Page 26 - The Strad (February 2020)

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compulsory work: Ukrainian composer
Yevhen Stankovych’s Violin Concerto no.5
‘Question without Answer’. Written in
LVIV
2017 to celebrate Krysa’s 75th birthday,
Stankovych’s concerto is cast in a single
rhapsodic movement with a striking
gear-shift towards the end. Its long,
unpredictable melodies alternate with
highly wrought orchestral interludes before
the warm buzz of a vibraphone leads the
soloist into a tango of the sort that –
according to Krysa – Stankovych (b.1942)
imagines might have been heard in one of
Lviv’s bustling coŽee houses before the city
was occupied in World War II.
Between two worlds ‘e challenge in this piece is not so
much the notes themselves, but spinning
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technically polished account, but not
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every rendition caught the story and clung
on to it until the end. Yukiko Uno
(b.1995), from Japan, played with a
beautiful tone and crystal-clear
A through here on their way to the West,’ strange pacing of material. In the tango,
articulation, for instance, but she seemed
‘All the important Soviet artists passed
lost amid the oŽ-kilter contours and
the score at last oŽers the soloist a helping
he says of the city where he spent his
hand, but Uno was unable to put it to
formative years. ‘Coming in the opposite
direction was Arthur Rubinstein, and
imaginative use and bring something extra
culture. She put her balance and poise to
lthough the line
always been at the intersection of two
that separates Ukraine culturally, before him Chopin and Sarasate. Lviv has to the work’s campy send-up of café
diŽerent worlds.’ ‘e genteel city’s
better eŽect in the Sibelius Concerto,
geographically and politically from its cobbled streets are a world away from perhaps simply because it has a more
larger neighbour is not always easy to trace, Donbas, Ukraine’s easternmost region, dramatic solo part. But although she was
it may come as a surprise (it did to me) where since 2014 as many as 13,000 now in more familiar territory, she still
that many titans of the ‘Russian’ school of people have been killed in armed con¨ict struggled to —re up her playing in a
violin playing – Nathan Milstein, David between Russian and Ukrainian cut-glass account of the —nale that showed
Oistrakh and Leonid Kogan among them nationalists. ‘People are dying every day,’ oŽ her coolness and precision.
– were born in what we know today as says Krysa, ‘but it doesn’t mean that we In contrast, Jevgēnijs Čepoveckis
Ukraine. Oleh Krysa is another Ukrainian should stop making music – we have to (b.1995), from Latvia, built a sense of
violinist, and one determined to see his play on. I wanted to give young drive and conviction from the —rst bar of
country’s cultural achievements given the Ukrainian violinists a chance to Stankovych’s elusive work. It was quickly
credit they deserve. A student of Oistrakh, demonstrate their talents in their home stripped back in the tango, with a playful
Krysa has taught at the Eastman School of country, and to give everyone else a naivety that grew in swagger and style as
Music in Rochester, NY, since 1989 and chance to hear what they could do.’ the work curled towards its conclusion.
gives his name to the triennial Oleh Krysa For their chance to win the €20,000 Next came Shostakovich’s Violin
International Violin Competition, which —rst prize, the six young violinists, Concerto no.1, which Čepoveckis played
began in 2013. He also chairs its jury. accompanied by the Lviv National with a roughness unique among the
In October I travelled to Lviv, close to Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, —nalists. In some ways, an eŽective
Ukraine’s border with Poland, to meet him played one from a choice of seven interpretation of this piece requires
and to hear the six —nalists perform in the concertos drawn from the likes of the same —rm hand as the Stankovych,
2019 edition. Beethoven, Brahms and Proko—ev and one and this soloist was in complete control

26 THE STRAD FEBRUARY 2020 www.thestrad.com