Svyatoslav Lunyov

Zehn Stücke

UCMF 2020 · Composers' Roundtable · Mar 1 · 2008 · Chamber

ensemble piece written for MusicFabrik, 2008

Performed by Adrienne Munden-Dixon (Violin), Carrie Frey (Viola), Helen Newby (Cello), Margarita Rovenskaya (Piano), Erin Lensing (Oboe), Gleb Kanasevich (Clarinet)

Zehn Stücke by Svyatoslav Lunyov were written for the ensemble MusikFabrik in 2008. Inspired by the German performers, Lunyov writes “Stücke”: he liked to find a word that meant just numerals. Not pieces, not etudes — this is a product of a music factory, a “production line,” that cannot be defined as a music genre. Each Stück gets its own title (in no particular order): soft [Stück], easy, weak, sharp, hard, warm, tearful, marble, rusty. The last (zehnte) Stück — “dirty chastooshkas” — is a fragment of the composer’s opera Moscow-Petushki, which has not yet been performed.

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New Russian Dances

UCMF 2020 · Music and Revolution in Ukraine · Feb 29 · Piano

duo piano, performed by Shelest Piano Duo

Performed by Shelest Piano Duo (Duo piano)

New Russian Dances by Svyatoslav Lunyov is a cycle of pieces for duo piano. As a real dance music, this cycle represents a series of dashing, brave movements — a loud and flashy street music on a broken piano with no particular subtext, even if the listener wants to assign it there by all means.

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From Fierce January

UCMF 2025 · From Kontraktova Square · Mar 14 · 2023 · Vocal

A song cycle to Ukrainian poets

Performed by Diana Ziabchenko (Mezzo-soprano), Pavel Gintov (Piano)

The cycle of 35 songs based on the texts of Ukrainian poets was commissioned by pianist Antoniy Baryshevsky and soprano Victoria Vitrenko and completed in the spring of 2023. “Ukrainian poetry is the gene pool of the genocide of the Ukrainian people… The gene of resistance embedded in Ukrainian poetry makes it a mirror of the relationship with the regime over the past 120+ years.” Yet none of this is exploited in Lunyov’s songs: the music is full of unexpected contrast — sometimes ironic, sometimes even cheerful and light, “a bit inappropriate… something that cannot be in times of war.” Among the poets, Vasyl Stus is a symbol of the indomitability of the Ukrainian people; Neborak is ironic and grotesque, a member of the Bu-Ba-Bu group; Malkovych is a piercingly ironic lyricist full of religious motifs.

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Excerpts from The Noel Consort

Notes from Ukraine · Carnegie Hall · Dec 4, 2022 · Choral

Ding Dong Merrily on High · It Came Upon the Midnight Clear · Silent Night · O Come All Ye Faithful · God Rest Ye Merry Gentlefolk

Performed by The Choir of Trinity Wall Street (Choir), Daniela Candillari (Conductor)