One of the musical success stories of the post-Soviet countries has been Hobart Earle’s association with Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducting it first in 1991, he was almost immediately appointed Musical Director, and forthwith set about making it widely known, sometimes by means that must have mildly surprised the players, using his energies and his international contacts to give the orchestra what is now a world-wide reputation. The city is not short on musical tradition, and among the rich mix of peoples giving it “a raucous, parvenu brilliance” (in Neil Ascherson’s memorable description in Black Sea) is a Jewish population that has produced David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein and the Menuhin ancestors. No wonder the strings sound good on this record.
It is an act of pietas. Now in his nineties, Mykola Kolessa is a Ukrainian father figure who has done much to lead and promote his country’s musical life. In Prague, he was a pupil of Novak; and at any rate as far as the symphony is concerned, it is in this manner that he composes. He scores well, and can produce atmospheric music to justify the mood titles he apparently felt obliged to add to the four movements, but he is much inclined to fall back on the loving reiteration of simple melodic phrases without really developing them symphonically. This appeal to national feeling, treating local ideas and scenes and traditions almost iconically, also makes the Hutsul Triptych and Carpathian Concerto of his pupil Myroslav Skoryk. Here, though, the characteristics of folk instruments and local rhythmic traits are retained, with some use of shifting rhythms and rather more original harmonies. This gesture to Kolessa and what he has maintained in Ukrainian musical life is wholly understandable and sympathetic. It will be interesting to see what comes next.'