15 лютого о 19:00 у Львівській обласній філармонії відбудеться концерт творів Василя Олександровича Барвінського. Концерт приурочений до дня народження композитора та пов'язаний з відкриттям меморіальної таблиці Барвінському на стіні Львівської обласної філармонії.
Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963) was a prominent composer and musical and public figure of all-Ukrainian and European significance. His activities represent one of the most important pages in the musical history of Lviv in the 20th century. For 30 years, he led the Ukrainian conservatory. His selfless work contributed to the flourishing of Ukrainian music in Lviv during the pre-war period. Today, we owe much of the level of musical education and concert life we have to Vasyl Barvinsky.
As a public figure, Vasyl Barvinsky, disregarding his own time, health, and safety, helped many Lviv residents during the times of Soviet and German occupation. For all this activity, as a prominent figure in Ukrainian culture, he was punished by Soviet authorities. The composer spent 10 years in hard labor conditions in exile, without the right to create music. But even during the persecution, he exemplified human and national dignity.
The goal of the Soviet authorities was to destroy this example, to erase from people's memory the creativity, activities, and even the name of Barvinsky. It was forbidden to mention him in books or perform his works. A barbaric crime was committed in the courtyard of the conservatory (the building of the current philharmonic) – the manuscripts of his works were burned.
The memorial plaque on the wall of the philharmonic is intended to restore justice – to draw wide attention to the image and name of Vasyl Barvinsky, reminding our contemporaries of his merits.
The festive concert program will feature symphonic works by the composer written in the concert genre. The Piano Concerto with Orchestra, created between 1917-1938, and the Cello Concerto with Orchestra, which the composer secretly wrote in exile between 194-1958, will be performed.
Performers:
- Symphonic Orchestra of the Opera Studio at the Lviv National Music Academy named after Mykola Lysenko
- Conductor – lecturer at the Lviv State Music Academy named after M. Lysenko, associate professor of the conducting department Bohdan Dashak
- Piano – Honored Artist of Ukraine Oksana Rapita
- Cello – laureate of international competitions Taras Mentsinsky
Reference
Vasyl Barvinsky was not only a bright pianist and composer; he led the musical life of Lviv for more than 30 years, managed the conservatory, and moreover, opened branches of the institute in smaller towns of Galicia.
Then the communists came and forced the composer to sign a document: "I allow the destruction of my manuscripts". The maestro was exiled to Mordovian camps for 10 years, and his scores were burned in the courtyard of the philharmonic.
"They burned in the courtyard of the current philharmonic, surrounded by stones, like a well. There were witnesses; I personally knew some of them. And when Vasyl Barvinsky returned from the camps, he searched through the archives, he did not believe that everything had been destroyed. You understand that for a creator, the destruction of his work is a whole life, a greater tragedy than a lost life," said Stefania Pavlyshyn, professor, doctor of art history.
Stefania Pavlyshyn helped the composer after his return from Siberia to search for his works in the archives. She says that some of Barvinsky's works he restored from memory.
"He walked, he searched, he asked. Once I was leaving the philharmonic, and he was walking with the person who destroyed his works, and he knew who it was. And that man, next to the maestro, walked to take advantage of something to write about him, to publish, so falsely – he walked arm in arm with him. I followed them. We reached the monument to Mickiewicz, they said goodbye, I approached Barvinsky and said: how can you even talk to him? He destroyed your manuscripts. And he said: people need to forgive. That’s who he was," recalled Stefania Pavlyshyn.
It is no coincidence that the bas-relief to Vasyl Barvinsky was opened precisely in the philharmonic.
"He was the musical patron of Lviv for almost half a century. Lviv, the philharmonic, music – all of this is identical. He was the director of the Lviv Music Institute, later the conservatory for more than 30 years, and the last period of his directorship was in this building," explained the general director of the Lviv Philharmonic Volodymyr Syvohip.
Most of Vasyl Barvinsky's works premiered on the stage of the philharmonic. Therefore, it is symbolic that his concerts were performed by pianist Oksana Rapita, cellist Taras Mentsinsky, and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Opera Studio of the music academy.
"He is an innovator in everything, and in many ways we have not fully revealed this music as it deserves. And it seems to me that the Ukrainian soul is read in Barvinsky's works, the Ukrainian ideas, the richness of the language even," said Honored Artist of Ukraine Oksana Rapita.
