Dalia Stasevska shines a light on Ukraine's neglected composers on new album
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Ukrainians fear that if Russia is successful in its campaign to take over the country, that Ukrainian culture will be eliminated. Dalia Stasevska was raised in Finland, but her Ukrainian father and grandmother taught her about their heritage and their music. Stasevska grew up to become one of the hottest names in the world of conducting. She's currently the principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and during her rise, she noticed something.
DALIA STASEVSKA: The absence of Ukrainian classical music on the concert stages and also how little there was recorded music by Ukrainian composers. So I really thought that we need to change this.
MARTÍNEZ: Stasevska's new album is called "Ukrainian Mixtape." It features the works of four Ukrainian composers, seldom heard in the West.
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "GRAZHYNA, OP. 58: NO. 2, FIGURE 6. ALLEGRO RISOLUTO")
MARTÍNEZ: This one's from the 1950s by composer Borys Lyatoshynsky. Stasevska says that even Ukrainians don't know some of this music.
STASEVSKA: And, of course, this is all due to the extremely tragic Ukrainian history, 350 years under Russian imperialism, where they systematically tried to destroy Ukrainian culture. So all the composers on this album also - they were not supported. They were not professionally published, so they didn't really have a chance to be known.
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "GRAZHYNA, OP. 58: NO. 2, FIGURE 6. ALLEGRO RISOLUTO")
STASEVSKA: So I thought, why don't I make, like, a small window introduction into a larger world to really find, like, hits only? If I can say like that.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
STASEVSKA: Short pieces that would have that immediate appeal to you that would show really wide range of music. You can, like, playlist them and share with friends. So I think that this works like a steppingstone, and when we get people excited, their interest will grow, and then this journey can continue. And maybe the next album that I will make, it will be even larger.
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "KOLODUB: SOLEMN OVERTURE")
MARTÍNEZ: The album starts with a very rousing piece, a call to action, almost, very cinematic. So let's hear Lev Kolodub's "Solemn Overture."
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "KOLODUB: SOLEMN OVERTURE")
MARTÍNEZ: So, Dalia, I hope you take this in the way that I mean it as a compliment, but that sounded a little like maybe a John Williams "Star Wars" theme kind of grand entrance.
STASEVSKA: I completely agree.
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
STASEVSKA: I completely agree. When I saw this music on the paper, and this, by the way, is premiere recording of it.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
STASEVSKA: I thought that, wow. It's so cinematic and so...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
STASEVSKA: The - even the ending of the piece, it could be ending of any Hollywood movie. You know, it really blew my mind. And, of course, when I heard it for the first time in rehearsals, everybody was just like, wow, why haven't we heard about this piece? You know, it makes such a tremendous opener to any concert or a finishing piece.
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "KOLODUB: SOLEMN OVERTURE")
MARTÍNEZ: Now, how did you choose which composers to include?
STASEVSKA: It took me over a year to put these five pieces together. I have great friends and partners in the city of Lviv, in Lviv (ph) Orchestra, and they put me together with one musicologist. Now I have to again underline that most of the Ukrainian composers were not professionally published. So it might take sometimes even, like, half year to find where the music is. It might be with a family. It might be at some philharmonie, or it might be abroad somewhere. So there was a lot of research done. And then when I listened and looked through many pieces, somehow, I started to realize what kind of styles I wanted. So I have, like, slow pieces with more depth and lighter ones.
MARTÍNEZ: Why do you think they were, in some ways, neglected in the West, or were they even maybe neglected in Ukraine as well?
STASEVSKA: Well, they couldn't get out. They were not promoted. So many of Ukrainian composers died in prisons, or then they were imprisoned for 20 years, and, you know, the person who came out of prison was not human anymore. So...
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
STASEVSKA: ...There's a lot of horrible stories. For example, Mykola Lysenko with Taras Bulba on this recording. He never heard his opera fully performed because he stood by the idea that this is Ukrainian opera. This is a Ukrainian story, and it has to be performed in Ukrainian language, and the Russian imperialism forbid it.
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "TARAS BULBA: OVERTURE")
STASEVSKA: After Ukrainian independence in '91, there were so many problems coming out of this 350 years of occupation. If you just, like, stop and think about it, you know, when you are 350 years told that you are not a real nation, that you are just some village people, you are nothing. There is no Ukrainian culture. And now it's finally allowed. It takes time, and we can be all part of that, you know, helping them. I hope that this recording is part of that, that the Ukrainians can stand even taller and giving them voice and giving them spotlight and limelight that they really deserve.
MARTÍNEZ: That is Dalia Stasevska. She is the principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her new album is called "Ukrainian Mixtape." Dalia, thank you.
STASEVSKA: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF DALIA STASEVSKA AND BBC SYMPHONY'S "TARAS BULBA: OVERTURE")
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