The young Olha Stukalova (23 years old), flutist of the Kyiv Symphony, maintains a serenity that seems on the verge of disaster. Since she left her country for Berlin in March, she has lived trying not to be obsessed with the possibility of never seeing her parents again. When she joined the exiled state orchestra, which has been based in Gera, a city in eastern Germany since June, she lives containing emotion at every concert. Like those three that she has celebrated in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Tenerife to close the 39th Canary Islands Music Festival.
“It is a magnificent opportunity for each of us, not only as a musical institution, but to fulfill our civic duty as Ukrainians. Just the fact that we can defend a heritage such as the Peace Wins War Symphony, by Boris Liatoshinski, is something that gives me goosebumps. I think the message is very strong, ”she says sitting in the hall of a hotel in Las Palmas. The version they play of this piece premiered in 1951 to commemorate the October revolution includes the original ending that Stalin forced to change. He seemed unbearably pacifist to her.
The three concerts of this Symphony are part of the sixty that have passed through the eight islands of the archipelago: the Bamberg Symphony and other great orchestras, outstanding conductors and top soloists, such as the Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, who was moved playing at the Theater Circo de Marte de La Palma, a wooden room for 400 people.
And yet, the Canarian festival, which in the post-pandemic period has exceeded public expectations – and already has a budget of 2.7 million euros, the support of the Canarian government, aid from Inaem and 35% of the total collected in box office–, bet for its closing by that of Kyiv.
“This is not about the war or whether it was Russia or Ukraine, this is a tribute to the musicians. And it will be very emotional”, says Jorge Perdigón, director of the event, in the hall of the Alfredo Kraus auditorium in Las Palmas. Leaning on one of the waves of the sea –designed by Oscar Tusquets for the bar counter–, he indicates that it seems to him the best option so that the Canary Islands can have a detail with Ukraine. “In the 21st century, festivals are going to be different, we have to be with society, there must be something more than the great substance of musical geniuses”, he points out.
Genoese Luigi Gaggero has led the Kyiv band since he was invited to conduct the orchestra in 2020. "What struck me was the audience," says this sensitive southerner who has fused Western analytical attitude with sensual Ukrainian musicianship. “I felt that for the first time I was in front of people who were expecting the essential message of the music. They had not come to listen to an ornament, but to the heart of the matter, life and death. Ukraine was fresh air – he continues -. With these musicians it is no longer a question of how to make music but why. The tragedy of our society is that people are so focused on technique that they will never get to the essence.
The program that they bring to the Canary Islands is entirely Ukrainian: they open with a Baroque symphony by Maxim Berezovski, who was a student of Martini's father, who was also a teacher of Mozart; then the harpist of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic, Catrin Mair Williams, enters the scene for a Concert by Reinhold Glière, who was Prokofiev's teacher. And finally, the Slavic contrasts of Liatoshinski sound, which raise the closed applause in the room.
Among the attendees, there are a hundred Ukrainian refugees with a serious face. Some are pro-Russians, so in the event of a conflict uniformed and plainclothes police have been provided. When at the end and in no way triumphantly the Ukrainian anthem sounds, a couple of flags appear among the public and Jerónimo Saavedra, former president of the Canary Islands, rises at 86 years old making the rest follow him.
The Kyiv musicians left their country almost a year ago, thinking of returning soon. His room had become a military objective of the invading Russia. Now they are an itinerant speaker of the pain of a country and its culture. Stukalova, for her part, had already done it weeks before... “I left aware that if I wanted to develop professionally and be useful as a Ukrainian voice, there was no point in staying there, depressed, in a fetal position and unable to practice. I understood that to have an impact I had to go abroad and continue studying. But there are times when a feeling of guilt gnaws at me. It's irrational, but you feel like you've abandoned your family and friends to try to build a life outside."
Luckily, traveling from Berlin to Gera for rehearsals “is like landing in a little Ukraine”. “We follow the news so closely that sometimes during the pause of a concert we are terrified.” Can a piper afford to be afraid? “You need to emit air, of course. I have teachers in Berlin who were from the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra [Barenboim's project with Palestinians and Jews] and they have given me advice to calm down, like a meditative process. It is difficult but you have to build a wall in front of the news”.
