Review: The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra Lands at Lincoln Center
New York
Ever since Ukraine was invaded by Russia in February, orchestras, opera houses and concert halls around the world have programmed musical tributes and organized benefit concerts in support of its plight. But Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson envisioned a larger undertaking—the creation of a Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra that would tour internationally to raise awareness of and financial support for the country’s imperiled cultural heritage.
About two-thirds of this 74-member pick-up ensemble, which began its 12-stop tour under her leadership in Warsaw on July 28, belong to leading orchestras in Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities. Some are now refugees. Others, men eligible for military conscription, have been granted temporary leave by their government. The remainder are members of European orchestras—part of a diaspora of Ukrainian performers in recent years, according to Ms. Wilson, a frequent guest conductor on European podiums.
Pulling the tour together on such short notice required the combined efforts of Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera and Ms. Wilson’s husband of 19 years; Waldemar Dąbrowski, his counterpart at the Polish National Opera; the London-based concert agency Askonas Holt; and the Ukrainian government.
After engagements at prestigious venues in Amsterdam, Berlin, Edinburgh, London, Munich and elsewhere, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra played to an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 2,500 on Thursday at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park. A stage backdrop bore the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. This free concert will be repeated with two program changes on Friday. The final event, on Saturday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, will be filmed for PBS and air in September.
Thursday night’s program opened with the long-overdue U.S. premiere of the Symphony No. 7 (2003) by Valentin Silvestrov, Ukraine’s best known living composer. It’s a gripping 20-minute work, one of several written in the aftermath of his wife Larissa’s sudden death in 1996. While lacking the thematic inventiveness of Mr. Silvestrov’s Symphony No. 5 (1982), the Seventh shares its long-lined Mahlerian lyricism and polystylistic musical language that encompasses traditional melody as well as atonal passages.
Impressively orchestrated, the Seventh presents a solemn, ultimately enervating space where agitated burbles for brass, resounding gongs, tuba utterances and low, ominous rumbles from the piano gradually overpower wistful remembrances. As the symphony nears its end, the harp repeats a quiet A-sharp associated with the name Larissa, handwritten in the score, while the brass mimic the sound of fading breath in whisper-soft exhalations. Ms. Wilson led a restrained performance of this darkly despairing work, which would have fared better indoors given distant sirens and other city noise. Orchestral pianist Oksana Gorobiyevska captured the tinge of regret in the Hollywoodish cadenza of the Andantino section.
The inclusion of “Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?”, Leonore’s emotionally charged recitative from Act I of Beethoven’s “Fidelio,” was another savvy programming choice given the possibility of implicitly linking it to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Disguised as a young male guard, Leonore learns that the cruel prison governor is about to kill a captured political enemy whom she suspects is her husband. The German word “abscheulicher” is variously translated “fiend” or “monster.” (“Monster! Where are you hurrying? What do you plan in your wild fury?”) Noted Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska was dramatically effective and vocally assured in the recitative, but showed some pitch uncertainty in “Komm, Hoffnung,” the aria that follows it. The orchestral accompaniment, particularly the horns, was beautifully nuanced.
Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova gave an ingratiating performance of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. She has fleet fingers and a light touch. If the opening Maestoso was unremarkable, Ms. Fedorova blossomed in the rapturous Larghetto, which had just the right improvisational quality, subtle phrasing and youthful ardor. And she sparkled in the Allegro vivace, with its mazurka rhythms. Ms. Wilson was a sensitive accompanist throughout, allowing the pianist expressive freedom and keeping the orchestra from overwhelming her sound.
Brahms described his Fourth Symphony as “four entr’actes to be performed between the acts of the tragedy of human life.” The second and final movements of this splendidly conceived work brought out the best interpretively from Ms. Wilson, whose approach tends toward the straightforward. The Andante moderato was well paced. It soared gracefully in the impassioned chamber-music-scaled melody heard in the strings and bassoon. The action-packed finale delivered all the requisite mood shifts. Here, as elsewhere, the brass and woodwinds played with warmth and sensitivity.
As an encore, the Freedom Orchestra played a string arrangement of the Ukrainian National Anthem by composer Yuri Shevchenko. Concertmaster Marko Komonko, whose golden-toned violin solos added measurably to the evening, was particularly expressive.
Whether the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will perform again after this special tour ends on Saturday is unknown. But it has already made a potentially lasting impact by introducing the Silvestrov Seventh to these shores—one of a number of works by important Ukrainian composers such as Mykola Lysenko, Boris Lyatoshinksy and Myroslav Skoryk, who should be heard here more often.
Ms. Jepson reviews classical albums and concerts for the Journal.
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