Exhaustion

I have just been showing my parents round Kyiv. They gamely came out here for a long weekend after celebrating my father's 84th birthday. They wanted to see everything and they have left me quite exhausted.

Clearly they were fearing the worst - but they ended their trip absolutely delighted. It wan't just the sights - the Sophia Cathedral, the Andriyivsky Descent, the streets of Podil - though these of course went down well. Nor was it just the excellence of the concert at the Philharmonia or the opera (L'Elisir d'Amore with a world-class young local tenor, Dmitro Popov, as Nemorino). It was the overall atmosphere; compared, they said, to Krakow or St. Petersburg, the people were warm and friendly, the youngsters looked happy, they saw no signs of anti-social behaviour and the city, if in places a bit dilapidated, was generally clean. Above all they loved the architecture - the streets of late 19th century buildings with elaborate details, the amazing procession of Stalinist Gothic along the Khreshchatyk, the extraordinary creations of the architect Gorodetsky, the ensemble of (and the views from) the Pecherskaya Lavra. And whilst the weather was hot throughout, we also caught a spectacular thunderstorm,areal Kyiv special. Now if they could only improve the restaurants, and instal a few decent mid-price hotels, this could become one of the great destinations....despite the ongoing political and economic crises.

Culture shock

Following Jonathan's very succesful recital on Wednesday (see post below - one member of the audience sweetly e-mailed me 'it was nice and wonderful. I got a lot of positive emotions') Friday's got off to a challenging start, with the enormous 'Concord' Sonata of Charles Ives and the terrifying Concerto for solo piano no.4 of Michael Finnissy. Introducing the concert I tried to prepare the audience for what to expect, telling them to look out for the hymns, rag-time and Beethoven in the Ives, and comparing the Finnissy to 'extreme sport' and commending its exhilaration (Russian word 'voozdushevlyayushchii', quite exhilarating in itself).

The Ives went like a dream -the roller-coaster of the Finnissy was not too much inhibited by my failure to turn page 12 in time (a moment of high drama which I hope has been captured in Yuriy's video of the event). It really is a shocking - in the sense of electrifying - piece - like the jazz pianist Cecil Taylor on speed. The audience more than rose to the occasion and gave Jonathan rapturous applause, (though there were a few quitters at the interval, including T. who gave the diplomatic excuse that she had to relieve her baby-sitter).

Those who stayed on, including the great Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov (on the right in the picture above, with Jonathan after the recital), were treated to a magnificent second half which included music by Silvestrov himself (two serenades for solo violin beautifully performed by Sonia Suldina and a piece for violin and piano in memory of Tchaikovsky), and the heroic Symphony for solo piano of Alkan, one of the peaks of 19th-century romantic pianism. The audience left only after demanding two encores (Scriabin and Revutsky) with standing ovations.

An amazing and memorable evening which was subsequently celebrated, to the accompaniment of a good deal of vodka, at the highly commended 'Bundesbar' in Lysenko Street, including toasts to the British Alkan Society, who helped with sponsorship for this mini-tour.

Incidentally the location of the recital, the House of Actors (left), is itself a remarkable building - formerly the Kenesa (synagogue) of the Kyiv Karaites (a Jewish sect originating from the Crimea, none of whom alas seem to be left in the capital).

After 100 years.....

In 1910 the young English composer Arnold Bax was in Russia when he encountered a beautiful Ukrainian girl, Natalia Karginska. Infatuated, he pursued her to Kyiv. The affair ended unhappily, but it did inspire him to write his first piano sonata. On Wednesday, after nearly a hundred years, this piece of British/Ukrainian music got its first performance in the city where it was composed. The idea was that of my friend, the gifted pianist Jonathan Powell, who when he heard I was coming out here asked whether it might be possible to arrange a recital. With the aid of local musical maven Yuriy Suldin we actually fixed up two concerts - the first one on Wednesday, when, apart from the Bax, (which turns out to be truly passionate and ends with the bells of Kiev pealing in all registers of the piano), Jonathan also played Rachmaninoff, Schubert, the Ukrainian composer (and teacher of Horowitz) Felix Blumenfeld, and works by the contemporary British composer John White and by Powell himself. The audience response on Wednesday was highly enthusiastic if slightly stunned!

Tomorrow's concert is even more challenging, including music by Ives, Alkan, Finissy and Konstantin Silvestrov. The Ives 'Concord Sonata' and the Alkan 'Symphony for solo piano' are two of the peaks of the romantic repertoire, enormously demanding in technique and interpretation. For the Silvestrov, Jonathan will be joined by members of the Ukrainian string quartet PostScriptum. Michael Finnissy's 'Concerto for solo piano no.4', which has been claimed as the most difficult piece ever written for the instrument, is the musical equivalent of 'extreme sport' ....It will be a test to see whether the audience and/or the piano survive. Or whether I do, as I wil be turning the pages.....

Crossing the bar

Now for the next instalment of the enthralling saga of my attempts to cross the Slovak/Ukrainain border on foot (see this blog, March 22nd). Yes, I did say attempts, as I have tried again, in May, since I last reported to this blog. On this occassion I first took a look at the border at Cerny nad Tisou but this apparently can only be accessed via rail, and most of the time they seem to cancel the trains (which even when they are running go at unearthly hours such as 05.32 or 23.17). So back to the Uzhorod crossing where, once again blocked by the EU side as a pedestrian, I hitched a lift and crossed as a passenger of a very friendly Ukrainian who not only also gave me a brief guided tour of the town's historic sights, but refused to accept any payment. Many thanks, Ihor!

Today however I received astounding news. My excellent Euro MP (just reelected with a huge vote) Charles Tannock, took up my cause at the European Parliament and received the following response:

According to the information notified by Slovakia, there is no limitation on the use of the border crossing point at Vyšné Nemecké-Užhorod.

As far as local border traffic is concerned, Slovakia and the Ukraine have concluded a bilateral agreement on local border traffic in order to ease trade, social and cultural interchange and regional cooperation. The agreement is applicable to persons lawfully resident in the defined Slovak and Ukrainian border areas.

The Commission will address the Slovak authorities in order to receive clarifications concerning the reported restriction of use by pedestrians of the above-mentioned border crossing point.


That'll teach them all a lesson......

to the faithful......

As I now seem to have four (or is it three) followers, I suppose I must do my duty by them - but first, an explanation (or excuse) for my absence.

I have been transfixed by the slo-mo gory unfolding of British politics. Having in my time played a bit-part in this long running soap opera, I have not been at all suprprised by the expenses, the briefings, the backstabbings, etc. Been there and done that (and had it done to me), albeit at a local, not a national, level. But what has astonished me has been the utter incompetence of the various plotters involved in the Labour Party. Getting rid of a man at the top is hard work, particuallry when s/he holds so many of the necessary strings. In my day we spent weeks in advance canvassing, blackmailing, making promises etc. and staged the moment when we could bring it all into play. These tossers seem to have thought that all they had to do was come out in a tizzy, strike a pose and tell a sob-story to the press, and that everything would then simply fall into place. They just don't have a clue - once again King Log triumphs over King Stork.