Ukrainian Resilience

Music of Resilience Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin. INSO-Lviv (Symphony Orchestra of Lviv National Philharmonic)/Roman Kreslenko; Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra/Serhii Khorovets Naxos 8.579191 Total Time:  62:57 Recording:   ****/**** Performance: ****/****

The Ukrainian born violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, who teaches at the University of Connecticut, released an earlier chamber music album of music by Ukrainian composers and returns here to explore some contemporary concert repertoire in this new Naxos release.  The orchestras here are both in residence in LVIV and the recordings, made in November 2023 and January 2025, were made as the threat of Russian missile attacks hovered over the proceedings.  Within this context, additional meaning is added to the choices of works that connect to Ukraine’s history and musical expressions. 

The composers here will likely all be new discoveries to most listeners and represent seven composers whose work connects intimately to their native land.  Music of Resilience is the sort of album one used to be able to come across while casually browsing in a music store.  Today, it might get lost in the ever-changing world of digital and physical media and so it is worth taking a look at what this release offers both as a symbol of defiance in the midst of war, and as unique artistic expressions.  The former somewhat ties together Ivakhiv’s innovative program.  Often the personal stories of the composers are as telling of the conflict as the music itself.  There are eight works represented on this album by seven composers.  Most are short, 8-12 minute works and many were composed in the past quarter century.  

Victoria Vita Poleva’s (b. 1962) Bucha.Lacrimosa (2022) sets the tone.  It was written in response to the images of the massacre in Bucha discovered at the end of March 2022 when Russian troops withdrew from the region there.  The piece imagines the cry of the souls of the people in a haunting opening to this release that becomes more intense and visceral as it progresses.

Ex Libris (1993) is a piece of four brief movements by Hanna Havrylets (1958-2022) which are inspired by the poetry of violinist Sofia Maidanska.  They reflect some of the folkish modal harmonies and melodic shapes of the region.  Havrylets died while awaiting medical care during an attack on Lviv in February 2022.  Ivakhiv demonstrates her technique and interpretive abilities in this work for unaccompanied violin. 

Bohdan Kryvopust (b. 1975) is represented by two works from 2024.  On the River commemorates protestors killed during demonstrations in January and February, 2014, when then President Viktor Yanukovych ordered the military to open fire and break up the protest.  The Ukrainian Suite (2025 version for violin and orchestra) features four movements that reflect on the people of the region with references to folk songs used as tribute and organizing devices.  It is one of the highlights of the album.

As a bit of a palette cleanser, a brief arrangement of Autumn Song (1916) provides a moment of beauty by Osyp Zalesky (1892-1984) who emigrated to Buffalo, New York.  He would go on to found a local Ukrainian Music Institute chapter and serve as composer and choir director of the local Ukrainian church.  He wrote a variety of hymns and part songs.  It was arranged by Bohdana Frolyak (b. 1968) whose own touching Nocturne (2008/2024) appears in a version for violin and orchestra and taps the more elegiac side of Ukrainian music.  Another émigré, Roman Prydatkevych (1895-1980), is represented in a new arrangement by Frolyak of the Ukrainian Rhapsody No. 1 (1956) which has more romantic overtones in its style reminiscent of Korngold.  The album concludes with an arrangement of the Ukrainian national anthem, We Do Exist! (We Are!) composed by Yuriy Shevchenko (1953-2022) in this arrangement which he completed shortly before his death from COVID in 2022.

In all, this is an engaging program of unique pieces that are representative of the current age we live in.  With the darkness of ongoing war in Ukraine and the echoes of the COVID-19 pandemic in the fabric of these works, we have means to try and find an emotional connection through music.  In the dust of history, we sometimes can forget some of the important personal and historical contexts that exist and this album reminds us of the intricate links artists provide and what can be lost in the midst of war.  The pieces remind us of our own humanity while helping connect us, and remind us, of the very realities of our time.

The recorded sound is all nicely balanced here, though the orchestrations themselves are transparent enough to let the solo line drift across the textures.  Ivakhiv’s work is quite stunning here with beautiful lyrical playing in the later works and the highlights of more technical demands appearing in the opening of the album.  It is overall a satisfying program of unfamiliar works worth investigating.