Does Kamianka remember Tchaikovsky?
History has several times substantially touched the little town of Kamianka, with its population of 15,000 people. Monuments to Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Alexander Pushkin and the Decembrists stand along the city park, established several centuries ago. In the local museum of Pushkin and Tchaikovsky they will tell you how the composer of world renown, for 28 years in succession would come to Kamianka every summer to visit his sister, who lived there with her family. The Day has frequently written about Tchaikovsky and Ukraine, with which the composer, among other things, was genetically linked. The composer’s family originated from Poltavshchyna and one of his ancestors was a Cossack with the distinctive surname Chaika. Of course, this gives Ukrainians a full right to say that the composer had a genetic attraction to Ukraine, though those who know his biography assert that the composer’s affection to Kamianka was above all the result of the warm family atmosphere created by his sister. Maybe Tchaikovsky’s words about how in Kamianka he “regained peace in his soul, which he vainly sought in Moscow and St. Petersburg.” “I am simply floating in an ocean of happy feelings. An hour ago I experienced a minute when I was standing amidst a wheat field, which is adjacent to the garden, and was so stunned with delight that I kneeled and thanked God for the depth of the bliss, which I had never felt before. Beauty and space are everywhere,” Tchaikovsky wrote in a letter to his brother Modest in summer 1880.
According to the employee of the Tchaikovsky and Pushkin Museum Emilia Tolstykh, she has explored in detail the correspondence of the composer and did not find there any negative comments about Kamianka, whereas he frequently spoke coldly of his beloved Moscow.
Staying in Kamianka, the composer visited local fairs, where he attentively listened to the singing of kobzars and bandura players. Tchaikovsky liked folklore and called songs a sacred possession of the people. He created many of his works under the influence of folklore. It should be said that Tchaikovsky was not the only Russian composer influenced to a smaller or greater degree by Ukrainian folklore. Others include Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, and Mikhail Glinka.
Tchaikovsky read and very much liked Shevchenko’s poetry. He composed two works to his verse: In the Garden, By the Ford and the romance Evening. They were inspired not by Kamianka, but another Ukrainian town, Brailov, where a Pyotr Tchaikovsky Museum is also operating.
Sixteen places in Ukraine are linked with Tchaikovsky. He frequently visited Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa, and communicated with the then Ukrainian creative elites there. The Kamianka museum preserved the painting by Vasyl Zabashta Tchaikovsky Meets Lysenko in Kyiv. On one of his visits to Kyiv Tchaikovsky was indeed a guest of the Ukrainian classic, and the memoirs of Lysenko’s son Mykola confirm this.
Tchaikovsky also met with the renowned Ukrainian actress Maria Zankovetska. In 1893 the premiere of The Queen of Spades took place in the Odesa Opera House. After the performance the Ukrainian actors, including Zankovetska, presented Tchaikovsky, who was among the audience, with a laurel wreath that carried an inscription “Mortals to the Immortal.” Later Tchaikovsky, charmed by Zankovetska’s performance in Tobilevych’s play The Unfortunate, presented the actress with a silver wreath that carried an inscription “To M.K. Zankovetska, the immortal, from a mortal.”
Kamianka is very proud of its cultural history, specifically the part connected with Tchaikovsky. Thus, the question in the article’s title may seem silly (of course Kamianka residents remember about Tchaikovsky, for there is a monument to him and a museum), yet things are a bit more complex. For if one descends from the heavens to the sinful earth, in other words, if one leaves the Tchaikovsky Museum and walks along Kamianka’s central street, which still carries the name of the proletariat’s leader, a question arises: whether the people here really remember Tchaikovsky and appreciate him. For if so, Kamianka residents should be versed in classical music, respect their history — there should be a kind of enclave of high culture in the Ukrainian province. Yet, at the local elections, they still vote for the Communists, and electric chanson is heard in the establishments of so-to-say public recreation. There is no French chanson.
Unfortunately, Tchaikovsky is present in Kamianka only formally. Artistic work does not dictate the lifestyle, way of communication, or building relationships with the world. Similarly, over Ukraine no presence of Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, or Ivan Franko is felt. In the same way, as throughout Ukraine the local museum employees tell local “horror stories” on how in the 1990s they had to cover the grand piano which Tchaikovsky used to play to save it from destruction, until in 2007 the late Viktor Chernomyrdin gave money for the restoration of the musical instrument. Hence, people in Kamianka cry when they hear the Russian diplomat’s name.
Nowadays the winners of the Tchaikovsky International Children’s Competition play the grand piano restored with Chernomyrdin’s money. This year the eighth such competition has taken place, gathering the highest number of participants in the entire period of its existence: 48 violinists and pianists aged 8 to 13, who came from many oblasts of Ukraine, as well as Belarusian and Russian musicians. The principle position of its organizers (the Kamianka State Historical Cultural Preserve, Roszarubezhtsentr, Ukraine’s National Committee of the UNESCO International Music Council, the National Association of composers of Ukraine) consists in admitting to the competition only children from villages, i.e., those who stand the least chances to “push their way forward,” as well as students of music schools named after Tchaikovsky, like the 12-year-old cellist from Bryansk Yevgenia Beliayeva who won the grand-prix for this year’s competition.
It is significant that a group of Ukrainian patrons, united in the artistic foundation Nashe (Ours), got involved in the organization of the competition. They conferred more than 10 awards to the competition’s winners, whereas the Kyiv Conservatoire that bears Tchaikovsky’s name, was only formally present at the competition — it did not visit the competitions, just awarding participation diplomas to the contestants. Incidentally, this has been done for the first time in all eight years of the competition’s existence.
Such competitions may seem small and unimportant, but in reality (at least if one proceeds not from the stand of PR advantages, but rather social benefit) they are the most important ones, not only because they support young talents, but because of their effects on the spiritual health of Ukrainians in general. Twice a year, when children perform Tchaikovsky’s music in Kamianka, the memory of the composer truly revives. And his music fills the deep cultural and worldview cracks. It reminds one not only about Tchaikovsky, but also the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, to whom Kamianka was like a home, and also the fact that the legendary Kholodny Yar is located a mere 20 kilometers from there. Did you say Pushkin? Even Rembrandt’s St. Bartholomew has visited the place. But this is a different story…
COMMENTARY
Lesia OLIINYK, secretary of the board of the National Association of Composers of Ukraine, secretary general of the National Committee of the UNESCO National Music Council, and one of the initiators of the Tchaikovsky International Children’s Competition:
“The major objective for us is to involve as many children as possible from the villages and regions. The competition was created specifically for them. This is modern Ukrainian culture, in the development of which the state unfortunately is not strongly involved. In particular, the competition was a brainchild of the Russian Embassy, and it is this institution that supports the competition every year. The Ministry of Culture has supported us several times, but this support vanished in the past years.
“Another important aspect connected with this competition is that it envisages that the participants should perform the works of Ukrainian composers. Owing to this the music of modern composers that nobody has heard before started to be performed.
“The third issue is that village children who are absolutely estranged from music get involved in it. They don’t have any possibility to listen to high-quality music, not only live, but on recordings as well. Owing to the competition we discover talents, prevent them from losing their way, support them so they enter music schools, and become students of conservatoires. Once a child wins in the competition or takes a prize-winning place, his/her parents and teachers begin to pay more attention to his/her music education, sometimes even the local authorities render their assistance.
“Certainly, such competitions need to be supported by the state, and this should be included in national policy, as part of a state concept of developing the music sphere, because everything cannot be held forever only based on enthusiasts. This year the patrons rendered their support to the competition — there are people in Ukraine who understand the real meaning of culture, especially music, so they should be encouraged by adopting a law on patronage, and it should have been adopted long ago by the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine has traditions of patronage, but efforts are needed to revive them.”
