Ukrainian

This recording of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s emotionally charged Warsaw performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony captures one of the artistic highlights of 2023. The orchestra was created as a cultural riposte to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Their Beethoven has the unique feature that its text, Schiller’s great poem of freedom “Ode to Joy”, is sung in Ukrainian, indeed it also expresses Schiller’s opening word of “Freude” (Joy) as the Ukrainian word “Slava” (Glory) to electrifying effect in a moving echo of Ukraine’s rallying call of resistance in the face of aggression, Slava Ukraini! (“Glory to Ukraine!").

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said, 'The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream.' Today, the dream of Ukrainians is one of victory, complete and final! We are approaching it on the cultural front as well, defending our own cultural borders, assets, and values, while also introducing the unique musical history of Ukraine to the world.

Boris Lyatoshynsky was a leading member of a new generation of Ukrainian composers that emerged in the 1920s. His expansively conceived Ukrainian Quintet finds him at his most emotionally overt, with a heartfelt Lento e tranquillo second movement. Dedicated to Lyatoshynsky, Valentin Silvestrov's Piano Quintet dates from the start of his Modernist odyssey of the 1960s, while Victoria Poleva's withdrawn and secretive Simurgh-quintet is part of a style that embraces spiritual themes and musical simplicity defined as 'sacred minimalism'.

"A collection of Ukrainian Christmas and winter compositions that create a magical atmosphere."

'Few Lines in Archaic Ukrainian' collects the cold majesty of DRUDKH's 2015-2017 split album output into a single compendium. The set includes their tracks, six in total, from splits with HADES ALMIGHTY, GRIFT, and PAYSAGE D'HIVER and represents the first time many appear on a format outside of vinyl. 'Few Lines in Archaic Ukrainian' is yet another noteworthy marker in the journey of one of black metal's most crucial champions.

The expressive vitality in this collection of violin sonatas transcends the cultural upheavals from which these three Ukrainian composers emerged. Bortkiewicz's Violin Sonata in G minor is among the most impressive of his relatively few chamber works, finding his musical language at its most vivid and directly communicative. Kosenko's Violin Sonata in A minor is notable for the satisfying balance of its two subtly differentiated movements. Skoryk's Second Violin Sonata is a stylistically diverse chamber work, with pointed allusions to Beethoven, Prokofiev and Gershwin during its compact and always eventiul course.

Gold Collection: Hits of the Ukrainian Variety of the Twentieth Century (5CD) was released in 2005 under the label Astra Records (Ukraine). To your attention is a series of albums of hits of the Ukrainian pop 50-60-70-80s and instrumental hits of the Ukrainian pop art, in which popular songs of that time are presented. Many of these works were really popular among the Ukrainian people of the times of socialism. The official variety of them, as it were, was ignored at the level of thin. Councils and musical officials …