Audiences at this summer’s Copenhagen Summer Festival were treated to a masterful performance of Stanislav Lyudkevich’s Violin Sonata in A Minor by violinist Natalia Gordeyeva and pianist Violina Petrychenko. Lyudkevich pulls his main theme through different keys and tempos across three movements in this beautiful 1966 composition. He draws on folk themes throughout, providing ample opportunity for the performers to display their virtuosity. Like much of the Ukrainian classical canon, this sonata deserves more widespread attention by performers and audiences than it has received to date. This summer’s Danish audience expressed its enchantment with enthusiastic applause.

Lydkevych was born in Habsburgian Poland in 1879 and studied Ukrainian philology at Lviv University. Simultaneously, he explored musical theory with his pianist mother as well as Oleksandr von Zemlinsky in Vienna and Mieczysław Sołtys in Lviv. He taught Ukrainian and Latin languages before helping create a university-level conservatory in Lviv. He would remain at that school for the rest of his career, even as the city transferred from Austrian and Polish rule to German occupation and then Soviet control. 

He gained as much fame for his editing of general reference works in Ukrainian as for his music, but he is perhaps best known now for his large-scale symphonic works, including “Caucasus,” based on the poem of the same name by Ukrainian bard Taras Shevchenko. This work earned him a State Prize in 1964. He was named People’s Artist of the USSR in 1969. His Soviet-era success occurred despite his having refused to condemn fellow composer Vasyl Barvinskyi in 1948 following that composer’s arrest and sentencing to the gulag. Lydkevych died at 100, in 1979. 

This summer’s performance is one among many bringing attention to Ukrainian classical music. The Copenhagen festival, which began in 1969, is noteworthy for promoting chamber music and upcoming talent. Attracting many high-profile musicians, this performance offered an opportunity for Lydkevych’s work to gain recognition among a wider classical community.

Violinist Gordeyeva and pianist Petrychenko belong to a generation of dazzling Ukrainian classical performers who have emerged since independence. Gordeyeva began performing in her native Kyiv during the 1990s at the age of seven. She appeared before concert audiences in Ukraine and across Europe as a rising protégé. Gordeyeva returned to Kyiv in 2014 to establish a private music school and enjoyed success promoting Ukrainian classical music at home and abroad. She moved to Denmark, where she is a top-level performer, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Petrychenko grew up in a musical family in Zaporizhzhia, winning the prestigious Prokofiev International Piano competition during the 1990s at the age of 12. Her successes took her to Kyiv for more specialized training, and on to further studies in Germany. She has drawn on her success as a composer and performer to promote Ukrainian music. Her 2015 solo album, Ukrainian Moods, garnered widespread praise. She is best known for promoting Barvinsky’s piano works, which were largely unknown in Europe. In 2023, she established the annual Sounds of Ukraine music festival in Germany to showcase Ukrainian music. 

Gordeyeva and Petrychenko represent a generation of increasingly established classical musicians who appear in concert halls across Europe, North America, and Asia. Musicians and audiences recognize their talent and seek out their performances. In turn, these artists are drawing on their recognition to promote the classical repertoire that emerged from Ukraine across a century of turmoil. In doing so, they expand recognition for Ukraine’s artistry and enrich the global classical repertoire with works too long ignored. 

The opinions expressed in this article are those solely of the author and do not reflect the views of the Kennan Institute.