The sound of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is filling – even overfilling – the smaller of the two performance spaces of the Kyiv Philharmonic Hall. Under the sparkling chandeliers of the elegant, if slightly battered space, the orchestra is doing its first read-through of a new work by one of Ukraine’s most respected senior composers, Yevhen Stankovych, before its Kyiv premiere. Through the hall’s tall windows the great rainbow-shaped monument to the freedom of the Ukrainian people – originally built by the Soviets to symbolise Russian and Ukrainian unity – gleams in the afternoon sun.
As the first violins scale the heights of their fingerboards, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine seems very far away. The only hint of it is in conductor Volodymyr Sirenko’s stool, which is covered in pixellated Ukrainian army camouflage material. That and, for the orchestra themselves, the absence of a couple of colleagues: the viola player who is now a musician in the army; the tuba player who is now a machine gunner. And then there is the title of the new work, which is for choir, soloists and orchestra. It leaves no room for doubt. It’s called Ukraine: Music of War.
In the face of the terror and uncertainty of the full-scale invasion on 24 February last year, many of the orchestra’s musicians scattered, according to the orchestra’s chief executive, Oleksandr Hornostai, heading west to safety. Some stayed, volunteering in field kitchens, doing what they could to help the effort to push back the Russians from the capital. And it wasn’t long before the orchestra started performing again – reuniting first at La Fenice, Venice’s opera house, in April 2022.
Since then, aside from concerts in Ukraine the orchestra, founded in 1918, has focused on touring. Last year there were 22 concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Liechtenstein. The orchestra has recently returned from Taiwan. Now comes another tour, with concerts in 17 venues across the UK, including Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall and London’s Cadogan Hall. Some of the musicians, at the invitation of the Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle, will also play at the Houses of Parliament. It is a reminder that this tour is not just about sharing music, but plays a role in soft diplomacy: culture and politics can never be disentangled. On the orchestra’s recent tour to Taiwan, “we more or less had to drag the orchestra off stage”, says conductor Sirenko. The euphoric reception was partly a matter of solidarity from another country fearing the overbearing influence of a restless neighbour.
The violence suffered by Ukraine sharpens the urgency of the music-making, says Sirenko. “A mayor of one the European cities where we performed last year said to us: ‘If you are fighting as fiercely as you are playing, Ukraine will definitely win the war.’” He adds: “All the music we play – whether it’s Schumann or Beethoven – has become about our war.” He means, he says, that the knowledge of what’s happening deepens the conflict in the music, sharpens the drama, makes it even more meaningful and resonant to the players. At the same time, it’s music, just as it always has been. When he’s conducting, “I have to turn my back to the audience and do my work.” The technical and musical challenges remain the same, no matter what the reception of the orchestra may be, and no matter the nature of the political situation.
This is undeniably a big moment for the orchestra: it is its first tour of the UK in 22 years. As Stankovych, who joins the musicians outside the hall in the adjacent park during the afternoon rehearsal break, says: “There’s a demand for our composers and musicians abroad at the moment. For a long time, audiences knew only Leningrad and Moscow.” The full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he says, has been “a kind of engine for Ukrainian art, music, film. From one side it’s good – but clearly, on the other side it’s terrible. A lot of our people are dying.”
On this tour, the orchestra is showcasing Ukrainian composers little-known in western Europe: figures who have long languished in the shadow of Russian peers, such as the early 20th-century Boris Lyatoshynsky. His second symphony, banned by the Soviet authorities on the eve of its premiere in 1934, is on the orchestra’s tour programme, as is Sibelius’s Finlandia – a pointed reference to another nation’s struggle for independence from its eastern neighbour.
According to cellist Natalia Subbotina: “It is important for us to continue our work. Everyone is fighting on his or her frontline, and it’s our work to help the rest of Europe understand Ukrainian culture.” The metaphor of the “cultural frontline” has become controversial in Ukraine as, increasingly, artists acknowledge that there can be no comparison between slugging it out in a trench in Chasiv Yar or Bakhmut and working in a theatre, artist’s studio or concert hall. But given Putin’s explicit framing of the invasion of Ukraine in terms of language, history and culture, there is no doubt of the importance of Ukrainians showcasing their art, insisting on their distinctiveness, abroad. At the same time, Subbotina’s first priority, she says, is the quality of the orchestra’s performances. “There’s a prejudice about Ukrainian musicians, that our musical culture is not so high. So we definitely have something to prove.”
• The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine is at Bath Forum on 17 October, and tour the UK until 5 November.
