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UKRAINIAN WATERCOLORS – 20 TH ANNIVERSARY. D.D. SHOSTAKOVICH »
"Be courageous, Dmitri Dmitrievich. Preserve, above all, your clear mind and health amidst this all.
Remember, that even if there had been a shade of truth behind that all, it is not our business to stretch our wits, and break and spoil the best in ourselves, which nature gave a person at birth.
May you with calm and joy accept what you might face on your way, and may your great future help you from faraway.
22 April 1948"
Yours, B.Pasterak
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It is not by chance that we have decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "The Ukrainian Watercolors" preparing such a profound philosophical program, which includes the Music by Dmitri Shostakovich. His music, which truly represents an epoch in the world culture, is by no means an aesthete's attraction, an entertainment of the day. It stirs our souls and hearts, addresses the mind. The eternal contents of his works is the question of the essence of being; how we live and pass away; what we leave after ourselves. These issues have been conceptually important both for the audiences and the performers over several generations.
This is the impression that the violin sonata, to David Oistrakh produces on the audience. In this work Shostakovich reveals the integral, though controversial, features of the Slavic soul. The first movement resembles a chronicle of the past centuries, in which contemplation and introspection are followed by unrestricted audacity, vigor and power. 
The Second Piano Trio (op.67), dedicated to the memory of Sollertinsky, is absolutely different with a bitter-sweet, Jewish themed totentanz finale. Written in 1944, when the war had not ended yet, the trio is closely connected with the Seventh Symphony, the Eighth Quartet, the Second Piano Sonata - the works full of protest, pain, despair of violence and the clear, wise willpower of the Great Creator.
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A special place in our program is devoted to a vocal chamber cycle "The Satires (Pictures from the Past)". In one of his interviews the composer wrote: " : Joy is not foreign to me. I have written five satirical romances based on a poem of Sasha Cherny, a pre-revolutionary satirical poet. : Sasha Cherny with great sarcasm depicts people who want to wrap themselves in mysticism, in their narrow, personal small world."
Of course, Shostakovich, the genius of art and intellect of the 20th century, greatly influenced the entire world of music.  After his death a constellation of talented composers created musical offerings to the subject of Shostakovich's musical monogram DSCH, which stand for his initials (when transcribed in German "Schostakowitsch), and also corresponds to the notes Do - Mi-Bemole - Do - Ti". Young talented Ukrainian composers of the 1960s made no exception. In 1982 the leaders of the Ukrainian school of composition, V.Bibik, Y.Ishchenko, G.Lyashenko, M.Skorik, V,Guba, L. Dychko, S.Silvestrov, wrote - at the request of "The Ukrainian Watercolors" - a brilliant cycle of chamber miniatures, where each of them expressed his own perception of Dmitri Shostakovich's personality. The cycle was first performed exactly 20 years ago at St.Adrew's Church and became a significant event in the concert life in Kiev. 20 years later we, a new generation of musicians, are bringing back to life the masterpieces of Ukrainian culture.
doctor of Arts
Anna Seredenko
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