Music and poetry to be revived in the Chocolate House

The White hall: walls and ceiling decorated with subtle shapes, a huge mirror adorned with Cupids, birds, grapevine and flowers. Music is playing – a polyphony of ancient instruments, the joyful melody of Cossack dance and the crystal wisdom of Hryhorii Skovoroda, brought by the charming voice of Nina Matviienko. That’s how the festival of chamber music “Choco-classic” was opened in the Chocolate House: Nina Matviienko and Kostiantyn Chechenia’s Ensemble of ancient music performed music of the hetman era of the 16-18 centuries – lyrical and spiritual songs, Cossack and Haiduk dances, and ancient songs by Hryhorii Skovoroda, Dmytro Rostovsky and Feofan Prokopovych.

The Day already wrote about the ancient house in Shovkovychna Street, created by the architect Volodymyr Nikolaiev in his prime. It was closed for 25 years and today requires restoration and repair works: its roof leaks, foundations must be fortified, and the facade and interior restored. However, the unique building with magical interiors has revived – in January this year it opened its doors to excursions and art exhibits; auditoriums, children’s studios, and workshops are planned. The funds raised during the charity festival will be used for its revival.

The author of the idea and the heart of the festival is violinist and assistant professor at the National Music Academy Nina Syvachenko. She was joined by friends, interested citizens, organist and pianist Olha Dmytrenko, music critic Olena Sazonkina, teacher at the National Aviation University Nina Kozlova, and supported by the whole collective of the Chocolate House – currently the Children’s Picture Gallery (a branch of the Kyiv Museum of Russian Art) headed by director Tetiana Skyrda. By the way, during the first concert the hall was filled to the brim, despite the organizing committee claiming it had no funds for advertising; they just hung posters themselves in the surrounding streets. Now there is a hope that this monument of architecture, owing to the selfless activity of the organizers and musicians, financial support of the government and participation of all who love their city, will regain its original splendor.

“We want to revive the tradition of salon music performances,” told The Day Nina Syvachenko. “Many artists supported the idea to give charity concerts: Kostiantyn Chechenia, Nina Matviienko, Olha Dmytrenko, Natalia Tolpyho, Yurii Kot, and Roman Hrynkiv. And the idea to help the Chocolate House appeared because, in my opinion, this monument belongs to all residents of Kyiv, and we wanted everyone to feel involved in reviving the cultural heritage of our city. When I was on tour in Europe, I noticed that people there support their culture, investing money in art. For example, in the biggest concert hall in Amsterdam ‘Concert Gebau,’ there are many plates with a text like: ‘This room was restored by this family’ of ‘The bookcase was purchased for that family’s money.’” Thus the city residents visit concert halls as their own house, knowing they contributed to it.

We would like to bring down the wall of misunderstanding between the public at large and classical music, which is supposedly created only for the elite. We want to show that people need this music and can seek a spiritual niche in it, finding beauty, peace and harmony. Therefore the festival is aimed at the broadest audience possible. The price of the concert ticket is a charitable contribution, equal to the Chocolate House excursion – starting at 20 hryvnias, depending of the possibilities and willingness of guests. We already received support from Kyivans – the music salon ‘Hinsar’ provided a grand piano for our festival. We would like to make the Chocolate House – a real architectural masterpiece – perfect, so that one could come here and enjoy the interiors, as in the Museum of Russian Art. We also hope that during the Euro-2012 it will become a tourist attraction.

“For us the moment of live communication is important, which is why during the concerts performers and art critics speak about composers, their works and prominent Kyivans of the epoch,” stressed Olha Dmytrenko. “Here the surroundings themselves encourage communication between musicians and the audience. The great acoustics – one can use all colorings of sound, including the tender pianissimo. Different programs are being prepared, including a combination of music and painting. For example, on June 21 during the performance ‘Oriental motives in music’ among the pictures of the Korean painter Yon Ung Kuak one could hear works by Ravel, Debussy, Rakhmaninov, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Puccini and Chinese songs performed by vocalists from China. July will see concerts ‘Landscape in music’ (Tchaikovsky and Levitan), ‘Portrait in music’ (Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky and painters-Itinerants), and a performance of organ music.”

Chechenia, who will mark a creative jubilee this year – the 30th anniversary of playing the lute, confirmed that he will participate in the project:

“Everything should be done to make people know: the Chocolate House needs urgent help. We must draw the attention of the patrons and the state to this pearl of Kyiv’s downtown. The ceiling in the White hall is decorated with ‘musical’ molding, so it’s only fitting that a refined music sounds here again, in this superior interior. We open the festival chronologically: starting from remote times, performing the ancient music of Ukraine. I suppose the audience will be interested to learn which music sounded within the walls of the building in the baroque epoch, to hear the first Ukrainian dance written down in notes (dated 1540). In the program there are vocal and instrumental works, philosophical psalms, humorous, love, and moralizing ancient songs – the palette is extremely broad. We perform this music together with Oleksandr Savchenko and Yarema Shevchuk, playing ancient instruments – the lute, pipe, wheel lyre, recorder, and old-time bandura.”

“When I was selecting songs by Hryhorii Skovoroda for the program and reread his Stoyit yavir nad vodoyu (A Sycamore over the Water) and other poems, I thought: what a philosophical luxury – and how everything is simple! His every word is full of simple moral, accessible to people, and this is what our country needs at present,” said Matviienko. “Here, in the White hall, there is a special salon atmosphere, one doesn’t need a microphone, and I like to sing here. Since it’s not obligatory to perform only in the philharmonic society, on a big stage; such a chamber performance is also very good, it almost a song conversation with people. One can recite poetry here, too. By the way, I read a lot of Ukrainian baroque literature, for example, poetry by Mykola Diletsky. We have two programs of Ukrainian baroque and we are ready to perform them to support this wonderful project.”

You can find more information about the festival “Choco-classic” on the website of the Chocolate House – shocolad-dim.kiev.ua.