Caprice Classic, A Quartet of Soloists
What is Caprice Classic? It is a group of four charming young ladies endowed by God with a beautiful gift. It is a string quartet of young but already mature musicians. It is an uninterrupted creative search and unconventional options, a synthesis of genres and cooperation with various extraordinary and talented personalities. In addition, it is a talisman that often brings our state diplomatic success. But let me tell their story one thing at a time.
Caprice Classic, a Ukrainian National Philharmonic quartet, is already six years old, but it has only existed in the present form since last September. Asiya Ahat once performed with the quartet. Now it includes Oleksandra Savchenko (violin), Tetiana Andriychuk (violin), Leonila Hrushkovska (viola and artistic director), and Svitlana Havrykova (violoncello). Note that the quarter does not assign the permanent part of first violin to anyone. In various compositions, either Oleksandra or Tetiana can play first fiddle. “We at last have found each other and achieved true creative harmony,” maintains Leonila Hrushkovska.
A tremendous role in the quarter’s life was played by Ukrainian National Philharmonic General Director Dmytro Ostapenko and Artistic Director Volodymyr Lukashov. It is they who put the quartet into its orbit of concerts, which has already led the quartet to France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Belarus, and Lithuania.
The quartet made its diplomatic debut at an official dinner attended by Ukraine’s top officials and World Bank representatives. Then they performed before European Bank for Reconstruction and Development executives. In each case, the quarter’s performances were a success and always attracted attention.
The quartet also performed at the presentations of Leonid Kuchma’s I Believe in Ukraine and Liudmyla Kuchma’s A Heart Warmed with Love held in Ukraine House.
When the President of Ukraine visited Belarus, he opened the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk. Caprice Classic played there, too. But the most memorable was a trip with an official Ukrainian delegation to Portugal, where the maids performed in Lisbon’s Jeronimos Monastery during the Ukrainian-Portuguese summit. In the course of this event, the quartet submitted to the judgment of audiences a new approach to giving concerts, later demonstrated on the philharmonic stage as well: during the performance one of the quarter members becomes a soloist: she stands up and plays solo on her instrument accompanied by the others. This is how they first played Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen as performed by Tetiana Andriychuk. After the concert, a spectator came up to Tetiana to ask endless questions about the music he had heard and to express his admiration. It became clear later this was none other than Jorge Sampaio, President of Portugal.
This impressive list of high- profile performances shows that politicians are very much in need of the Muses’ support.
Last August Ukraine’s Ambassador to Lithuania Valentyn Zaichuk invited Caprice Classic to take part in the ninth independence anniversary celebrations at our embassy in Vilnius. During the festivities, the Ukrainian Embassy was visited by President Adamkus of Lithuania who spent twice as much time as is prescribed by protocol. In the diplomatic world, such cases are interpreted as a kind of diplomatic victory. One of the reasons why the president stayed behind was that he listened enthusiastically to the quarter’s performance. Since then it has become a tradition: when invited to official diplomatic functions, the quartet boldly breaks the rules of protocol and turns the ever so reserved diplomats into wholehearted and ingenuous people admiring Ukraine’s young representatives. This is why the girls have collected so many photographs of the quartet with presidents of various countries.
The first visit to Vilnius was followed by an invitation to a prestigious festival of chamber music. Among participants were the Ciurlionis Quartet and outstanding ensembles from all parts Europe. Caprice Classic included in their program Ravel’s String Quartet, Mozart’s Divertimento No. 3, Astor Piazzolla’s Tango for Four, and a number of miniatures.
The quartet musicians exude special warmth when they speak about creative cooperation with Meritorious Artiste of Ukraine, laureate of international contests, and violinist Olha Rivniak. The reciprocal affection between the quartet and the renowned Ukrainian violinist was quite evident recently during their joint philharmonic recital of Fritz Kreisler’s pieces.
The young ladies further plan to play other compositions for a solo violin, viola, or cello accompanied by the other quartet musicians. In addition, they are preparing a program of Shostakovich’s works and a program tentatively titled Woman in Music. Perhaps half of one of the future programs will be devoted to jazz improvisations on electric violins.
