In memory of the “Solar Maestro”
On Feb. 29 the National Opera of Ukraine hosted a concert commemorating Ukraine’s prominent conductor Stefan Turchak (1938-1988), who would have been 70 years old on Feb. 28 if a serious illness had not cut short his spectacular life at its very peak.
The program included fragments of compositions once conducted by Stefan Turchak, which were performed by the National Opera’s orchestra, choir, and soloists (Tetiana Anisimova, Roman Maiboroda, Oleksandr Hurets, Ivan Ponomarenko, Serhii Mahera, Dmytro Popov, and Volodymyr Openko), and the premier dancers Kateryna Kukhar and Serhii Sydorsky. A trailer of Zhanna Bebeshko’s documentary about the conductor was also screened. The compositions were conducted by the National Opera’s O. Vlasenko, I. Hamkalo, A. Barvinsky, and H. Makarenko, and the winners of the Turchak competition: V. Zhadlo, O. Kulbaba, M. Ponomarchuk, and V. Ploskina. Among the performers were Oleh Blinov’s percussion ensemble Virtuoso Parade and Yurii Vasylevych’s sax quintet with guest star Olena Yeremenko, Turchak’s granddaughter.
Maestro Stefan Turchak was an extraordinary personality and musician who raised Ukrainian operatic and symphonic art to the international level and made an impact on the development of world culture. Volodymyr Rozhok, the rector of the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (NMAU) and author of the book Soniachny maestro (The Solar Maestro) told The Day that the premiere and spectacular success of Mykola Lysenko’s opera Taras Bulba at the Wiesbaden festival in 1982 was Turchak’s cherished dream come true. His achievements were such that Ukraine’s only conductors’ competition, held in 1994 and 1998, was named after him.
In 2006 a cabinet resolution confirmed the competition’s new status, and the first Stepan Turchak International Competition was held with the participation of 22 conductors from 8 countries. Today, the NMAU features a one-room museum devoted to Turchak, and memorial concerts are staged by I. Palkin’s student orchestra in the columned hall of the academy. A new edition of Rozhko’s book, called Maestro, is being prepared for publication. It will not duplicate the previous edition, as it contains a more detailed account about the prominent conductor’s life and work.
Turchak’s widow Gyzela Tsypola, the former Kyiv opera star, attributes the unabating interest in his personality and creativity to the fact that he was a living legend. Leaders are born, and Turchak was one in his everyday life and creative work. He professed the supremacy of discipline because he was absolutely convinced that its absence harms music.
National Opera conductor Ivan Hamkalo, who knew Stepan Turchak since they studied together at the Lviv Music College and Conservatory, stressed that Turchak’s artistic, music, and organizing talent was innate. “Where did all that aristocratism and artistry come from in a village youth, a poor orphan raised by his grandfather, who walked all the way from Briukhovychi to sing in a choir, bringing with him a bag of simple presents? It was all there, in his hands and in his face, which was always a mirror of what was going on in his soul.
“His graduation exam was a sensation. Stefan undertook Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony, and the audience had the impression that he was born to this music. After the talented young conductor’s performance examination Kolessa, one of the conservatory professors, arranged an audition for him in Kyiv. Turchak was allowed to conduct Natan Rakhlin’s State Symphony Orchestra, and his performance was again crowned with success. He was hired on probation, and several months later he was appointed second conductor. Within a year Turchak became the chief conductor of this famous orchestra and held this post for 25 years. Turchak’s whole career was an impassioned attempt to reach the ideal, and this zeal must have shortened his life. Turchak met every challenge and never strayed from the standard set by his creative conscience.”
The National Opera’s chief choirmaster Lev Venedyktov believes that Stefan Turchak was an extraordinary and unexpected phenomenon: “To use the dry language of facts, he was 25 when he became the chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. What was his professional background at the time? He had one year of work after graduating from the conservatory. What tremendous talent he had to be able to take the place of such a giant as Natan Rakhlin and lead such a huge and highly professional orchestra! Turchak dedicated his entire being to work and therefore had the right to expect from his musicians the same kind of dedication, creative inspiration, and performance to the best of their ability.
“One time the Kyiv Opera was staging Katerina Izmailova in Chishinau. A number of Moldovan musicians, and particularly the prima donna Maria Bieshu, believed that Shostakovich’s most sophisticated opera would not be accepted by the local public. After the triumphant finale and Turchak’s frenzied conducting, she asked the orchestra to stay behind and said, ‘We are overwhelmed!’ Knowing this capricious singer, one can say that this was the highest possible praise.
“Another time our company was performing Orpheus and Eurydice at the Bolshoi in Moscow. After a rehearsal Turchak and I were walking down a corridor and we heard our Moscow colleagues in the audience saying, ‘Finally, a Great Theater is visiting us!’
“I have always enjoyed remembering our work together with the maestro. The 1960s-1980s marked a golden period in the life of our orchestra. Thank God, there is a period one can happily remember for the rest of one’s life. It was also a complicated period. After Stefan Turchak came on the scene, our conductor Kostiantyn Symeonov retired. His creative credo — ‘music begins with organization’ — shaped the kind of orchestra Turchak took over, retained, and enhanced. At first the musicians’ attitude to the new conductor was wary. During the very first rehearsal Turchak declared, ‘I will squeeze the Symeonov approach out of you.’ To his credit, he apologized a couple of days later. ‘I was wrong. We must retain every part of his approach, its every inimitable touch.’ This was a significant gesture because a mediocre individual will never publicly admit to having been wrong.”
During his last concert at the Philharmonic Society we could all see that Turchak was on the verge of complete physical exhaustion from his horrible illness. That was his swan song, the summit on which he remains after departing from this world.
