Mykola Kolessa. Selected works. Part 1.

You have already had the chance to listen to some compositions of Mykola Kolessa performed by the choir “Trembita”. Now we suggest you a series of three compact-discs on which selected compositions of this great Ukrainian composer are recorded. This disc is dedicated to 100 anniversary of his birthday. The compositions are performed by different performers: the Symphony Orchestra of Lviv Regional Philharmonic Society, the Kyiv Chamber Choir, the Mykola Lysenko String Quartet and the Merited Choir of Ukraine “Trembita”. This fact itself says about great popularity and fame of Mykola Kolessa as a composer. By the way, on the first compact he himself is a conductor of the orchestra. The covers of the compacts contain enough information on the peculiarities of the composer’s creative life given by art experts. As for me, I am an average listener, that is why I listen simply. And I hear and feel that this music has deep and well-developed Ukrainian roots, it originates from those times when the only musical instrument of people was their own voice. In this case this voice at last started to sing in Ukrainian (by the way, Mykola Kolessa introduced additional musical instruments into the orchestra in order to achieve the sounding of folk hutsul instruments and ensemble). But as for me, thanks exactly to such immersion into own roots, the music of Mykola Kolessa gets the scope and the meaning which go beyond geographical and national borders. After all, the deeper inside you look, the less grounds for borders appear. This music becomes the world one, as it depicts pictures and feelings understandable in any part of our planet. Isn’t it the main thing for a composer?