The Kyiv Chamber Orchestra smoothed the mid-week hump for a handful of concert-goers on Aug. 10 as the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine's Summer Festival of Orchestral Music continued.
In the first half, conductor Vitaliy Protasov’s group of 20 string players performed two giants of the string orchestra repertoire.
From the first deep riff growled out by the impressive viola section, Edward Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E minor, op. 20 engaged the audience.
The Chamber Orchestra played with the delicateness needed for the placidly immobile Larghetto.
Piotr Illych Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for strings in C minor, op. 48 followed and, as it never fails to do, impressed upon listeners what is perhaps chamber music’s most dramatic wall of sound. The moments of romance and lyricism had many humming to themselves with pleasure in the interval.
Dmitri Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony (‘In memory of the victims of fascism and war’), op. 110A changed the mood completely.
This work was inspired by Shostakovich’s first-hand visions of post-World War II Dresden as well as his own personal chagrin when he reluctantly joined the Communist Party. It provided a sobering, tragic and occasionally menacing balance to the first half’s 19th century romanticism.
The night ended with Shostakovich’s Prelude and Scherzo, op. 11, which spreads solos to almost all corners of the orchestra. A glitzy finish to a polished performance.
The only real disappointment of the night came not from the stage but from the stalls; there simply weren’t enough of us. And that’s a shame.
This has been one of the highlights of this year’s Summer Festival of Orchestral Music.
