "The Bonds of Interest". In 1929, Femelidi wrote the opera Rozlom based on the play by Borys Lavreniov. The premiere of the work took place on November 7 of the same year in Odesa. Leading actors of the Ukrainian Drama Theater provided great assistance in staging the opera. The opera soon premiered in Baku with the participation of the composer.

In 1930, Femelidi created one of the first Ukrainian ballets - Carmagnola. It is based on the theme of the Great French Revolution. The composer depicts the experience of a young Frenchwoman Carmagnola, offended by a noble marquis. Her patriotic impulses became a symbol of the people's struggle against the aristocracy. The composer introduced some Innovations to the ballet genre - dialogues, exclamations, and the involvement of the choir, which created an additional dramatic enhancement of the action. During the winter season of 1930-1931, the ballet was performed 40 times with great success!

In the late 1930s, Femelidi worked on three operas: the radio opera The Potemkin Battleship and the opera Burevisnyk (Petrel) on the same theme. Together with his father Oleksandr he created the libretto Caesar and Cleopatra based on the play by Bernard Shaw and wrote the first scenes of this opera.

Premature death interrupted his intensive and prolific work. Femelidi being ill, caught a bad cold, hurrying to a performance in which he was to conduct his Carmagnola. He contracted pneumonia and tuberculosis. Volodymyr Femelidi died on October 3, 1931, at the age of 26. Carmagnola's overture uses a theme, which was used in the episode of the funeral march. The composer was buried to the sounds of this march.

The opera Rozlom and the ballet Carmagnola were staged with success in Ukraine and other parts of the USSR after the composer's death. But in general, the musical world, unfortunately, forgot the name of the talented composer.

History does not belong to the exact sciences, because it cannot objectively cover the events of the past. Needless to say, people can talk about the same person in completely different ways. The names of many talented people have remained unknown or completely forgotten simply because no one has told the true story of their lives. Therefore we know very little about Volodymyr Femelidi, probably because his story, unfortunately, was very short and lost among the brilliant achievements of his contemporaries. With great joy, we rediscover the name of the composer and conductor who lived and worked more than 100 years ago - Volodymyr Femelidi from Odesa (b. 1905 - d. 1931). Femelidi's music is worth being heard by the broadest audience and finally move from library shelves to stages and music platforms such as Ukrainian Live Classic. In the APP we present his First Symphony (1927), which is characterized by a special energy, folk color, and heroic motifs.

Before writing the Symphony, Femelidi successfully tested his music skills in chamber vocal and instrumental music, as well as in the concert genre (for violin and orchestra and piano with orchestra). In his symphony, the young composer surprises the listener with his spontaneity and freedom in working with the score (which, by the way, according to contemporaries, he wrote quickly and without errors, immediately clean and without any sketches). Based on the laws of composition, which the diligent student mastered while studying at the Institute of Music and Drama (Conservatory), he builds the drama of the piece, which mirrored his era in a way. It intertwines sincerity and indomitable spirit, which is conveyed by folk-song melodies, on which the whole symphony is built. It is the intonational connection between the parts that renders the integrity of the symphonic cycle. The Symphony traditionally consists of four parts:

Moderato. Vivo
Adagio. In memoriam
Allegretto. Scerzo. Youth
Allegro. Final

The Femelidi`s Symphony is a celebration of the people, the embodiment of youth and zest for life, a manifestation of determination and inspiration with which people face tomorrow despite all troubles. Undoubtedly, the people who are always ready to fight are invincible!

I have posted in the downloads section some music by this Russian composer (born in Chernobyl, yes that one!).  He is very low-profile and appears mostly to have written incidental music for theatre productions, one of which (Bluebird for the play by Maeterlinck) remains fairly popular in Russia to the current day.  His page on the website of the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) reads as follows (google translate):

Ilya Alexandrovich Sats

(18.4.1875, Chernobyl, Kiev province - 11.10.1912, Moscow)

Composer. Studied at the Moscow Conservatory under S. I. Taneyev. He dropped out in 1899 to take part in the relief of the hungry on the Volga organized by Leo Tolstoy. Under suspicion of anti-government activities, he first went abroad, and then (as if to prevent deportation) - to Siberia. Upon returning to Moscow through Sulerzhitsky, he established close contacts with the Moscow Art Theater (he graduated from the conducting class of the Philharmonic School in 1907, already working here). One of the founders of the Studio on Povarskaya (head of the music section, music for "Death of Tentagil" by Maeterlinck). After the studio was closed, Stanislavsky called him to the Moscow Art Theater. Sats was the author of the musical solution for the performances "The Drama of Life" and "The Life of a Man" (1907), "Blue Bird" (1908), "Anatema" (1909), "Miserere" (1910), "Life in the Paws" (1911). In "My Life in Art" there is a separate chapter "I. A. Sats and L. A. Sulerzhitsky ". "I think," writes Stanislavsky, "that during the entire existence of the theater, I. A. Sats was the first to show an example of how one should relate to music in our dramatic art. Before starting work, he attended all rehearsals, was directly involved as a director in the study of the play and in the development of the production plan. Devoted to all the subtleties of the general plan, he understood and felt no worse than us, where, i.e. in what place of the play, for what, i.e. whether to help the director, for the general mood of the play, or to help the actor who lacks certain elements to convey certain parts of the role, or in order to reveal the main idea of ��the play, his music was needed. The essence, the quintessence of each rehearsal work, the composer framed and recorded in a musical theme or accords, which were the material for future music. He wrote it at the very last moment, when it was impossible to wait any longer. [...] His music has always been a necessary and integral part of the whole performance ". Sats from 1906 until the end of his days was on the staff of the Art Theater. As a composer, he also collaborated with the Ancient Theater in St. Petersburg (The Play about Robin and Marion, The Act about Theophile, The Brothers Today, season 1907/08; Calderon's Purgatory of St. Patrick, season 1911/12). He also worked for the Maly Theater, for the theater of V. F. Komissarzhevskaya. Shortly before his early death, he negotiated with Reinhardt about "Macbeth" and "Tempest". Suffering from severe depression, expressing the tragedy of his understanding of life in the music for "Hamlet" (staged by Craig, 1911), Sats was drawn to the spicy gaiety of cabaret culture, participated in its business endeavors. wrote opera parodies ("Revenge of Love", "Eastern Sweets"), worked in "The Bat", "Crooked Mirror", invented numbers for skits. The compilers of the collection of memoirs "Ilya Sats" (Moscow - Pg., 1923) tried to consolidate its complex appearance.



See also Russian wikipedia - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сац,_Илья_Александрович
or Ukrainian - https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сац_Ілля_Олександрович

Ukrainian Live have released a recording of the opera Iphigenia in Tauris by Ukrainian composer Kyrylo Stetsenko (1882-1922).

https://ukrainianlive.org/stetsenko-iphigenia

You have to download the app where shown to listen to the music (I haven't worked out how to listen to it directly or convert to an mp3, if anyone can figure this out please let me know!).

Performed by:
Soloists and choir of the National Opera of Ukraine
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Conductor - Natalia Ponomarchuk

On April 29, we honor the memory of the outstanding Ukrainian composer and choirmaster Kyrylo Stetsenko, who passed away 100 years ago. A life full of inspiration, kindness, and love. A priest, a husband, a father, and an artist whose life suddenly ended the disease at the age of 39 took. The release presents the last significant work of the composer - the dramatic scene Iphigenia in Tauris based on the drama of the same name by Lesya Ukrainka.

A monoopera based on the ancient myth of the self-sacrifice of princess Iphigenia for the salvation of the Motherland. The main and only heroine of the story is Iphigenia, the daughter of Mycenae King Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra. Having sacrificed the goddess Artemis Iphigenia, her father hopes to win the campaign in Troy. But the goddess herself saves the girl from death by replacing her with a sacrificial doe. Instead, the sacrifice of Iphigenia is as follows: the king's daughter becomes a pythoness in the temple of Artemis in Tavrida (Crimea), where on the altar, every stranger treading on the land of Tavrida must die. It turns out that Iphigenia's inability to come and see her loved ones is even more torment than death: "I would rather die a hundred times than live here!" sounds in the last stanza of the scene. But the girl is unable to commit suicide, she humbly obeys the will of Artemis to save the people.

Kyrylo Stetsenko is mostly known for his unique choral (sacral) and vocal music. The composer also created music for the theater. Stetsenko skillfully worked with the poetic text. The structure of the opera is subordinated to the dramatic scene, which the poet Lesya Ukrainka borrowed from the ancient Greek tragedy. Choral and large-scale solo episodes change one another and it is a distinctive feature of the work. The choir represents both the narrator and the girls who bring flowers and gifts to the divine pedestal. Emotionally and vividly voicing the text of the scene "Iphigenia in Tauris", Kyrylo Stetsenko emphasized the psychologism and drama of Lesya Ukrainka`s poetry.

https://ukrainianlive.org/stetsenko-kyrylo

Kyrylo Stetsenko (b. 1882, Kvitky - 1922, Vepryk)

Ukrainian composer, choral conductor, teacher and public figure, priest (Ukrainian Orthodox Church).

He studied at the St. Sophia Cathedral seminary in Kyiv and the Mykola Murashko Art School (1892). From 1897 he studied at the Kyiv Theological Seminary and worked as an assistant regent of the St. Michael's Monastery.

In 1899 he met Mykola Lysenko and traveled around Ukraine with his choir as a member of the choir and assistant conductor. In 1903 he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Seminary and until 1907 studied at the Lysenko Music and Drama School. In the same year he was arrested for participating in public activities and deported to the Donetsk region, in 1908 he returned from exile and taught singing in Bila Tserkva and Tyvriv.

In 1911 he was ordained a priest and received a parish in Podillya. From 1917 he worked in Kyiv in the music department of the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian People's Republic, developed new educational projects, organized the Kobza music edition, and established choirs, including the Dumka choir, with which he traveled throughout Ukraine. In 1921 he took part in the First All-Ukrainian Church Council, which confirmed the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UAOC).

Kyrylo Stetsenko supported the development of national Ukrainian music, initiated by Mykola Lysenko, so the genre diversity of his music is closely related to national poetry. He wrote the operas Captive (Polonyanka), Karmelyuk, Iphigenia in Tauris, children's operas Ivasyk-Telesyk, Fox, Cat and Rooster. Kyrylo Stetsenko's vocal and choral music is very diverse. He is the author of cantatas Unite (Yednaynosya), To Shevchenko, Dream), spiritual music (two Liturgies, Vesper (Vsenochna), Funeral Mass, in memory of M. Lysenko), romances, etc., arrangements of folk songs, as well as music for theatrical performances.

Stetsenko's music is marked by a rich timbre palette, color harmony, melodic and textural richness. He developed the deep traditions of the national singing art and applied new ideas and techniques of the twentieth-century new generation. His work summed up the achievements of his predecessors and opened new ways of developing the Ukrainian musical style.

Kyrylo Stetsenko developed a national method of teaching music and singing, he published school song collections and teaching aids, a textbook for playing the kobza.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrylo_Stetsenko

Latvian Radio Archive has this month released an album of the music of Latvian composer Alfrēds Kalniņš (1879-1951):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPPTYFqPvac&list=OLAK5uy_l8kicLhYcAcX93QyhrdhPvQz5TLchVkjg

See also from the Latvian Music Information Centre - https://www.lmic.lv/en/skani/catalogue?id=187

Album cover and text - https://www.lmic.lv/uploads/images/album/brochures/20210325__LMIC%20104%20Alfreds%20Kalnins%20iTunes%20booklet.pdf

"Brīnos es" (I Wonder)
Variations on a Theme by Grieg
"In modo di ballata"
"Ziedoņa idille" (Spring Idyll)
"Pļāvēja diendusa" (The Mower Rests)
"Rudeņa zieds" (The Autumn flower)
Pastorale No. 1
"Ziedoņa rīts" (Spring Morning)
"Šūpuļdziesma" (Lullaby)
Fantāzija (Fantasia) g moll
Cantata "Pastardiena" (Day of Judgment) - chorus and orchestra
Symphonic poem "Latvija" (Latvia)

Latvian Radio a few months ago released an album of the music of Latvian composer Jāzeps Mediņš (1877-1947) on to youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeTOkUE-9As&list=OLAK5uy_lZtQdrhoyiAjeFujjcxt2xFXihgFvlQGQ

01. "Liriska Poēma" for Symphony Orchestra
02. Romance No. 2 in D Major (cello and piano)
03. Latvju kapričo (violin and piano)
04. Sapņojums (soprano, cello and piano)
05. Idille for String Orchestra

Three Miniatures for Piano
06. I. Prelūdija
07. II. Noktirne
08. III. Pavasara Ieskaņ

Songs for Choir
09. I. Vasaras Vakars
10. II. Smaržīgs brīnums
11. III. Mežotnes Taure

12. Ballad for Cello and Piano

All' Antica Suite (for string orchestra)
13. I. Moderato con moto
14. II. Sarabanda
15. III. Allegro

See also https://www.lmic.lv/en/skani/catalogue?id=196

Album cover and notes - https://www.lmic.lv/uploads/images/album/brochures/20210507_196_LMIC%20110%20iTunes%20booklet%20Jazeps%20Medins%20(2).pdf

Some of you may be familiar with Alexei Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Foundation - ACF - (https://acf.international/) - they regularly post thoroughly researched documentaries into the super-wealth of Russia's elite, including Putin, Medvedev and others.  These have enraged the powers that be, presumably due to their high level of accuracy. They are all the more remarkable for sourcing most of their information from open sources publicly available material.

Their latest exposé is into Gergiev.  While his closeness to the Russian elite is well-known and indeed proudly promoted by Gergiev himself, the extent of his wealth, if this exposé is accurate, is beyond belief and certainly beyond anything even a top conductor of several world-leading orchestras could expect to earn.  It's of course for each individual to decide whether and how to separate an artist from his or her political/criminal activities, and where that line lies.

The documentary can be viewed on the ACF website or on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=663&v=g9BOyC37JGU&feature=emb_logo - 48 minutes, in Russian with English subtitles.

A summary of their findings can be read in English in a series of tweets by Russian investigative journalist, and head of the investigative unit of the ACF Maria Pevchikh - https://twitter.com/pevchikh/status/1519319083950481409?s=11&t=eq2Xcf6-zv3Nsl30tUWCuw

Another orchestral Juon piece from youtube:

Burletta for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 97 (1939)

Sebastian Bohren, violin
Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden
Philippe Bach, conductor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6SpKD2pp0s

I know from being on the Board of the Tubin Society there are several more pieces of music of Lemba to be recorded and released soon. 

https://www.tubinsociety.com/?page_id=744&lang=en - Board of the Tubin Society..


On another forum, in April 2014 (and later again in February 2017), you were adamant that you would be able to get information from the Tubin Society about a Lemba CD due for release which would contain his "Overture Fantasy No 3; Festive Overture No 2; Symphony No 2 in F minor: "On the way of the life"; and Festive Overture No 1 (ERSO with Volmer conducting)".  When pressed, you decided that actually this CD would be released by the Alba label.  When this didn't materialise and you were pressed further, you declared that actually it would "be released by ERP instead of Alba in summer 2016." When I wrote to ERP directly and received a reply from their Artistic Director, Peeter Vähi, saying "Many thanks for your interest in Estonian music and Lemba. Unfortunately, we don't have any plans regarding recording nor releasing Lemba's CD", which I showed you, you didn't have a clear answer, despite claiming to be in Tallinn at the time (where you could most easily have ascertained the true situation).

So...has there been an actual update in the meantime with these to-date elusive (and possibly imaginery) Lemba recordings?

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.

The Ukrainian Festival Orchestra & Ukrainian Festival Choir conducted by Ivan Ostapovych recorded and posted up two operas in 2021 by Porphyry Bazhansky:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkQy4lKpTdU - Dovbush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6knnUVmgd60 - Bila Tsyganka (= The White Gypsy Girl)


Wikipedia pages on the composer (none in English)
https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бажанський_Порфирій_Іванович - Ukrainian
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Баженский,_Порфирий_Иванович - Russian


http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CB%5CA%5CBazhanskyPorfyrii.htm
Bazhansky, Porfyrii [Бажанський, Порфирій; ; Bažans'kyj, Porfyrij], b 24 February 1836 in Beleluia, Sniatyn county, Galicia, d 29 December 1920 in Lviv. Self-taught composer, folklorist, music theorist, and Ukrainian Catholic priest. Bazhansky received his music education at the Greek Catholic Theological Seminary in Lviv. He collected folk songs, some of which he published or used in his compositions. Among his works are 'folk' melodramatic operas, church music (1869), music for mixed choirs, and two song collections: Halyts'ko-bukovyns'ki narodni melodiï (Galician-Bukovynian Folk Melodies, 1890–1906) and Rus'ko-halyts'ki narodni melodiï (Ruthenian-Galician Folk Melodies, 1905–12). He wrote articles on melodies and harmony and collected and arranged folk songs, in which he utilized Mykola Dyletsky's unpublished writings.