Ukrainian Art Song Project invites you to listen to a beautiful interpretation of
Знов весна ~ Spring Again
Composer: Vasyl Barvinsky
Poet: Lesia Ukrainka
Performers:
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
Serouj Kradjian, pianist
Знов весна
Леся Українка
Знов весна, і знов надії
В серці хворім оживають,
Знов мене колишуть мрії,
Сни про щастя навівають.
Весно красна! Любі мрії!
Сни мої щасливі!
Я люблю вас, хоч і знаю,
Що ви всі зрадлив…
Мистецька пісня написано 1957 року, в останній рік заслання Барвінського в таборах Ґулаґу. З музичної точки зору,цей романс є цілком традиційний. Однак, вражає незламний дух композитора, де він все-таки чекає весни і воскресіння мрій.
Spring Again
Translation: Unknown
Again and again the spring of hope
In the heart of patients are alive,
Again, my former dreams
Dreams of happiness brings.
Spring fair! Sweet dreams!
Dreams of my happy!
I love you, though I know
What do you all treacherous...
Written in 1957 during Barvinsky’s last year of imprisonment in the Gulag labour camps. From a musical point of view, this art song is quite traditional. What is astonishing is the composer’s indestructible spirit where he still hopes for spring and the revival of dreams.
VASYL BARVINSKY (1888-1963)
Vasyl Barvinsky also began his musical studies with his mother, who was herself a pupil of Karol Mikuli, the director of the Lemberg Conservatory in Galicia. Vasyl studied at the Lemberg Conservatory and, from 1908 to 1914, was a pupil of Vitezslav Novák in Prague. Barvinsky became the director of the Lysenko Institute in Lviv after Stanyslav Liudkevych was drafted into the Austrian army,
As a pianist, Barvinsky toured Soviet Ukraine in 1928 with cellist Bohdan Berezhnytsky.
When the Soviets merged the Lemberg conservatory in Galicia with the Lysenko 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.
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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