Mykhaylo Skorulskyi (1887-1950, Ukraine) - Piano concerto - premiere recording

[Christopher]

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/

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Christopher. Another worthwhile find. Skorulski's effective and enjoyable concerto is a good example of what late-romanticism could achieve if allied to concision rather than the sprawling canvases of so many composers, although by 1933 not many were still writing in that idiom, of course.

[Christopher]

Thanks Mark.

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.

I mentioned that the first half of the concert consisted of Barvinsky's cello concerto.  That has been uploaded here - https://youtu.be/_XE_yOCIyWA?
si=1_dg4o5mjwVcMyw1

Vasyl Barvinskyi - Concerto for cello and orchestra (orchestration by Viktor Kaminskyi)
Denys Lytvynenko - cello
Luhansk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
duration - 23 minutes

[pianoconcerto]

Christopher, was the concert you attended on 2 Sept. 2023 or on 31 Aug. 2023, as noted on the youtube videos of the piano concerto and cello concerto?  Were there two performances?

[Christopher]

Any comments on the music @pianoconcerto? Happy to fill in with further details.

[Theodore S.]

It's a beautiful piece, very passionate and inspired, and I'm very glad this piece managed to get performed. Why on earth must it take 90 years for such pieces to get performed? What a world of difference the general perception of classical music would be if more pieces like this were played, and with frequency at that! If only more performances like this happened with American romantic composers...

[tuatara442442]

The slightly chromatic first theme of the PC immediately remind me of that of Catoire's.

[Christopher]

The guys at Ukrainian Live have sent me an MP3, which I have labelled up and put into the Downloads section.

[Martin Eastick]

Why on earth must it take 90 years for such pieces to get performed? What a world of difference the general perception of classical music would be if more pieces like this were played, and with frequency at that! If only more performances like this happened with American romantic composers...

This is a never-ending problem that has beset classical music for many years. It is the powers-that-be in the classical music world that are responsible. Those that preside over our music colleges and similar instituions, broadcasters, record companies, concert promoters etc. The same old excuses are trotted out for wanting to stick to the same old hackneyed repertoire. Women, contemporary and ethnic composers are doing quite well in a very biased musical environment; but only because of who they are/were, and not in any related to their actual compositional acconplishments, and are lucky that "political correctness" on behalf of the musical establishment gives them a clear biased and envied advantage in achieving exposure. The music that members of this forum do so much to investigate and promote, could have a real positive impact on the popularity and interest in classical music in general if it is thoughtfully and professionally promoted by individuals who really know what they are talking about.

[Alan Howe]

Critics could help as well, e.g. by refusing to review yet another pointless release of repertoire that has been done to death and instead seeking out something less well-known but worthy of our attention.

Thank goodness for this website. As far as I can see it's the best resource for those who want to look beyond the obvious...

[Christopher]

And back to Skorulskyi, as Alan might say. (I could say that I paid a fair amount of money towards this performance and then traveled into a war zone to ensure it was recorded. But I won't. Nevertheless a bit of commentary, with no obligation to like it, would always be appreciated.)