Kaniv Hears Real Opera F or the First Time
The criticism leveled the year before last on the organizers of the Farbotony (Hues of Color) International Festival of Academic and Modern Music about the ineffectiveness of holding such a large-scale gala in a provincial town has proved groundless. This year, the third festival gathered five composers, seven groups, and forty soloists. Among them are people’s and meritorious performers of Ukraine, young virtuosos, and some very young talents. The festival president, composer Ivan Taranenko, hopes for still better representation next year. This is kind of a tribute to the heart of Ukrainian culture and its people. Music sounded in Kaniv ten hours each of the four days in May. Is it not too much? I ask Mr. Taranenko.
“Each day saw an average four two to two-and-a-half hour concerts. After all, the point is not in arithmetic but in the condition of the audience, residents of a provincial town — teachers, street vendors, doctors, civil servants, the unemployed, and children — whom we have changed for the better. Still approaching the concert hall, they were thinking about things transient, they were worried and sometimes embittered. Then the first chords sounded, and the Kaniv residents’ eyes lit up. At least one fact is worth noting: during this festival the inhabitants of a district town had an opportunity to listen to live real opera for the first time in the century. Not an aria or a fragment, but the whole original opera Sokil (Falcon) by Dmytro Bortniansky from beginning to end. And where? On Chernecha Hill (where Taras Shevchenko lies buried —Ed.)! They also heard for the first time in Ukraine The Andalusian Scenes by Giuseppe Turin, a suite from Aleksandr Glazunov’s ballet The Seasons, and a trio for the piano, flute, and bassoon composed by my mentor, People’s Artiste of Ukraine Hennady Liatoshenko, on the basis of my work, Seven Angels with Trumpets. This premiere was shown by an international duet consisting of the Irishman Dermott Dunn (Russian accordion) and Luis Andrade (cello) from Portugal. They have rather a tight schedule: they had just returned from a festival in Poland, where they were awarded first prize. They are going to attend a contest in Germany after the Kaniv festival. Incidentally, this original duet was born during the last year’s Farbotony. I purposefully place less emphasis on the celebrities like singer Nina Matviyenko, guitarist Enver Izmailov, bandura player Larysa Dediukh, composer Lesia Dychko, violinist Vadym Borysov, and pianist Yuri Kot. Their road is wide and clear, while I hope the cooperation between the young beginners’ and these masters will pave the former’s path to success.
We plan to hold within in the festival’s framework a contest for young musicians as soon as next year. Among our immediate goals is creation of the Farbotony Foundation which could finance both the organization of the contest itself and the prize fund. I do not think our current partners, Transroad Group, Farbotony’s general sponsor for the second time, will stand aside.
During the festival, an old piano hitherto belonging to the family of a well-known composer Mykhailo Skorulsky, was handed over free of charge to the Taras Shevchenko Museum. It was gifted by the composer’s granddaughter, curator of the Kyiv National Mykola Lysenko Museum, Roksana Skorulska. This is the first piano in the museum’s history. According to Mr. Taranenko, who immediately played an improvisation on the 105-year-old instrument, the piano is serviceable and quite capable of bringing to life the most enchanting tunes, including those set to the lyrics of the great Kobzar.
