Clarinet and... a microwave oven
Week of discoveries and experiments at “Kharkiv contemporary”
Forum of contemporary academic music performed by the best Ukrainian and European musicians will take place in Kharkiv Philharmonic Society from April 21 to 27. The first international festival “Kharkiv contemporary” is an attempt to engage the cultural life of the city in the world’s avant-garde trends. The focus of the festival will be music written by our contemporaries from around the world. The audience will be taken to a world of music reality and contemporary art (this will be possible thanks to the initiative of one of the most active advocates of the “New Music in Ukraine” – Volodymyr Runchak). One of the organizers of “Kharkiv contemporary” is the chief conductor and director of the Kharkiv Philharmonic Society Yurii YANKO: “I feel sorry for Kharkiv composers because we have tradition and a great school. Volodymyr Runchak and I decided to organize a festival of contemporary music. It can absolutely be avant-garde, featuring all possible music trends, even those unusual for Ukrainian audience. Runchak picked a list of composers, music compositions, and musicians. You know, it is hard to surprise the audience nowadays – clarinet can be played with nearly anything… even a microwave! And I would even agree to show it on stage. Kharkiv audiences have already seen performances of Andrii Zholdak with his experiments. Even though I prefer strict classic myself, but the festival allows people to understand on their own what is good and what is bad, what they like and what they dislike!”
According to the reports of x32.in.ua, the festival will open with a program of music by Kharkiv composers: from the older generation to the youngest ones. Bright and original symphonic compositions will represent a variety of facets of the Kharkiv school of composition. The program includes the dramatic symphony-ballet Zeleni Sviatky (Green Yuletide) by Vitalii Hubarenko that will be performed for the first time in Kharkiv, conceptual music by Valentyn Bibik – Plach i Molytva (Lament and Prayer) for orchestra, Shushun Symphony of sacred stone by Yurii Alzhniev inspired by folk images of Kurhal, and rondo-performance Bih (Race) for piano with orchestra by a young composer Dmytro Maly.
April 22 – the second day of the festival will be presented with clarinet concert of Belgian musician Stephan Vermeersch, who specializes in contemporary music and uses three different instruments – clarinet, small clarinet, and bass clarinet. The program of the concert includes solo compositions by contemporary composers in which clarinet will reveal its unusual and new facets and at times it might seem that it’s not a wind instrument playing on the stage. The clarinetist will also play in a duet in avant-garde key, since his partner will be not a real instrument but electronics!
On April 24 the audience will get acquainted with quartet music of composers from the 20th and 21st centuries performed by Kharkiv ensemble NocturnumQuartet. Musicians have chosen a fairly risky task of performing music of contemporary composers. However, thanks to their professional skills and desire to play new things that are rarely performed, NocturnumQuartet became a frequent quest at international festivals in Europe. During the festival the ensemble will perform string quartets by A. Koshuv, Darius Milhaud, Grazyna Bacewicz, and Dmytro Klebanov.
The next meeting with the new music will take place on April 25 – another chamber concert will be held then. Guest of the festival – Ensemble Reconsil Wien from Austria consisting of flute and bass flute, bass clarinet, and piano. They will perform original and is some ways shocking pieces that attract attention even with their names – Teriolog, Go Around x 3, Fur, No Response and one of the controversial compositions by Faradzh Karaev – Messeur Bee Line: Eccentric Or Are You Alive Yet, Herr Minister?!
Night of choral avant-garde will open on April 26. Renowned Academic Choir named after Viacheslav Palkin has long been recognized as a leading professional group that performs new music. They will perform Night and Gold by American composer Eric Whitacre. Besides, the program of the night will feature music by European and Ukrainian composers, including R. Miani, Paolo Giacometti, Viktor Muzhchyl, Viktor Stepurko, and Volodymyr Runchak.
Closing of the festival will be marked by large-scale symphonic compositions that entered the golden fund of contemporary music of the 20th century: MI-PARTI for symphony orchestra, Lancuch II for violin and orchestra by Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski, and Poema Skorboty (Poem of Sorrow) by Kyiv composer Yevhen Stankovych. Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of artistic director of the festival Runchak with amazing soloist Lidia Futorska will perform compositions that reflect the vicissitudes of modern life, sometimes dramatic, and sometimes very sensual and expressive.
