At the soiree Ukrainian conductor Tetiana Kalinichenko and Russo-British violinist Roman Mints broached the topic of communication between the two worlds, the West and the East, and showed to the audience that the creative work only wins from these meetings.
For the first time the meeting of these performers took place back in 2009, when in late December Russian Roman Mints, Kyiv soprano Solomia Pryimak, and Tetiana Kalinichenko jointly with her team performed several works by John Tavener, Arvo Part, Alexander Raskatov, and Viktoria Poliova. Now they have gathered with a complete lineup to show that culture bridges are no less important than the diplomatic ones. The work by Stevan Kovacs Tickmayer East-West Soundscapes, which gave the title to the entire event, showed this dialog of the worlds with the help of sounds: the East sang the melodies, embroidered like Persian carpets with fancy ornaments, and the West expressed itself with the help of energetic strokes of the bows, which resembled fencing.
Another symbolic work of the evening, Russian Seasons, composed by the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov (he was born in Kharkiv and graduated there from the Kharkiv Secondary Specialized Music Boarding School and already in the school years decided what his future profession would be – he started to learn composition as a child). The connection with the Ukrainian melodies, which imbued Desyatnikov, was clearly heard in the work with the Russian title. Of course, it appealed to the Diaghilev Seasons in Paris back at the beginning of the previous century, the early Stravinsky works, to which the layers of Celtic rhythms were added, Medieval dances, and drive of rock music. But the vocal part, brilliantly performed by Solomia Pryimak, who was balancing on the verge of academic and folk traditions, explicitly showed the connection of the cycle with the tradition of Ukrainian film music composition. Incidentally, the composer who heard Solomia’s performing a solo in his works on a recording (the work has already been performed at other concerts of the New Era Orchestra), confirmed that she is a perfect performer for this play.
Two plays of the program were composed by modern Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova, Sun Triptych and Spinning a Yarn. The last one was nominated for Grammy Award in 2014 in the category “Best Classical Compendium.” In Kyiv the violinist performed it alone – a big screen showed a recording where he performs the hypnotic part of the hurdy-gurdy on the stairs of a church, and the violinist was performing the violin part on the stage.
At last, another work of the program was the play of Lithuanian Vidmantas Bartulis, asserting in the title, I like F. Schubert. The fairytale lullaby in the vibraphone part, combined with the trembling of the orchestra, like a waft of wind in the curtains, took turns with many-time repeated Schubert intonations.
The evening of modern symphonic music, organized by Tetiana Kalinichenko, as a result became a field for a non-ending dialog – orchestra with a soloist, soloist with himself on the recording, new music with classical music, the East with the West. And the conductor who prepared the entire concert from the moment of choosing the program up to the invitation of the quests till creative work with the ensemble did everything possible to make the audience want to come to the concert again and continue the dialog.
