In celebration of all Mothers, Grandmothers, Godmothers and Aunts, we wish you a day filled with love, family and music to brighten your spirits. The Ukrainian Art Song Project sends you this gift of love… ♪
Spring Awoke My Heart ~ Коли настав чудовий май
by Mykola Lysenko
Poem by Heinrich Heine
Performed by
Pavlo Hunka, bass-baritone
Albert Krywolt, piano
Коли настав чудовий май,
Садочків розвивання,
Тоді у серденьку моїм
Прокинулось кохання.
Коли настав чудовий май
І пташок щебетання,
Тоді я милій розказав
Мою журбу й кохання!
В 1893 р. двоє молодих поетів, Леся Українка і Максим Славінський, переклали українською мовою знамениту “Книгу Пісень” Гайнріха Гайне. Наступного літа, Микола Лисенко поклав на музику чотирнадцять Гайнівських ліричних творів. Для молодих українських поетів це був свідомий політичний виклик, оскільки в Російській імперії будь-які переклади українською мовою суворо заборонялися. Щодо Лисенка, завдання виявилось ще складнішим, адже 53 роки перед ним великий німецький романтик Роберт Шуман, музику якого Лисенко знав і любив, написав на вірші тієї ж “Книги Пісень” cвій безсмертний цикл “Любов Поета”. Однак Лисенко не побоявся виклику. Його намір довести, що муза українського композитора здатна змагатися з кращими европейськими здобутками, виявлено вже у першому солоспіві: обраний вірш є той самий, що починає і цикл Шумана!
In May, the magic month of May,
When all the buds were springing,
Into my heart the burning
Bright arrow of love came winging.
In May, the magic month of May,
When all the birds were singing,
I told her of my yearning,
My longing and heart-wringing.
In 1893 two young poets, Lesia Ukrainka and Maksym Slavinsky, translated into Ukrainian the famous “Book of Songs” by Heinrich Heine. The following year, Mykola Lysenko set to music fourteen of the translations of Heine’s lyrical poems. For the young Ukrainian poets, it was quite a political statement because translation into Ukrainian was strictly banned throughout the Russian empire. As for Lysenko, the challenge was even greater, for 53 years before him, the great German composer Robert Schumann, whose works Lysenko knew and admired, had composed his immortal vocal cycle ‘A Poet’s Love’ based on the same “Book of Songs.” Yet Lysenko was up to the challenge. The Ukrainian composer’s intention to prove that his muse could compete with the best achievements of European music is revealed in the very first song: the poem he chose is the same one that opens the Schumann cycle!
Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912)
Mykola Lysenko (1842 - 1912) is the father of modern Ukrainian classical music. His prolific life’s work laid the foundation for the further development and expansion of Ukrainian musical culture. He influenced a large group of Ukrainian composers, including Stetsenko, Stepovyi, Leontovych, Koshyts, and Liudkevych. A compilation of Lysenko’s works in 22 volumes was published in Kyiv in 1950–59.
Lysenko was a composer, ethnomusicologist, pianist, and conductor. He studied at the Kharkiv and Kyiv universities and, later, at the Leipzig Conservatory under Reinicke and Richter (1867–69). From 1874 to 1876 he studied orchestration under Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg. In 1904, he founded his own School of Music and Drama in Kyiv.
The list of Lysenko’s operatic compositions include Black Sea Cossacks (1872); three operas based on the works of the Ukrainian writer Mykola Hohol – Christmas Night (1873–82),
The Drowned Maiden (1883) and Taras Bulba (1890); and the operettas Natalka from Poltava (1889) and Aeneas (1911). Himself a well-known pianist, Lysenko composed a piano sonata, two rhapsodies, a suite, a scherzo and a rondo, as well as an abundance of smaller pieces, including songs without words, nocturnes, waltzes and polonaises. He also wrote a number of works for strings. Of the Ukrainian composers, Lysenko was the most committed to the art song genre. Lysenko’s 133 art songs (lirychni pisni in Ukrainian) relate a wonderfully descriptive and passionate story of 19th- and early 20th-century European life.
The Ukrainian Art Song Project has been bringing Ukraine's musical treasures to light since 2004. With your support, we will continue to bring Ukraine's finest composers and their masterpieces to the world stage, where they belong.
Проєкт "Українськa Мистецькa Пісня" поширює найкращі зразки української музики з 2004 року. З Вашою підтримкою ми продовжимо презентувати найкращих українських композиторів та їх шедеври, які належать до світової музичної спадщини.
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