The first week of May, I attended four concerts. All four, whether by chance or intent, had a connection with Ukraine. That was obvious the first day of May at a benefit concert for Ukraine put on by the Wende Museum and Jacaranda Music at the Robert Frost Auditorium in Culver City.
So, let’s look at the United States. George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and Morton Feldman all have Ukrainian roots.
Although often sorrowful and sometimes sentimental, his music is always poetic and exceedingly beautiful. His 1996 piano solo “The Messenger,” played with exquisite lack of resolve by Steven Vanhauwaert at the Wende benefit, had the airy unreality of trying to restore Mozart through remnants of 18th century sound waves that may still be found in the atmosphere. The purity of such post-history suggests a kind of spiritual wonderland that harkens back to the roots of Ukrainian chants.
At her Wende recital earlier this month, Faliks premiered Veronika Krausas’ “Master & Margarita” Suite, written for the occasion. In the Russian novel, the devil visits and wreaks marvelous havoc on Soviet Moscow. In her suite of seven sly dances, Krausas, who is a Canadian-American Los Angeles composer of Lithuanian heritage, lightly waltzes around and toys with fanciful passages from the Bulgakov’s novel. As with Silvestrov, what isn’t there is as intriguing as what is.
before a performance. “The first thing of all to be said is that Americans and Russians simply love each other’s music.”
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