Ukraine

The composers Reinhold Glière (Gliyer, 1875-19) and Aleksandr Mosolov, (1900-1973) were born in Kiev.

Glière is best known from his 3^rd Symphony Ilya Muromets and his colourful ballet The red poppy. Mosolov was a representative of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s, with e.g. Kolkhoz songs and the famous Iron foundry.

After the first theatre from 1967 was burnt down, the new one was opened in 1901; the architect was Victor Schröter. There are 1483 seats. During a performance in 1911 in the presence of the Tsar, there was a murder attack on prime minister Stolypin.

Outside there is a monument to the national composer Mikolay Lysenko.

The Merchants’ Assembly from 1881 was already used as a concert hall. After the revolution it became a Proletarian House of Arts, then a House of Political Education. In 1934 the building became the National Philharmonia, only interrupted by the Nazi occupiers who made it a German Officers’ club.

Near the Glinka monument from 1910 is a platform for musical performances.

The Roman Catholic church of St. Nicholas was closed in 1938 and in 1980 reopened as a concert hall. Since 1992 it is a church again, but concerts are still given.

The building of the Tchaikovsky Music Academy looks out upon the Maidan square, famous for the ‘Orange Revolution’ of 2014. It is the leading conservatory of the country today. There are two concert halls.

The first music academy of Kiev was founded in 1868. In 1928 it was split in two institutions, the Glière Institute of today and the Tchaikovsky Academy, which went its own way. The most famous pupil of the institute was the pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who was born in Kiev in 1904.

An address has been mentioned at which Glière should have taught Horowitz ─ Bulvar Tarasa Shevchenka 18 ─ but it was not verified and it is unclear if it was a house of Glière or of Horowitz.

Mikolay Lysenko (1842-1912) is considered the father of the Ukrainian art music. His operas are still regularly performed. In the house, where he lived from 1894 until his death, are a museum and an archive concerning his life and work.

House of Boris Lyatoshinsky (1895-1968), an interesting composer whose symphonic music and chamber works deserve more attention outside Ukraine.

The composer and teacher Levko Revutsky (1889-1977) lived in this house from 1956 until his death. Remarkable are his folk song arrangements and his 2^nd Symphony.

Kiev’s main cemetery from 1838 measures 27 ha. All three Ukrainian composers mentioned above were buried here: Lysenko, Lyatoshinsky and Revutsky.

The Russian strikingly modernist composer Nikolay Roslavets (1881-1944) was born in Dushatino near Chernihiv.

Levko Revutsky was born in Irzhavets but his birthplace was demolished. A Revutsky museum was opened in 1989 on the farmstead of his great-grandfather and displays over 1000 objects concerning his life and work.

Kharkiv, the former capital of Ukraine, had an opera tradition since 1780. From 1891 to 1925 the performances took place in the Commercial Club which is today Filarmoniya concert hall.

The new building of the Lysenko Opera and Ballet Theatre, opened in 1991, replaced a building from 1925. There are 1500 seats in the main hall and 400 in the second one. The repertory is mainly Ukrainian and Russian.

Sergey Prokofiev was born in 1891 in the village of Sontsovka, now called Krasnoye. The birthplace no longer stands, its location is marked. An interesting Prokofiev museum is in the school where his mother worked. One can visit the village church where the composer was baptized and see the large monument of the composer.

Krasmoye lies in eastern Ukraine, near the area that since 2016 is occupied by pro-Russian rebels; this can complicate a visit.

The first singing school in Tsarist Russia was established in this town, then called Glukhov, in 1738. One of its pupils may have been Dmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky (1751-1825), who was born here. He was a singer, became the conductor of the Court Chapel and composed much church music, which is still frequently performed. Besides he visited Italy and composed Italian operas. There is monument of him, next to the monument of another singer and composer who was born in Glukhov, worked in Italy and wrote sacred works and operas: Maksim Berezovsky (1745-77).

Tchaikovsky stayed in 1864 with prince Aleksey Golitsyn. On June the 29^th, Peters’s day and the name day of the composer, the whole community participated in a exuberant feast.

The Golitsyn (Galitzin) family also figures in the biographies of Mozart and Beethoven. They didn’t visit Ukraine, but Mozart gave many concerts in the Viennese palace of Dmitry Golitsyn, then the Russian ambassador, and Nikolay Golitsyn was a benefactor of Beethoven; the quartets op. 127, 130 and 132 were dedicated to him.

Nikolay Kondratyev was a good friend of Tchaikovsky. The latter stayed nine times in the 1870s in Nyzy; the 2^nd and 3^rd Symphonies and the opera Vakula the Smith were written here. There is an exhibition in the palace and a monument in the park.

Tchaikovsky’s sister Aleksandra (Sasha) was married with the landowner Lev Davydov. Between 1865 and 1893 he visited them no less than 35 times. One of the houses, the ‘little green house’, has survived and houses an exhibition, which is partially devoted to the composer; other exhibits concern Pushkin ─ also a guest ─ and the Dekabrist revolt, in which grandfather Davydov participated.

The nationl composer Mikolay Lysenko (1842-1912) was born here.

The great Polish composer Karol Szymanowski was born in 1882 in the village of Tymoshivka and spent his youth in Kirovograd, then called Elisavetgrad; his house should have survived, but the address couldn’t be retrieved. The museum is called after him, but the exhibition is devoted to the Ukrainian composer of nationalist operas Yuli Meytus (1903-97), who was born here. Szymanowski supposedly will not be totally neglected.

The first opera house of Odessa from 1810 burnt down in 1873. Europe’s most renowned opera architects, the Viennese Fellner & Helmer, designed the new building, which was opened in 1887. In 1891 there were concerts by Tchaikovsky and a performance of his Queen of Spades. The hall has 1636 seats, the acoustics are excellent.

This building from 1898 was originally the New Stock Exchange; since 1924 it is a concert hall, in particular the platform of the Odessa P.O. It has 1000 seats.

Birthplace of the famous violinist David Oystrakh, °1908.

More violinists were born in Odessa, incl. Mischa Elman and Efrem Zimbalist.

Country estate of Tchaikovsky’s benefactress and ‘pen-friend’ Nadezhda von Meck. Tchaikovsky stayed here four times between 1878 and 1880 and worked in her octagonal study and in the library. His Souvenir d’un lieu cher was written in 1878. The lady herself was absent, as they had arranged never to meet in person. 

The Polish pianist, composer and statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born in the village of Kurylivka in 1860. He spent also some time in nearby Khmilnyk, where a plaque commemorates him; at which address, couldn’t be retrieved.

Carolyne Iwanowska, after her marriage princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, was born here in 1819. She became the last consort of Franz Liszt. Her house, which no longer stands, was visited by Liszt in the winter of 1847/48; it inspired to the piano piece on Polish/Ukrainian melodies: Glanes de Woronince, S. 249. There is a small monument at the location of the house.

The composer Boris Mikolayovich Lyatoshinsky was born here in 1895. The old photo of his birthplace was found in a biography; the present state and the address of the house are not known.

Igor Stravinsky had spent many holidays since 1890 in the summer house of his aunt Marya Nosenko in Ustilug. In 1906 he married his cousin Yekaterina (Katja) Nosenko and in 1907 the couple had built their own summer house, where he often stayed until 1914 and worked at his great ballets. In 1991 the Russian Ustilug became the Ukrainian Ustyluh at the border with Poland. The house became, partly rebuilt, a music school with since 1994 a museum, focussing on Stravinsky’s Russian years and his visit to Russia in 1962. We must realise that it is the only existing museum, dedicated to the greatest composer of the 20^th century!

In the section ‘Poland’ of this website, a vain attempt to visit the village is mentioned.

The now Ukrainian L’viv has been successively an Austrian, Polish and Russian city and so it was called Lemberg, Lwów or Lvov. Hence the fine opera house had different names: Lemberger Oper, Teatr Wiełki or Miejski and Akademichniy Teatr Opery i Baleta. It was built in 1897-1900, the architect was Zygmunt Gorgolewski. There are 1100 seats.

This concert hall was built in 1902; visiting conductors of the L’viv P.O. included Mahler and R. Strauss.

The roots of the Music Academy go back to 1853. Its direct predecessor was the Karol Szymanowski Conservatory and it was combined with the musicological faculty of L’viv University.

The gothic church of St. Mary Magdalene became a concert hall with Ukraine’s largest organ.

The cathedral of St. George was built in the middle of the 18^th century as a Roman Catholic church. Now it belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, that combines eastern rites with papal authority. On 5.XII.1826, the 35^th anniversary of Mozart’s death, his Requiem was performed under the direction of his youngest son Franz Xaver (1791-1844); the event was commemorated by a plaque. Franz Xaver Mozart lived and worked in the city during twenty years (1812-18 and 1822-38) as a conductor, teacher and composer.

The soprano singer Solomiya Krushelnytska bought this house in 1903, but her career brought her to many countries; especially in the Milan Scala she scored triumphs. From 1939 she lived permanently in L’viv until she died in 1952. The house is a beautiful museum now.

The house of the composer Stanislav Lyudkevich (1887-1979) is kept in its original state and publicly accessible. His widow lived here until 2016.

The famous Lychakiv cemetery represents the multi-ethnic community which disappeared in the 20^th century, but the only renowned musicians who were buried here are the two Ukrainians mentioned above: Krushelnitska and Lyudkevich.