After rehearsals interrupted by air raids, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine embarks on UK tour

Amidst the din of war, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (NSOU) has spent recent weeks valiantly rehearsing for its first tour of the UK since 2001. ‘The biggest challenge we have faced is from air alarms interrupting our rehearsals,’ says the orchestra’s managing director and producer Alexander Hornostai. ‘There are several alarms per day, and we have to take shelter every time.’

Such courage has characterised the NSOU since its formation in 1918 at the height of the Ukrainian-Soviet War, which followed hot on the heels of the Russian Revolution. Shortly after the end of that conflict in 1921 Ukraine was subsumed into the USSR and the NSOU fell under the jurisdiction of the Soviet People’s Commissariat of Education.

During the Second World War, the NSOU played an important morale-boosting role by performing behind the lines for military units, hospitals and recruiting centres. When Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the NSOU was the first orchestra to perform in concerts marking this milestone. ‘Under all governments, the orchestra has always remained the first symphonic collective of Ukraine’, says Hornostai.

The NSOU briefly suspended operations when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, but resumed rehearsals and performances two months later. The orchestra is based at Kyiv’s Lysenko Column Concert Hall, where concert audiences are restricted to just 150 people so, when performances are interrupted by air raid sirens, the audience, orchestra members and building staff can move underground to the Hall’s 200-person air raid shelter

The NSOU’s UK tour opens tomorrow (17 October) and runs for three weeks, visiting 17 venues up and down the country. It will be led by NSOU artistic director and chief conductor Volodymyr Sirenko, whose programming features two rarely heard masterworks by the Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968).

Lyatoshynsky’s stirring symphonic poem Grazhyna was written in 1955 to mark the centenary of the death of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. Based on Mickiewicz’s poem of the same name, it tells the story of a 12th-century Lithuanian noblewoman who died leading her people into battle against Catholic crusaders. Compared with the tuneful heroism of Grazhyna, Lyatoshynsky’s Second Symphony is a tougher, more astringent work that depicts the reality of Soviet life. Following the work’s premiere in 1948 it was denounced as ‘anti-national’ and ‘formalist’ by the Central Committee of the Communist Party, which stated: ‘This is a disharmonious work, cluttered with unjustified thunderous sounds that depress the listener, and in terms of melody the symphony is poor and colourless.’

Sirenko chose these pieces because they are ‘characteristic symphonic works of Lyatoshynsky – a composer of the European level. His music stands alongside the best representatives of national composer schools such as Sibelius, Szymanowski, Bartók and Janáček.’

Contrary to the view of Lyatoshynsky’s Second Symphony held by the Soviet authorities, Sirenko hails the work’s ‘textural saturation and drama’. Its musical language, he explains, reflects ‘the influences of Mahler and Wagner on the one hand, and French impressionism and Slavic melodism on the other.’

Despite only seven years separating the symphony from Grazhyna, Sirenko says their stylistic differences are due to the ‘”democratisation" of Lyatoshynsky’s musical language resulting from ideological pressure.’ Performances of the symphony were banned after its premiere, prompting Lyatoshynsky to write: ‘As a composer, I am dead, and I do not know when I will be resurrected.’

Programming these works for the NSOU’s UK tour is a clear display of Ukrainian resilience in the face of Russian domination. Other repertoire being presented on the tour also celebrates nationalism and heroism: Sibelius’s First Symphony and Finlandia, the latter written in 1899 as a covert protest against censorship by the Russian Empire; Liszt’s Mazeppa, based on a story about a Ukrainian nobleman condemned to death by the King of Poland, but who lives to lead his people to victory in war; and Richard Strauss’s heroic showpieces Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben. The line-up is completed by Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 and Bruch’s First Violin Concerto with Ukrainian soloists Antonii Baryshevsky and Oleksii Semenenko.

Hornostai says the aim of the tour is ‘to demonstrate our skill, presenting Ukraine to the world in a cultural sense’. The NSOU has chosen to visit the UK because ‘Great Britain is one of the countries that is helping Ukraine the most in this war’. An online crowdfunding appeal, currently at just over £1,000, is running alongside the tour has a target of £24,000 to support the musicians and their families.

Most of the 98 NSOU members have remained in Kyiv, and with all men aged 18-60 conscripted to fight, two members are currently conscripted to the Ukraine military. Sirenko says: ‘Almost all the orchestra musicians have relatives and friends who are fighting in the war. Two of our musicians have been mobilised and are serving in the ranks of Ukraine’s armed forces. We are living and working under constant stress, so bow down to those at the front protecting us.’

You can donate to the NSOU’s JustGiving appeal here.

NSOU UK Tour 2023
17 October - Bath Forum
18 October - Croydon Fairfield Halls
19 October - London Cadogan Hall
20 October - Guildford G Live
21 October - Basingstoke The Anvil
24 October - Birmingham Symphony Hall
25 October - Cambridge Corn Exchange
26 October - Bradford St George’s Hall
27 October - Manchester Bridgewater Hall
28 October - Perth Concert Hall
29 October - Edinburgh Usher Hall
31 October - Middlesbrough Town Hall
2 November - Sheffield City Hall
3 November - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
4 November - Nottingham Royal Concert Hall
5 November - Norwich Theatre Royal