In 2024, Ukrainian art institutions, music groups, and individual performers seemed to have somewhat recovered from the shock of Russia’s full-scale invasion. It forced the professional music community to reassess its values, from its attitude toward Russian culture to existential questions about the role and the state of art in times of war. So, in this text, I invite readers to look back at the brightest releases that came out last year.
The Traditional and the Sacred
Over the past few years, the members of the Viltse band have been actively working in the field of Ukrainian folklore. Last year, they released recordings made in 2022. In the album with the technical title Demos 2022, the band offers 11 songs of different genres. The most interesting thing is that each of them allows you to immerse yourself in the musical traditions of different regions of Ukraine. When listening to this album, pay attention to the verbal component because the performers skillfully imitate the distinctive features of the dialect and singing traditions of the regions represented, thus adding a special authenticity to the album. For example, the spring song “Vesnyanochka-panyanochka” is sung with a rounding of the sound typical of the Poltava region, and the wedding song “Da atdaiesh mene mamochka,” on the contrary, with excessive compression characteristic of Polissia.
In December 2024, Viltse presented another album entirely dedicated to carols. Its title, Vechir svyat (The Evening of Holidays), refers not only to the name of the pre-Christmas holiday (Holy Evening) but also to the idea of experiencing Christmas, Generous Evening, and Vodokhreshche (Epiphany and Baptism of Jesus) on any day — you just need to listen to 40 minutes of music. In addition to its aesthetic function – that is, immersion in the festive atmosphere — this album also has an educational potential. The thing is that for some people Christmas was an integral part of family traditions, while for others it was a secondary holiday, overshadowed by the New Year that was promoted by the Soviet authorities. So, there is a great opportunity, if not to discover Ukrainian Christmas, then at least to expand the winter repertoire: the textural simplicity of some songs (for example, “Oi u poli kyrnychka”) will allow people without any musical experience to become carolers.
A completely different approach to traditional songs can be heard in the album Ukrainian Christmas, released in December 2024 by the American company Naxos of America. In this album, violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, together with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic (conducted by Serhiy Horovets), presented the most famous Ukrainian carols (koliadky and shchedrivky). Each of the pieces will not only take you back to a carefree childhood but also reveal a completely different side of your favorite songs, which, thanks to Bohdan Kryvopust’s arrangement, could become a great musical accompaniment for an optimistic Christmas movie or musical — just as “Shchedryk” by Mykola Leontovych in its English-language rendition “Carol of the Bells” was organically incorporated into the iconic American film Home Alone.
Along with the actualization of traditional culture, we urgently need to explore our past to understand our identity better. Ukrainian music of the Baroque and Classical periods is one of the main foci of activity of the Academy of Early Music Leopolis and Open Opera Ukraine. Last year, these two organizations joined forces through the vocal ensembles A Cappella Leopolis and Partes to release the album Listen to Me, My People: Rachynsky / Berezovsky. You can read about this project in the articles by Iuliia Bentia and Vitaliy Vyshynsky. There are several aspects to the album’s value — from professional, historically informed performance to the discovery of the name of Andriy Rachynsky, who was known only to a handful of specialists.
The Modern
Last November, the Khanenko Museum hosted a concert presentation of the album Heritage. With the support of the Per Forma grant program from Kyiv Contemporary Music Days, Kateryna Levytska (soprano) and Yuliia Yashchenko (piano) recorded ten original solo songs by Ukrainian composers and two arrangements of folk songs. The performers turn to the works of Lesia Dychko, Levko Kolodub, Marko Kropyvnytskyi, Leopold Yashchenko, and Mykola Stetsiun.
A similar project was realized abroad: with the support of the Conservatory of Trento (Italy), Ukrainian tenor Anton Radchenko, together with Italian pianist Edoardo Maria Crepaldi, released an album with a performance of the vocal cycle Mother by Ivan Karabyts.
The monumental symphonic or choral works of composers often overshadow their chamber and vocal music. These projects help draw attention to sometimes ignored works by renowned authors.
An important event also occurred in instrumental Ukrainian music of the 20th and 21st centuries: last fall, the Kyiv Camerata ensemble launched the Anthology of Contemporary Ukrainian Music project. Its goal is to make public the numerous recordings that the ensemble has made in the past and plans to make in the future. Currently, the Chamber Symphony No. 3 in Memory of Borys Liatoshynsky and the Violin Concerto by Volodymyr Zubytskyi, as well as chamber symphonies by Ihor Shcherbakov are available on streaming platforms. In the future, the list of names and works will be expanded as there are planned releases of compositions by Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk, Valentyn Silvestrov, Oleh Kyva, Oleksandr Levkovych, Volodymyr Zubytskyi, and Zoltan Almashi.
Last June, the Dovzhenko Center hosted the only concert of the Ukrainian Improvisers Orchestra in two years, which also became an unofficial celebration of the orchestra’s 10th anniversary. The conductor and founder of the orchestra, Dmytro Radzetskyi, used for the concert the graphic score “Accidentia,” created for the orchestra’s first performance in 2014. The main idea of this composition is the orchestra’s free interpretation of pre-prepared episodes, which manifest radically different ideas and techniques of improvisational music. The recording of this concert is the basis for the eponymous album, which was released in December.
The Electroacoustic
In April 2024, Svyatoslav Lunyov presented the album GoryMore. The music on the album is deliberately cinematic. This is unsurprising because Lunyov refers the listener to one of his previous works — the music for the film A Portrait on the Background of Mountains, directed by Maksym Rudenko. In the 18 tracks of the album, the composer explores various noise textures and spatial effects, creating a somewhat cold and detached atmosphere.
Last year, another electroacoustic album was released, Metanoia by Georgiy Potopalskiy (Ujif_notfound). The term “metanoia” usually refers to a profound inner transformation. The text of the release directly points to the person who would have to undergo this transformation through penitence: “the one who didn’t do enough to stop this,” “the one who silently agrees,” “the one who is ready for the sake of profit,” “the one who was forced,” “the one who regretted at the last moment, but it’s too late,” and finally “the one who is rotting.” Hence, the eerie, chaotic sound of the tracks with eloquent titles, such as “Lament of the Peacemaker,” “The Population of Bakhmut,” and “I’m Not Interested in Politics.”
Another experimental album released in 2024 was Liebestod by Oleksiy Shmurak and Oleh Shpudeyko (Heinali), recorded on the Kyiv Dispatch label a few years ago. In the album’s four songs, the composers reflect on the end of personal stories in the context of major events, anxiety, the desire for intimacy, and acceptance of the inevitable. To this end, the authors use fragments from Ivan Mazepa’s correspondence and poems by Volodymyr Svidzinsky, Inger Christensen, and John Keats. There should be a disclaimer at this point: in the third song, about a man who committed a massacre and whose body became a “gift to the earth,” the authors use a Russian translation of a poem by a Danish poet.
Vivid Collaborations
Ukrainian performers actively promote Ukrainian music on numerous tours, which helps to remove it gradually from the status of something unknown and exotic. An even greater merit of Ukrainian bands is the involvement of world-famous musicians in joint projects. Last year, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (conducted by Volodymyr Sirenko) collaborated with German cellist Raphaela Gromes.
After a joint concert in Kyiv and an extensive tour of Europe, they recorded an album featuring Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and works by Ukrainian composers of the 20th and 21st centuries: Valentyn Silvestrov, Hanna Havrylets, Yuriy Shevchenko, and Stepan Charnetsky. They were united primarily by the idea of patriotism, as Ukrainian music on the album was represented by “two prayers and two anthems,” as Liuba Morozova aptly put it during her conversation with the cellist. From their conversation, you will learn more about the origin of the idea for this project and Raphaela Gromes’ reflections on Ukrainian art.
The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is not the only orchestra to have collaborated with a world star of classical music. Last year, the INSO-Lviv orchestra (conducted by Dalia Stasevska) performed with violinist Joshua Bell. After their charity concert in Warsaw, the Pentatone label released a CD with a recording of the centerpiece of that program, the Violin Concerto written by the Ukrainian-born composer Thomas de Hartmann during World War II. So, the relevance of this work for Ukrainians is painfully apparent. The album Rediscovered also includes the Cello Concerto by Thomas de Hartmann, performed by Matt Heimowitz with the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Dennis Russell Davies).
Continuing the theme of Lviv ensembles and international labels, it is worth mentioning an album released last year on the German label ARS Produktion. At the end of last year, pianist Violina Petrychenko presented a CD with piano concertos by Vasyl Barvinsky and Viktor Kosenko, which she recorded together with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Lviv National Philharmonic (conducted by Volodymyr Syvokhip).
January 2025
Several releases have already come out during the first weeks of the new year. In particular, the album Arfatektura, in which harpist Yaroslava Nekliaieva and members of the Kyiv Camerata present harp works by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, as well as Jean-Michel Damase and Marcel Tournier, who are less known in the Ukrainian music scene.
And on February 12, a concert presentation and release of the album Postponed Dreams with works written or adapted for double bass and piano by Vilmos Montag, Zoltan Almashi, Hennadiy Lyashenko, Yevhen Stetsiuk, and Andrés Martín took place. The performers are the Ukrainian ensemble DuoFormula, consisting of pianist Tetiana Pavlichuk-Tyshkevych and double bassist Nazariy Stets.
What will the year 2025 look like in music? One thing is certain: now, more than ever, we are trying to explore ourselves. We are witnessing how “a work by a Ukrainian composer” is becoming more than just a mandatory program item for performing at a competition or passing an exam at a conservatory. This notion finally goes beyond coercion, turning into a conscious position. Today, Ukrainian music, in its most diverse manifestations, has become the constant that unites the creative efforts of Ukrainian musicians. At the same time, collaborations with international musicians and album recordings abroad raise the status of not only Ukrainian art, but also Ukrainian performers.
This material was created and published thanks to a grant from Shevchenko Scientific Society, USA.
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