The halls are alive (with the sound of music!)

                How could you possibly pass up the opportunity to hear a Ukrainian musician perform Mozart on 

an accordion?

Philharmonic Hall, waiting for the big show.

Well, maybe you could – but we couldn’t, which is why we hoofed it over to Kyiv’s Philharmonic Hall for a concert titled: “Buttons, Buttons….”

It was a reference to the bayan, a Russian version of a chromatic button accordion, and the concert was a tribute to (and very much with) bayanist Sergiy Grinchenko, in honor of his “60^th anniversary of birth and 40^th anniversary of creative activity.”

There were big old button accordions everywhere! And small ones, squeeze-boxes, as well. In the hands of the master, of course, throughout the

Posters of his past shows in the lobby.

evening, but also performed by virtuoso players from Ukraine, as well as a boy from Kazakhstan who couldn’t have been older than 15. They played classical. They played traditional. They pulled sounds and emotions out of those big boxes that we would not have thought possible.

And more: There were folk dancers and singers and bands. There were endless versions of the balalaika (or related instruments) – tiny ones with almost a banjo-like sound; a giant bass with a triangular body measuring at least four feet on a side and with just four strings; another with at least 30 strings. There were percussion instruments large and small, clappers and gongs and cymbals and various rattling devices. A violinist threw herself into a passionate folk melody, her long hair flying over her brightly colored clothes as she tossed her head.

There were speeches throughout, by (we think) various professors and others to attest to Sergiy’s great accomplishments; one band sang its tribute, and one musician offered his in a poem. And after nearly every musical number someone in the audience fought their way to the aisle and rushed up to the stage bearing a bouquet, until the

Alas, no photos allowed during the show. But here is Sergiy (in
the black shirt), after the concert, with a few of his flowers.

stage resembled a Costco florist section where everything had fallen on the floor.

All of this contributed to the length of the show, 2 ½ hours, and we were beginning to wonder if it might never end, when it finally suddenly did. It could have been a bit shorter for our tastes (or perhaps it would have helped if we understood more than a word or two of the language), but it was a wonderful evening – and a full house, with a very enthusiastic audience.

This will be our final cultural event of this relatively short trip, and it made me think: If we were to assign a theme name to 2013, Theresa and I could make a good case for this: “The Year of Eclectic Music Performances in Grand Halls All Over the Place.” In fact, this has been one of our favorite things about the year, and one of the great side benefits of our travels.

                In addition to the bayan extravaganza, we have been fortunate enough to enjoy, among others:

• Operatic duets in the intimate chandeliered lobby of Sarajevo’s National Theatre, not to mention, in the elegant main hall (which never stopped holding performances throughout the bombardments of the siege), Carmina Burana (with a chorus of more than 250) and a spirited performance of “Brilliantin” (“Grease”!) by music students…dressed in 1950s American gear, singing in English and speaking their dialogue in Bosnian.
• Highly improbably, Bonnie Raitt belting it out from the stage of the tall, slender, wedding-cake grandeur of the Vienna State Opera House.
• Peter Brooks’ reimagining of Mozart, in his “A Magic Flute” in Llubjana, Slovenia.
• The spectacle of Die Walkure as part of Seattle Opera’s periodic production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle

  

  Bill, bemused by the program of events at the Opera House.
   Can you spell any of them out?

  in McCaw Hall.
• And now, in Kyiv – at the National Opera House, Madame Butterfly (Ukrainians, dressed as Japanese, singing in Italian), and later a more culturally pure production, Natalka Poltovka, with traditional Ukrainian costumes and spirited dancing.

Eight months, five countries, six different halls, well over a dozen events. Tickets have been $20 or less for most of the performances, approaching ten times that for Bonnie and the Valkyries. And with all these shows, there has hardly been a dud in the lot.

Interior of Kyiv National Opera House

If we were to point to one thing that has impressed us the most, it would probably be the remarkable passion for music, and for culture in general, that we have seen in the audiences in Bosnia and in Ukraine. We were amazed in Sarajevo that every week, there would be at least three or four attractive events to choose from; and then we came to Kyiv, where there may be that many events in a single night, and there’s not a single day – including weekdays – without something going on in the way of classical music, ballet, or theater. (Four performances per day on weekends at the Puppet Theater, for goodness’ sake!)

But even more: In both cities, the audiences aren’t dominated by people our age, as is usually the case at home. Whether it’s because of the extremely affordable prices or the society’s values, all of these audiences have an even mix of young people in their 20s or 30s. And most remarkably, to us, there are also significant numbers of children attending every performance, including the operatic duets where we all sat on straight-backed chairs, barely 10 feet away from the singers.

                Yes, the seats can be hard and uncomfortable, and maybe some of the performances lack a certain level of sophistication (although the musicality is generally top-notch). But these shows will be some of our fondest memories. I mean – if you haven’t heard Mozart on the button accordion, you haven’t heard Mozart.