Knight of music

The light is dimmed and only the soloists, Sonia Suldina (violin) and Valerii Mykhaliuk (piano), and the composer’s portrait are illuminated. A soft melody soars in the air, enchanting the audience with its refined beauty. The young Edward Elgar composed the exquisite miniature entitled Salut d’Amour as a wedding gift for his bride Alice Roberts.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, England, a country of great literature and splendid paintings, had no own prominent composers. Then, at the beginning of the 20th century, Elgar’s symphonic compositions sounded throughout the world. A humble literature teacher from an English province broke the lengthy “period of silence” and brought English music into the world.

Elgar created in different genres, composing symphonies, oratorios, concertos, and chamber and choral compositions. Even today, the English people cannot imagine themselves without his music, which accompanies them in their everyday life and is heard during solemn events at Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. An Elgar Festival is held every year in Covent Garden. The first festival took place during the composer’s lifetime in 1904, the same year Elgar was knighted by King Edward VII.

A knight and gentleman both in his life and his music, Elgar often wrote the word nobilmente (nobly) on his scores, indicating that the music was to be played with great nobility. According to the English scholar Robert Anderson, the ideals of knighthood and nobility, which originates from them, were the mainstays of Elgar’s life and creative work.

A vivid image of Elgar arises from the pages of Kyiv writer Leonid Hamburg’s book Paradoxes of English Music of the XX Century. In it he writes: “Edward Elgar’s life was not bright, filled with turbulent twists and events, like the lives of other great musicians. His life is in his music, which he presented to his grateful compatriots and astonished world. As one of his friends wrote, ‘Edgar is simply our Shakespeare in music.’ If a home library has a recording of Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations or Concerto for Cello, it proves your devotion to national traditions. Elgar’s music became Great Britain’s calling card.’”

The philharmonic concert devoted to Edward Elgar was a real discovery for most of the audience members. Each composition was being performed for the first time in Kyiv. Among them was Serenade for String Orchestra. Op. 20, one of the composer’s most poetical works, a fairy suite from the unfinished opera The Spanish Lady, Sospiri, Adagio for String Orchestra, Op. 70 with Harp and Organ (harp: Olena Sytnyk; organ: Valerii Mykhaliuk). For a little over an hour (with no intermission) rainbows of dreams and hopes with aquarelle half-tones of twilight and dawn flashed, transporting the audience to Elgar’s romantic world.

The world-class Kyiv Chamber Orchestra played in a coordinated and masterful way, bringing joy to the audience with its exquisite and inspired manner. Maestro Richards Buks won the audience’s heart with his wonderful interpretive talent, his profound love for the music he conducts, his laconism of movement, nobility, and boundless self-devotion.

A string quartet of talented musicians, including Sonia Suldina (first violin), Viktor Ivanov (second violin), Andrii Malakhov (viola), and Dmytro Hlushchenko (cello), performed during the concert. Together with the chamber orchestra they played the Introduction and Allegro, the most difficult and arguably most “philosophical” composition of the entire program.

Art specialist Lesia Oleinyk, who hosted the concert, said that it was the well-known Ukrainian violinist Eduard Idelchuk’s idea to hold this soiree. Unfortunately, Idelchuk died this past summer. His friend Yurii Suldin then followed up on his initiative. “Elgar’s music is not very well known in Ukraine. But his romanticism is a miracle!” Suldin said. “When we decided to organize this soiree, many questions cropped up: which orchestra will play, who will be the conductor, where will we find the sheet music? But all the problems were resolved one by one. I am sure that Sir Elgar would very much like this concert to take place.”

“Artistic director and chief conductor of the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra Roman Kofman gave his go-ahead for his orchestra, conducted by Richards Buks (Latvia) whom I invited, to take part in the concert. We coordinated with Jose Hernandez, deputy director of the National Philharmonic, about the date of the concert and the program. Afterwards I contacted the Elgar Society in Great Britain via the Internet. The English side was very pleased that Ukrainians want to know Elgar’s music better. John Morrison, an employee of the Elgar in Performance Department, kindly sent me the notes. Now on the society’s Web site (www.elgar.org) in the Diary of Elgar’s Works section, our concert figures among the world’s concerts performed in 2007.” This was not conductor Richards Buks’s first visit to Kyiv. Last year he was the winner of the 1st Stefan Turchak International Competition of Conductors and was awarded a special prize by Ukraine’s National Association of Composers for best performance of a modern Ukrainian symphonic composition.

“I would call this concert ‘moments from Elgar’s life,’ because it embraces works written by the composer in different periods of his life,” Buks explained. “The most powerful and unusual composition is

Introduction and Allegro for String Orchestra and String Quartet, where mastery and delicate romanticism are united on a wonderfully high level. There is not a single false note, which is impressive because a composer usually changes and corrects something, but this composition came to Elgar in the form of an insight.

“Edward Elgar is the king of English romantic music and he is a knight of romanticism. His music is universal and cosmic, and I don’t believe anyone could say they don’t like it. At least, I have never heard anything like that. Elgar’s music is often performed, most of all his Cello Concerto and Enigma Variations. Our program is a rare one: only Elgar and his soul. Nothing of this kind has ever happened in the world.”

The sensitive Kyiv audience felt it was present at a unique event. After the concert the spectators gave a lengthy standing ovation to the performers. The timid declaration of love that opened the evening was performed as an encore, only this time by the Post Scriptum String Quartet.

In the summer of 2005 musical life stopped for a while in London, which was shattered by acts of terrorism. After a forced pause the season of traditional Promenade concerts was launched at Albert Hall. Elgar’s overture Cockaigne was heard again, and in the organizers’ opinion, this music can restore faith and hope to Londoners’ hearts. Sir Edward Elgar believed that art can change the world for the better. This is precisely why his music is especially moving and amazes listeners with its purity and exalted nature. It generates hope and that’s why we need it at all times.