Ukrainian Christmas
Arranged by Bohdan Kryvopust
Solomiya Ivakhiv (violin)
Lviv National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra/Serhii Khorovets
rec. 2023/24, Liundkevych Hall, Lviv, Ukraine
Naxos 8.574677 [53]
As I sat listening, on the comfort of my sofa, I could not help but wonder what kind of Christmas the Ukrainian people will have as the war grinds into its second Christmas – and my admiration for the musicians and everyone involved in this release was heightened by the knowledge that it has been recorded in Lviv which is now bearing much of the brunt of the savage attacks.
But we must put that aside and enjoy, and comment on, what they have probably so bravely assembled for this disc. The twelve tracks offer a wide variety of mood and style. Marika Kuzma’s excellent booklet essay goes into much handy detail about the music and some of Ukraine’s Christmas traditions.
The pieces are all carol melodies, traditional and modern, sumptuously arranged by Bohdan Kryvopust, who comes from the war-torn East Ukraine. They all feature the violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, who in 2021 was named Honoured Artist of Ukraine, the country’s highest cultural honour.
Vasyl Zhdankin’s On a sleigh, God was born, written only in 1988, captures the imagination especially in its orchestral colours. This amusingly tells that Christ was actually born on a mountainside where the local carpenters built him a sleigh. On the less contemporary side, there are A Peacock Strolls and the livelier Malanka (a folk holiday celebrated on December 31st). Their traditional Ukrainian melodies sound typically European as they receive their share of film-score luxuriance from Kryvopust. Another nod to the West is an arrangement of Silent Night; it brings us delightfully into the world of the Austrian Ländler, whose triple time works brilliantly.
Kryvopust’s own original work, the almost ten-minutes-long Fantasia, uses, I think, at least four carol melodies, including Mykola Leontovych’s well known Carol of the Bells. All these extravagant, captivating orchestrations are sheer joy, played with exuberance by Ivakhiv and the orchestra led by Serhii Khorovets.
The disc will not suit everyone’s taste, but it may well represent the true aspiration of the Ukrainian people: the love and continuation of their traditional Eastern-European values. A gloss of Western glitz and glitter can lift our hearts at this difficult time, when we want to look forward with optimism for a peaceful Christmas to reign again over Europe and the Ukrainian people. As the last words of the final carol, aptly quoted in the booklet, put it: ‘Evening of plenty. Evening of goodness / to all good people good health.’
Gary Higginson
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
Contents
Traditional Ukrainian carols
1. All around the world, good tidings
2. Good evening to you !
3. How wondrous this is
4. God is born
Vasyl Zhdankin (1958-2019)
5. On a sleigh, God was born
Traditional Ukrainian carols
6. New joy has arisen
7. Glory to God in the highest
8. A peacock strolls
9. Malanka
Bohdan Kryvopust (b.1975)
10. Fantasia
Franz Gruber (1787-1863)
11. Silent Night, Holy Night
Traditional Ukrainian carol
12. Evening of plenty, evening of goodness
