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SOMM Recordings

Ukraine: A Piano Portrait

$18.99

Details

Composer
Vasyl Barvinsky, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Viktor Kosenko, Boris Lyatoshinsky, Mykola Lysenko, Levko Revut
Artist
Margaret Fingerhut
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
Apr 18, 2025
Catalog #
SOMMCD 0701
UPC
748871070127

About

With Ukraine's defence of it's sovereign nation against Russia's invasion in the news and in our conscience, SOMM releases a timely recording that pays tribute to a rich heritage of Ukrainian music that was long subsumed by the former USSR. Margaret Fingerhut, described by Gramophone as a pianist of "consummate skill and thrilling conviction," has become increasingly involved in using the power of music to raise money for charitable causes. In 2019, drawing on the stories and music of composers who had to leave their homelands because of war or persecution, she undertook a major recital tour, performing "Far from the Home I Love" at thirty-two venues across the UK to raise money for refugees. In 2022 she collaborated with a young Ukrainian film-maker on a powerful video in support of Ukraine. Margaret Fingerhut was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours in recognition of her services to music and charitable fundraising. For SOMM's recording, UKRAINE: A Piano Portrait, she has selected works written between 1877 and 2005 for a deeply personal recital featuring composers from the country of her grandfather's birth. Mykola Lysenko, the earliest Ukrainian composer represented here, published a definitive ethnological study of the Ukrainian Dumky, and his Dumka-Shumka is from the opening pages of his second piano rhapsody on Ukrainian folk themes. We owe our knowledge of Lysenko's music to his pupil and editor, Lev Revutsky, who fell foul of new Stalinist cultural demands in the 1930s, but later revisited earlier compositions that include Three Preludes and Improvisation. Viktor Kosenko, a contemporary of Revutsky, also pursued his composing career in Ukraine, and his expressive Nocturne comes from a set of etudes for Piano in the Form of Old Dances. The opening and closing pieces in this collection are by Sergei Bortkiewicz, who suffered under both Soviet and Nazi tyrannies. Les Rochers d'Outche-Coche is the first of three Sketches of the Crimea, while Consolation is from a group of eight Lamentations et Consolations. From Vasyl Barvinsky, who shared Bortkiewicz's adoption of late-Romantic Impressionism, we have Two Preludes and Loneliness - the sorrow of love from his piano cycle, Love. Boris Lystoshynsky, whose featured works are the Elegy-Prelude 'Mourning' and Two Preludes on Ukrainian Folk Songs, survived the Zhdanov Decree in the 1940s, which aimed to control Soviet culture and art; while the most contemporary Ukrainian composer on this recital, Valentin Silvestrov, fled to Berlin to re-establish his career following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His Three Bagatelles are written in a neo-classical, post-modernist musical language. Royalty sales from this recording will go towards British-Ukrainian Aid, which raises money for emergency vehicles and medical supplies for Ukraine.

Tracklist 17 tracks

  1. 1 Esquisses de Crimee, Op. 8: No. 1. Les rochers d'Outche-Coche 07:31
    Track
    1
    Title
    Esquisses de Crimee, Op. 8: No. 1. Les rochers d'Outche-Coche
    Duration
    07:31
    Composer
    Sergei Bortkiewicz
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  2. 2 No. 1 in E Minor 05:39
    Track
    2
    Title
    No. 1 in E Minor
    Duration
    05:39
    Composer
    Vasyl Barvinsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  3. 3 No. 2 in F-Sharp Major 03:03
    Track
    3
    Title
    No. 2 in F-Sharp Major
    Duration
    03:03
    Composer
    Vasyl Barvinsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  4. 4 Piano Cycle on Love: I. Loneliness, the Sorrow of Love 06:27
    Track
    4
    Title
    Piano Cycle on Love: I. Loneliness, the Sorrow of Love
    Duration
    06:27
    Composer
    Vasyl Barvinsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  5. 5 Dumka-Shoomka, Op. 18 08:48
    Track
    5
    Title
    Dumka-Shoomka, Op. 18
    Duration
    08:48
    Composer
    Mykola Vytaliyovych Lysenko
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  6. 6 No. 1 in D-Flat Major 02:40
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 1 in D-Flat Major
    Duration
    02:40
    Composer
    Levko Mykolayovych Revutsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  7. 7 No. 2 in F-Sharp Minor 02:24
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 2 in F-Sharp Minor
    Duration
    02:24
    Composer
    Levko Mykolayovych Revutsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  8. 8 No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor 01:02
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor
    Duration
    01:02
    Composer
    Levko Mykolayovych Revutsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  9. 9 Improvisation in E-Flat Major 03:55
    Track
    9
    Title
    Improvisation in E-Flat Major
    Duration
    03:55
    Composer
    Levko Mykolayovych Revutsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  10. 10 Nocturne-Fantasy in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 4 08:25
    Track
    10
    Title
    Nocturne-Fantasy in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 4
    Duration
    08:25
    Composer
    Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  11. 11 No. 1. Allegretto 02:53
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 1. Allegretto
    Duration
    02:53
    Composer
    Valentin Silvestrov
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  12. 12 No. 2. Moderato 03:23
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 2. Moderato
    Duration
    03:23
    Composer
    Valentin Silvestrov
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  13. 13 No. 3. Moderato 04:38
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 3. Moderato
    Duration
    04:38
    Composer
    Valentin Silvestrov
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  14. 14 No. 1 in D Minor 02:38
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 1 in D Minor
    Duration
    02:38
    Composer
    Boris Mikolayovich Lyatoshinsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  15. 15 No. 2 in E-Flat Major 02:36
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 2 in E-Flat Major
    Duration
    02:36
    Composer
    Boris Mikolayovich Lyatoshinsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  16. 16 Prelude in E-Flat Minor, "Mourning" 05:10
    Track
    16
    Title
    Prelude in E-Flat Minor, "Mourning"
    Duration
    05:10
    Composer
    Boris Mikolayovich Lyatoshinsky
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut
  17. 17 Lamentations et Consolations, Op. 17: No. 4. Consolation in D-Flat Major 06:17
    Track
    17
    Title
    Lamentations et Consolations, Op. 17: No. 4. Consolation in D-Flat Major
    Duration
    06:17
    Composer
    Sergei Bortkiewicz
    Performer
    Margaret Fingerhut