Herman Safonov, Helena Strogan. Berezovsky, Schubert, Ischenko.

The musicians' inherited talent, multiplied by their fantastic devotion to what they do, is enjoyed by many well-known Ukrainian composers: "The duo of H. Safonov and H. Strogan, - according to composer Stankovych, - is the highly-professional ensemble of musicians, who differ due to their rich culture, nice understanding of style and form, delicate test, capability of expression of wide imagination and emotional spectrum: from the finest lyricism to wild wide-open emotions..." The CD program contains compositions of sonata genre of three artistic ages – late baroque (M. Beresovsky), romanticism (F. Schubert) and contemporary polystyle (Ischenko). The artistic purpose of the CD program is the representation of national music in the context of the world culture, as its integral part and organic component. According to the Duo, all compositions are united by high spirituality of author's idea, going through the dramaturgic conceptual sonata forms on the first parts, further through the more genre-determined cantilena parts or variational final cycles. Comparison of sonata cycles of different historic ages – from XVIII century to the late XXC century – within one CD allows the audience comprehend evolution of the music language of the mankind, and at the same time acutely feel polarization and invariability of aesthetic and humanistic ideals of art.

V. Kuzyk, Doctor of Art

(information from the booklet to the CD)