Volodymyr Zahortsev

String Quartet No. 1

UCMF 2021 · The Kyiv Avant-Garde · Mar 6 · 1967 · Chamber

also titled “Music for Strings”, performed by the Mivos Quartet

Performed by Mivos Quartet (String quartet)

The String Quartet No.1 (also titled Music for Strings) was composed around the time when Zahortsev worked on his most significant compositions — Rhythms (1967-1969) for piano and Symphonic Gradations (1966). The latter was performed by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta in 1980. Virko Baley described the composer’s early style in the following way: “Structural extreme can be clearly seen in Zahortsev’s desire to at times organize pitch, rhythms, dynamics and timbre according to the principles of total serialism. The emotional extreme is apparent in his fondness for aleatory devices that create an ecstatic and transcendental effect that undermines the formalistic elements in his style.” This statement can certainly be applied to String Quartet No.1, as the score includes a wide range of extended techniques and aleatory, along with structured passages.

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Volumes

UCMF 2023 · Inspirations · Mar 17 · 1965 · Chamber

Performed by Gleb Kanasevich (Clarinet), Melissa Muñoz (Trumpet), Vladyslav Dovhan (Tenor saxophone), Andrii Didorenko (Violin), Yuliya Basis (Piano), James Baker (Conductor)

Volumes was written in 1965 when Volodymyr Zahortsev was a third-year student at the Kyiv Conservatory. According to Zahortsev’s memoirs, Liatoshynsky valued it highly, saying, “I have nothing left to teach you.” One of the first of Zahortsev’s works to use serial techniques, it is a compact three-part cycle lasting close to four minutes. Soon after its composition it found success abroad when the American pianist and harpsichordist Joel Spiegelman took scores from the USSR for foreign promotion, leading to a premiere on 14 May 1967 at the Music Biennale Zagreb (conducted by Igor Gjadrov) and a New York performance days later at the festival “New Chamber Music of the USSR” at Sarah Lawrence College, alongside Sylvestrov, Hrabovsky, Volkonsky and Denisov. The Kyiv premiere came only in 1980. Its performance at UCMF marks its return to the public and only the second New York performance since its American premiere almost 56 years ago. (Written by Alex Voytenko)

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