Sergei Vasilenko

[ancestralvoices]

Merry Merry...

Does anyone know if there's a recording of the Symphony No. 1 by Vasilenko? I found a computer generated recording of it on YouTube, and am now very interested in finding it done by a real orchestra. So beautiful and rather sad, which I love.

Guys and gals, I rarely post — but I lurk often and have discovered so much from this wonderful site. Thank you for all your knowledge.

[ancestralvoices]

...also, I can at least perhaps give back by mentioning a neo-romantic Ukrainian composer whom, I believe,  has not been mentioned much, if at all, on this site. His name is Mykola Kolessa and although he lived from 1903-2006(died age 103), his three works on YouTube are purely romantic. Two symphonies and a Ukrainian Suite.

[ancestralvoices]

Sorry, I must say one more thing on this very quiet Christmas night. Christopher, you made my day today. The Ukrainian composer I would never have discovered had you not brought him here -  Yakiv Stepovy, and his jewel of a piece(so short and emotionally charged) called Prelude to the Memory of Taras Shevchenko, has moved me perhaps more than any other unsung discovery. Thank you kindly, good sir. So so much. I've listened to every performance I could find on YouTube — and believe that this little piece, had it been composed in another place, another time, and in perhaps a nation without the horrible tumult I've been shamelessly learning about because of you(let alone now), may have become a part of the standard repertoire. That's the joy of this website. You never know what certain readers are experiencing in their lives, and if just one, one discovered piece provides a reader with what I've been given — then this forum is perhaps more impactful than is realized. You, Christopher, have given me a gift!

https://youtu.be/DIzNJes-h7w

[semloh]

Oh, a truly beautiful piece of music. Thanks for the link. 

[Christopher]

Thank you for your kind words ancestralvoices and I'm glad that I've enabled this discovery.  I do hope that as Ukraine gains evermore national self-confidence, it will be emboldened to rediscover its own composers from the era that we love.  It could be that those we have shared here are just a glimpse of a huge treasure.  The composers whose music we have discovered on here certainly give reason to hope that that is the case: Stepovy, his brother Yakymenko (aka Akimenko), Kosenko, Bortkiewicz, Lysenko, Lyudkevych, Barvinsky, Leontovych, Verbytsky, Kalachevsky, Sokalsky, Ryabov,... and Skorulsky, many of whose works HAVE been recorded and sit inaccessibly in Ukraine Radio archives (don't get me started).  Check out Jury Znatokov too on youtube - died in the 1990s but absolutely within our style.

On Vasilenko (Ukrainian-style surname but he was absolutely Russian by all accounts) - no I'm afraid I've not come across a recording of his first symphony.  You are right that the computer version does hint at an attractive piece.  Those of his works which have been recorded don't do it for me - harmonic but not melodic if that makes sense.

[ancestralvoices]

Thank you, Christopher. I'm going to try and find more works by Stepovy. I will go to the Ukrainian YouTube and google translate and see what is there.
So moved by him. So thrilled, as I was away from my family this Christmas season.
Again, you brought me joy on that lonely but fruitful Christmas night. I'll never be able to thank you, and Thomas and Alan et al, enough for this beautiful forum.

[Christopher]

Let us know how that goes ancestralvoices, I'll be interested to see what you find.  His name in Ukrainian is Яків Степовий (middle, or patronymic, name is Степанович = Stepanovych, meaning his father called Stepan).  In Russian it would be Яков Степанович Степовой.  Note that his official/birth surname was Yakymenko/Якименко (Akimenko/Акименко in Russian) - I imagine he changed it to distinguish himself from his composer brother.

His wikipedia pages in various languages contain music files:

https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Степовий_Яків_Степанович
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakiv_Stepovy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Yakov_Stepovoy

You should probably set up a thread on him, given that this thread is about Vasilenko....

[Christopher]

Vasilenko's music doesn't particularly inspire me.  However I am an incorrigible completist.  In that vein:  there's been a programme in russia to revive his music.  See https://vasilenko-legend.ru/ (you'll need google-translate).

In a number of concerts posted on youtube the Lipetsk Symphonic Orchestra Philharmonia has performed a number of his works, including the Epic Poem, horn concerto, trumpet concerto, and Springtime Suite for flute & orchestra - recordings of which already exist and may even have been uploaded here in earlier times.  Additionally, there are premiere recordings of two pieces that I have made into m4a files and put into the Downloads section:

- the Air Khorovod (a khorovod is a circular dance with a chorus) - 6 mins - it's from his suite "Son of the Sun".
- the cantata "The Tale of the City of Great Kitezh and the Quiet Lake Svetoyar" - 35 mins

I've also made an m4a file of the Epic Poem - I do have a previous recording of that but it was for folk orchestra, whereas here it is for "proper" orchestra.

The series of concerts (from 2022) can be watched here, if you have the strength:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ThYwH5GkJ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLG8ORkbiPU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb1mcKetAmk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-xh8h61wfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqA4iyxjF_0

[tuatara442442]

The Epic Poem in these videos are also first known recordings of this piece. The horn concerto recordings also seem to be the only complete orchestral version recordings available, as far as I can find.

[Christopher]

The Epic Poem in these videos are also first known recordings of this piece. The horn concerto recordings also seem to be the only complete orchestral version recordings available, as far as I can find.

I've long had a recording of the Epic March - played by the Novosibirsk Radio Orchestra.  It originally came from this page - https://intoclassics.net/news/2015-01-27-8042 - but I have no idea of the provenance.

[melomane2025]

Vasilenko Harp Concerto, Op. 126:

[tuatara442442]

As for the Harp Concerto, a hidden 2024 commercial release exists. It is the first three tracks of this album:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n2615y-UDlzG34Kext9TeGUCx4ObFPci4&si=nS0hRR8--faUBop_

[Christopher]

As for the Harp Concerto, a hidden 2024 commercial release exists. It is the first three tracks of this album:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n2615y-UDlzG34Kext9TeGUCx4ObFPci4&si=nS0hRR8--faUBop_

Nice find Robert!

It's so frustrating when youtube has listings like this but doesn't name the composer!  Full details, with composer names (!) can be found on https://www.discogs.com/release/32440845-Various-150-Anniversary-The-Harp-Class-Of-The-Moscow-Conservatory

There's another harp concerto by a composer I haven't encountered before from "our" era - Nikolai Parfyonov (1893-1938) - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Парфёнов,_Николай_Гаврилович (there's no English page so you'll need google translate). ALso a brief entry on discogs, what a sad brief life: "Nikolai Parfenov is a Russian harpist and composer.
He was born on October 10 (October 22, new style) 1893 in the city of Kursk in the family of the singer and teacher G. V. Parfenov. He began to study the harp (under Ф.Ф. Шоллар) and singing at the Court Singing Chapel in St. Petersburg. In 1917 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory (class of A. I. Slepushkin) with a large silver medal. On June 20, 1938 he was arrested on charges of counterrevolutionary activity, sentenced to death by firing squad by the collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR on October 3, 1938. He was posthumously rehabilitated in March 1957. He died in 1938 in the city of Moscow (according to other sources - in 1942 in Novosibirsk or Kursk)."

[tuatara442442]

https://spb-orchestra.ru/muzyka-voennoj-pory/zapis-26-sergej-vasilenko/
There's a new installment of Wartime Music series by Titov that focuses on Vasilenko's music. Except for the Trumpet Concerto, the works are premieres. All of them are small in scale, however:

4 folk dances
"Suvorov," introduction to the opera
"Cossack March"
"Uzbek Suite," excerpts

The audio files can be streamed and downloaded in their entirety for free on the above official website of the orchestra.

[Holger]

Thanks for the link! Very welcome! Maybe at some point we will get a recording of the remaining four of Vasilenko's symphonies. Time will tell...

Regarding the YouTube videos, it is a sort of a pity that they are so poorly indexed: which works are contained, when do they start, who are the performers and so on. Of course, all of this is possible to find out with some research, but it would be much more convenient to have everything at hand from the beginning on.