The Ukrainian Art Song Project sends you this gift of song…♪

We invite you to listen to a beautiful interpretation of

Lullaby ~
Колисанка

Composer: Vasyl Barvinsky
Poet: Hryhory Chuprynka

Krisztina Szabó, mezzo soprano
Serouj Kradjian, piano

Hryhory Chuprynka
Translation: Uliana Pasicznyk
and Maxim Tarnawsky

How lovingly, inexpressibly
The moon’s misty rays fall
Abundantly into the cradle.
Like gold coins on the window sill
The stars shine on the horizon,
Scattering flaming sparks.
Sleep my child, my little angel,
While you’re guarded from the world
By the magical darkness,
While among the golden stars,
Like a secret unknown treasure,
You dream on, as if enchanted.

Written in 1923, this art song was dedicated to Barvinsky’s children. He transforms an image of golden stars into cascades of shimmering chords. The voice sings an exhilarating ode to a newborn child and the wondrous beauty of the world.

Григорій Чупринка

Як любовно, невимовно
До колиски сипле блиски
Місяць легко затуманений!
Мов червонці, на віконці,
На узорі сяють зорі,
Бісер сиплючи розпалений.
Спи, дитятко, янголятко,
Поки тьмою чарівною
Ти од мира одгороджене,
Поки в зорях злотозорих,
Ніби в тайнах світосяйних,
Ти лежиш, мов заворожене.

Ця мистецька пісня 1923 року Барвінський присвятив своїм дітям. Поетичний образ “злотозорих” зірок він трансформує у каскади мерехтливих співзвучь. На їхньому тлі голос захоплено співає оду новонародженому дитяті та невимовній красі навколишнього світу.

the score

Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963)

Vasyl Barvinsky began his music studies with his mother, a pupil of Mikuli. He studied at the Lemberg Conservatory, and from 1908 to 1914 was a pupil of Vítězslav Novák in Prague. After Liudkevych was drafted into the Austrian army, Barvinsky became the director of the Lysenko Institute in Lviv. As a pianist, he toured Soviet Ukraine in 1928 with cellist Bohdan Berezhnytsky. In 1929, Adam Sołtys succeeded his father, Mieczysław, as director of the conservatory. When the Soviets merged the conservatory with the institute, it was Barvinsky who was appointed director of the new Lviv State Conservatory. Privilege, however, was short-lived. In 1948, intrigue led to denunciation and Barvinsky was exiled to a labour camp in the Mordovian ASSR. All his music scores were publically burned! Barvinsky returned to Lviv in 1958 a broken man and spent the rest of his days unsuccessfully trying to recreate his lost works. The surviving art songs are representative of the composer’s post-romantic and often impressionistic style.