Over 200 foreign composers submitted their music to the forum’s organizing committee. Only 20 were chosen for public performance. Such rigid selection was explained primarily by the demanding presence of highly competitive Ukrainian authors. For example, the very first concert with the Scotish composer Stephen Davisman’s “It was Spring” turned out considerably less impressive than domestic compositions performed that same evening.
However, music is inherently cosmopolitan, perhaps more than any other art form. The festival was evidence that the search for new musical intonations, particularly by combining electronic and classical instruments, is kept largely in the same direction in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.
The organizers included in the program pieces by composers varying in age, correctly assuming that this would not make the youth forum any “older” (e.g., Valentyn Silvestrov, Yevhen Stankovych, Halyna Ustvolska, Leonid Hrabovsky from Ukraine; Janis Xenakis, France; George Kram, US...). Young musicians demonstrated their keen perception of this music which has actually become classical. Pianists Yevhen Hromov, Serhiy Lungu, Kyiv’s Archi string ensemble, and especially Lviv’s Cluster modern music ensemble (the latter bought to Kyiv Hrabovsky’s masterpiece “Introduction and Nine Miniatures to the Lyrics of V. Khlebnikov” never performed in the capital) were amazingly and masterfully relaxed in their renditions, something achieved only by way of utmost inward concentration. This atmosphere of concentrated meditation, that many consider the ideal to which modern art is approaching, was characteristic of works by Liudmyla Yuryna and Serhiy Zazhytko, composers who are not afraid of experimenting at a time which is almost traditionally referred to as the end of the arts. Inventing new intonations and motifs, they seem to cleanse our world of the rusty layer of clichОs and vulgarity. Regrettably, unlike young musicians, the powers that be do not seem enthusiastic about this world of renovation. The Ministry of Culture and Art of Ukraine has not as yet signed the directive financing the forum, although it is listed on the posters and billboards among its founders. Once again our musicians had to perform free of charge, rewarded by their own enthusiasm and adoring audiences. They did not seem to mind, but we their grateful listeners do. Very much so!
Photo by Viktor Marushchenko, The Day:
Lviv’s Cluster Ensemble interprets contemporary music excellently







