BERLIN — Warm applause erupted as the musicians of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra took the stage on Tuesday night, and cheers erupted as the ensemble performed the Ukrainian national anthem. Conductor Hobart Earl’s introduction in German was met with applause.
But nothing was louder than the roar from the Philharmonic crowd when Earl switched to Ukrainian. The language being spoken in front of dozens of Ukrainian musicians in Western European capitals was a moving sign of Ukraine and its culture’s defiant survival in the face of a Russian war of aggression. (You can watch the concert here. mediathek.berlinerfestspiele.de until September 17th)
The Philharmonic Orchestra traces its modern history back to the 1930s, when it first performed in Berlin, led by an old friend. Born in Venezuela to American parents, Earl has been an orchestra conductor for 30 years. Recent long tenure.
“I never imagined I would be a music director for a long time,” Earl said in an interview the day before the concert. “Of course, I never intended to be a music director during the war.”
A program of works by Myroslav Skoryk, Mykola Lysenko, Alemdar Karamanov, and Sibelius gathered rapidly after Winrich Hopp, artistic director of the Berlin Festival (part of the Berlin Festival), contacted the orchestra in early July. rice field. Earl, who left Ukraine in February, returned to Odessa to rehearse with the ensemble, which had been largely silent for six months due to the war.
“I can’t wait to go back and put this orchestra back together,” he said.
With the Ukrainian government allowing male players to travel, military-age men are now barred from leaving the country, but performances could move forward. It failed to dilute the triumphant atmosphere of the scene, which Earle called “indomitable Odesan humor.”
“Any orchestra is a mirror of its city,” he said. “Odessa is well known in the former Soviet Union as the capital of humor. In difficult times, the ability to be flexible in the face of problems and live with a smile is very important.”
Below is an edited excerpt from our conversation.
What has happened to the orchestra and players in the last six months?
My last concert was on February 12th and the mood quickly went downhill. Why are they sounding such alarms? Maybe this will really happen. ” And, unplanned, played the overture to Lysenko’s great Ukrainian opera “Taras Bulba”.
After the war broke out, we didn’t know what would happen next. In 2014, after the invasion of Crimea, he did a flash mob of “Ode to Joy” at a fish market, again trying to get permission for sites around Odessa. But I couldn’t get permission.so we decided [to release online] It is the audio of the final movement of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Symphony No. 21, and is the last major piece performed before the pandemic. It is the kaddish he dedicated to the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto. We took the music and added images from the concert hall and the war, but also added images of Ukrainian life — like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, trying not to be terribly dark. .
Have you stayed in Odessa?
Some went abroad, others to villages in western Ukraine. We now have many split families – it’s very common and have wives and children overseas. I got
Some of the players were in civil defense units. One of our stagehands he was actually in the military. He had a concussion and high blood pressure and would be here if he didn’t take a vacation, but he was on the front line. Our principal clarinet is also in the military, but his current role is not combat. He helps the wounded and drives an ambulance. But they gave him leave to come with us.
How was your return to Ukraine?
It was pretty sad as the city has historically been one of the great cosmopolitan cities of Europe. It usually bursts during the summer and is now empty. But in the streets, restaurants and cafes, you can feel life coming back.
How was your initial connection with this orchestra?
I came to the USSR in 1990 from Vienna with a chamber orchestra. With this orchestra they were playing American music that was rarely played in Austria and Austrian music that was rarely played in America. And someone said that American programs should be brought to the Soviet Union. Most of us had never been there before.
One of them was in Odessa, where he was invited as a guest conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra. I came to him in April 1991 and did not speak a single word of Russian. I speak several Western European languages and English, but had no communication skills. This was the unknown world, the Iron Curtain. In an amazing twist of fate he had a violist from Cuba and I could speak Spanish with him and he was my translator and it all came out of there. Without it, I wouldn’t have had a real chance to continue.
Tell us about the program you brought to Berlin.
The basic idea was to focus on three composers. Let’s start with Skoryk — part of his 1965 Soviet film classic. “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” The work is called “Childhood”. Fun children’s music, very folklore, there is a lot of folklore in Ukrainian culture and history. The idea was to move directly from this children’s music to Lysenko’s elegies (new orchestra his version of piano pieces). And we dedicate this pairing to the children who have suffered so badly in this war.
When Karamonov Piano Concerto No.3?
Back in 1968, no one in the Soviet Union or Western Europe had written music like this. He was a Crimean Tatar Muslim, and his father had been exiled to Siberia, so in 1944 Karamanov was not in Crimea, but in Moscow with his mother.
He left avant-garde music and returned to Crimea, where this is one of the first works he wrote. It’s a very religious piece. Although he was a Muslim, he had a notable full-on Christian experience in the Soviet Union. He was very interested in jazz and all these forbidden things. It’s very introspective music. Here and there he feels the influence of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, but only for a moment. You can also feel the harmonies of these blues—there is a deep religious underpinning. And a totally unexpected and captivating ending: his words were, this is rain, mental rain.
And Sibelius?
Winrich Hopp said the orchestra should really shine. And I got to Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, which is rooted in patriotism. And I wanted to end with something bright. This music, a kind of narrative of this symphony, is what makes us feel differently during this war. This song has a lot of dark scenes, but that last movement…
Did the question of playing Russian music with an orchestra come up?
We played Shostakovich Five in Poland at the beginning of February and the music fit the atmosphere perfectly. I am often asked about Russian music. But Ukrainians just don’t want to hear it now and I think we need to respect that.
Were you able to explore Berlin during your stay?
Realized I haven’t been here since the wall came down! Discover the site of the former Philharmonic where the Berlin Philharmonic played. But it saddens me to be in Berlin now. It’s still a construction site. And it makes me wonder how many years it will take to rebuild Ukraine.