Kyiv music lovers had a rare opportunity to listen to a Francesco Ruggieri violin (1639) at a concert at the Hall of Columns of the National Philharmonic Society. The unique instrument was played by its owner, Elena Denisova, one of Russia’s leading violinists. She presented brilliant renditions of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Berg’s violin concerto, accompanied by the National Philharmonic (Oleksiy Korniyenko), demonstrating refined taste and top professionalism. The violinist’s scrupulous elaboration of every detail, profound insight into the composition, and stylistic precision, combined with the instrument’s magic sound, bewitched the audience. While Mozart is performed now and then in Ukraine, Berg is practically nonexistent. The violin concerto Elena Denisova performed is called In Memory of an Angel. Alban Berg composed it under the impression of the untimely death of his friend Luis Krasner’s daughter, in 1935, on the banks of Lake Wцrthersee in Carinthia, Austria. Remarkably, the lake’s beauty inspired other Austrian composers: Mahler, Weber, and Wolf. The concert program included another masterpiece: Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Scotch Symphony (No. 3) that has long been absent from the Ukrainian repertoire. The brilliant romantic composition was brilliantly performed by the National Philharmonic. Oleksiy Korniyenko amazed the audience with an original youthfully sincere interpretation of the symphony. It was as though the conductor were living in and breathing the music. Perhaps this is the essence of his performing style, reports Serhiy PYROHOV.
