VOICES FROM THE EAST
Breathing new life into music from eastern Europe
Breathing new life into music from eastern Europe
Breathing new life into music from eastern Europe
In a region spanning north-west of China in the east to Europe in the west, the unique roots of this music fuses into the Western symphonic tradition. Divided by dramatic mountainous regions and steppes, these works feature folk, sacred and secular elements of the distinct and fascinating countries, many of which were formerly of the Soviet Union. The region’s local composers — who were inspired in part by key figures of the period, including, Shostakovich, Khachaturian and Prokofiev — left us with brilliant examples of musical fusion between the traditions of their countries and the modern symphonic approach.
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Listen to the excerpt of Avet Terterian’s Symphony No. 3
Voices from the East series with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
With access to unpublished manuscripts not previously performed by western orchestras, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and its Chief Conductor Kirill Karabits have received critical acclaim for bringing to life a series of forgotten orchestral masterpieces from Ukraine and its surrounding regions.
In the late 20th-century the channel of distribution for contemporary classical music in eastern Europe changed dramatically. Karabits, the son of Ukrainian composer Ivan Karabits (1945-2002) , has made it his mission to source the orchestral gems that fell between the cracks and share this music with a wider audience.
The BSO’s Voices from the East series has so far included works from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Macedonia, Poland, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
Karabits and the BSO have shared Voices from the East symphonic works since 2009, in live concerts, live-streamed broadcasts, and recordings for the Chandos record label.
“Voices from the East” concert and recording series featured works by composers: Fyodor Akimenko (1876-1945); Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (1947-); Alexander Arutiunian (1920-2012); Reinhold Glière (1875-1956); Dmitry Kabalevsky (1984-1987); Ivan Karabits (1945-2002); Kara Karayev (1918-1982); Anna Korsun (1986-); Witold Lutosławski (1913-1994); Anatoly Lyadov (1855-1914); Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968); Thomas de Hartmann (1885-1956); Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912); Chary Nurymov (1940-1993); Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020); Pande Shahov (1973-); Rodion Shchedrin (1932-); Valentin Silvestrov (1937-); Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020); Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937); Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915); and Avet Terterian (1929-1994).
With Karabits’ unique personal insight and access to this music he now brings these manuscripts back to life with an Orchestra that has an understanding and affinity for this repertoire.
Explore the recent “Voices from the East” recordings on Chandos :
Kara Karayev (1918-1982)
Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968)
Avet Terterian (1929-1994)
“Voices from the East is a project that was born through the collaboration with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and my 15 year tenure as a chief conductor. The main reasons for it to happen were obvious – to diversify the symphonic repertoire and give our performances and recording projects a special identity, to reveal and champion some forgotten or completely unknown names and masterpieces of symphonic repertoire from the countries of central Asia (mainly post-Soviet states) and my native Ukraine.
When Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many of its’ former republics found themselves in a cultural vacuum and until nowadays still remain unknown and culturally isolated cultures. Born in the family of the noted Ukrainian composer Ivan Karabits (1945-2002) who beyond his life as a composer was the founder and artistic director of the festival “Kyiv Music Fest” – a major event of contemporary music in Ukraine until nowadays, I spent my childhood attending concerts of contemporary music from Ukraine and its’ neighbouring countries, witnessed live encounters with amazing composers and personalities which left a deep mark on my life and future professional career.
Today I decided to revive some of the amazing masterpieces of symphonic music from Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and give them a new life. This is music with deep meaning, it searches for identity and beauty and is all wrapped up within a musical language that fuses east and west. These are absolute orchestral masterpieces that deserve to be known.”
Kirill Karabits
In November 2023, BBC Radio 3 announced a series of 3 programs “Journey to the East”
Voices From The East Festival at the Southbank Centre in London:
“Enlightening exploration of music beyond the West…“
