Vasyl barvinsky biography

– 9 June 1963) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, musicologist, and music related social figure.
Composer, pianist, and musicologist; son of Oleksander Barvinsky and brother of Bohdan Barvinsky.
Ukrainian composer, pianist, music critic, teacher, conductor, organizer of musical life.

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Barvinsky Vasyl Oleksandrovych

Ukrainian composer, pianist, music critic, teacher, conductor, organizer of musical life. A prominent representative of Ukrainian musical culture of the 20th century. A leading figure of the Union of Ukrainian Professional Musicians.

Son of Oleksandr and Evgenia Barvinskyi, brother of Bohdan Barvinskyi, son-in-law of physicist Ivan Pulyuy. Doctor of Art Studies (1940), honorary doctor of the Ukrainian University in Prague (1938).

Biography

He was born on February 20, 1888 in the city of Ternopil (Kingdom of Galicia and Volodymyr, Austria-Hungary, now Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine).

The Barvinski family is one of the oldest in Ukraine, originating from the village of Periwinkle near Dukli (Korosno district). The Barvinskys were famous figures of Ukrainian culture. The composer's great-grandfather Martyn was the rector of Lviv University in the 1830s, his uncles contributed to Ukrainian culture: Volodymyr was the founder of the most influential Ukrainian newspaper "Dilo" (Lviv), Ostap was the author of historical dramas.

The father of the future com

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Vasily Barvinsky, Elegy in g minor for String Quartet

We are pleased to present the Elegy for String Quartet in g minor by the Ukrainian composer Vasily (Vasyl) Barvinsky (1888-1963). He was born in the Ukrainian city of Ternopil (then known as Tarnopol and part of the Austrian-Habsburg Empire). He studied piano, and composition at the Lyiv Conservatory and afterward in Prague with Vizeslav Novak. He pursued a career as a composer and teacher, eventually becoming a professor at the Lyiv Conservatory. His music, occasionally shows the influence of Impressionism, but often relies on Ukrainian folk melodies. Minimalism also attracted him. He was not a prolific composer and chamber music is not a large part of his oeuvre. Thanks to the Stalinist regime Barvinsky was arrested sentenced to ten years of imprisonment in 1948. He was forced to sign a document agreeing to the destruction of his manuscripts most of which were subsequently destroyed. Upon his release in 1958, he spent the rest of his life trying to reconstruct from memory the works which had been destroyed or lost.

The E

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As a music lover, I am most saddened when I hear about musicians, be they composers or performers, who have suffered at the hands of regimes which cannot tolerate dissent of any kind and thus betray their own vulnerability. History is unfortunately full of examples, among which the composer of the music on this disc is but another. At one time, Vasyl Barvinsky was the principal representative of 20th century Ukrainian music and was renowned throughout Europe. He was a trailblazer in the music of his native country, composing the very first cycle of piano preludes, the first piano sonata, the first sonata for cello and the first sextet in all Ukrainian music. As history has shown, it was easy to fall foul of totalitarian regimes which saw enemies everywhere. Guilt by extension was a common theme, so the fact that one of Vasyl Barvinsky’s brothers was a doctor with the infamous Galicia (Galizia) division was sufficient to ensnare the composer as well. Pianist Violina Petrychenko, who also wrote the notes, omits to explain that this division was formed at the behest of Heinrich Himml