Dating, I think, from 1917, here is his PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OvG19v_ic (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OvG19v_ic)
...and some lovely solo piano music here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078W941YQ/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B078W941YQ/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp)
The Piano Concerto is a very attractive, rather Lisztian work isn't it?
Yes, I agree - really delightful.
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.
The pianist is excellent, the orchestra perfectly acceptable while not top-tier.
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.
Quote from: Mark Thomas on Monday 03 February 2020, 16:00
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 (https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C_%D0%9E%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87)
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....
Quote from: Alan Howe on Sunday 02 February 2020, 17:11
Dating, I think, from 1917, here is his PC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OvG19v_ic (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.
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.
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!
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)
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: dhibbard on Wednesday 05 February 2020, 06:01
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.
More likely because he was upper-middle class ("bourgeois"), talented, and Ukrainian.
What a fascinating thread, thanks to our marvellous UC members and their willingness to share their knowledge and insights.
do you mean Forberg (if so, Robert or Otto?)
A number of Soviet composers had their music copublished / published by UE, Breitkopf , or Koussevitzky's Editions russes de musique. Some of these (like Prokofiev) were accused of writing formalistic music, but never for this reason that I know of. Is this connection more than conjecture :)
Robert Forberg / P Jurgenson publishers
Christopher, it would be too much to say, I worked with her, but we shared some scores and recordings, especially for the interest of getting the Ukrainian composers more known. She recorded a lot of them.
But Skorulskyi? I never heared about him?
Quote from: Oliver Fraenzke on Monday 10 February 2020, 08:48
Christopher, it would be too much to say, I worked with her, but we shared some scores and recordings, especially for the interest of getting the Ukrainian composers more known. She recorded a lot of them.
But Skorulskyi? I never heared about him?
Well Oliver I am happy if I have brought Skorulskyi to your attention. There are some threads and download threads on him in this forum:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6506.0.html (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6506.0.html)
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7295.msg77099.html#msg77099 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7295.msg77099.html#msg77099)
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6035.msg63927.html#msg63927 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6035.msg63927.html#msg63927)
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5978.msg77098.html#msg77098 (http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5978.msg77098.html#msg77098)
Anyway, as Alan would say,....
I have put two Barvinsky pieces in the Downloads section.
1. Return to Ukraine
65 minutes long.
This is a song cycle for soprano and orchestra. The orchestration is actually by a contemporary Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak (born 1968, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohdana_Frolyak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohdana_Frolyak)), although she keeps it "on style". I think the title "Return to Ukraine" is hers rather than Barvinsky's.
It was broadcast by several Ukrainian channels and websites in 2020, the mp3 which I have uploaded is my rip of the premiere shown on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9jtwgAEKj8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9jtwgAEKj8) - I have removed the announcements and applause.
For me it's one of those rare pieces which has struck me at first listening, I am finding it exceptionally haunting and ethereal. And very unusual. In some ways it's like a late romantic precursor of Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, though less bleak, more of a kind of sweet-sadness. But that could be just me. I understand that Barvinsky is one of the composers that the musical establishment in Ukraine is particularly focusing on rediscovering as he was "repressed".
Barvinsky lived 1888-1963, so I don't know when he wrote these songs, or even if he wrote them as one piece or they stretch over years.
2. Ukrainian Wedding
7 minutes
For soprano, tenor and orchestra. Also orchestrated by Bohdana Frolyak.
There's a new recording of his piano concerto. I would say better than the previous recordings put up on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfK2XfTcgxE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfK2XfTcgxE)
Oksana Rapita, piano
Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Andrii Savchuk, conductor
Myroslav Skoryk Lviv National Philharmonic,
Lviv, June 10, 2022.
Thanks, Christopher. The new YT upload of the piano concerto is definitely better than the previous one, in all respects.
A new recorded performance of Barvinsky's cello concerto has been uploaded to youtube. This is, in my view, a far superior rendition of this attractive piece by comparison with the only other (to my knowledge) available version (also on youtube), which has been mentioned in another thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XE_yOCIyWA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XE_yOCIyWA)
Vasyl Barvinskyi - Concerto for cello and orchestra (orchestration by Viktor Kaminskyi)
Denys Lytvynenko - cello
Luhansk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Ivan Ostapovych - conductor
duration - 23 minutes
Live recording from the concert in Lviv Organ Hall (31.08.2023)
(For more on the concert at which this took place, please see the following thread on Skorulskyi's piano concerto - https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9315.0.html (https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,9315.0.html))
(Note - the other recording which I mentioned is here - https://youtu.be/tR4vNb_Qj9U?si=_nCsJy7A5YydUB6s)
Another attractive (and short - under 3 minutes!) piece by Barvinsky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyA4G2b0-Xk
Melody
Petro Bodnar - cello
Lviv Ensemble of Soloists
The Cello Concerto is quite an attractive piece but, frankly, it does rather meander - it pales beside, for example, the magnificent and memorable Cello Concerto by his contemporary, Myaskovsky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iftG4VnsFzI
Barvinsky's Piano Concerto is a better piece, I think - it was mentioned earlier in this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0OvG19v_ic
There are some scores of Barvinski's music here (https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Barvinski%2C_Vassili) (since he died in 1963, they will not be accessible in the UK or EU until 2034, I fear.)
I believe that the Oksana Rapita recording of the Barvynsky piano concerto uses the revised orchestration (with a lighter texture) by Bohdana Frolyak, 2019. This version was also used for the following CD:
INSO-Lviv ("Bridges, Vol. 1"): Kateryna Titova/INSO [Internat. New SO]-Lviv Youth O/Yaroslav Shemet (2023)
I do not have the scores to compare. Perhaps Christopher can confirm.
I don't have the scores I am afraid. I used to have Ms. Rapita's email address. I should be able to find it in case you'd like me to ask?
The guys at Ukrainian Live have sent me an mp3 of the Cello Concerto, which I have put into the Downloads section.