VI International Music Festival
Odessa Classics 2020

Concert program August 10-23

Special exhibition August 11 — 31

Artists Artists of the Odessa Classics festival

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater

📅 August 10

Zurich Ballet (Yen Han Ballet Company Zurich)
Alexey Botvinov (piano solo)

Concert Program
Adagio	Ballet by Heinz Spoerli, music by Mozart
“Blue Light”	Ballet by Heinz Spoerli, music by Arvo Pärt, violin by Miroslava Kotorovich
“Me Time”	Ballet by Yen Han, music by Bach
Nocturnes	Ballet by Heinz Spoerli, music by Chopin
“Orpheus and Eurydice”	Ballet by Philippe Portugal, music by Philip Glass.
Performers	Yen Han, Philippe Portugal, Flavio Salamanca, Marcia Jacqueline, Tigran Mkrtchyan, Tara Brodin

📅 August 11

Pietro De Maria (piano)

Concert Program
CHOPIN	Ballade No. 1, Op. 23, G minor Nocturne, Op. 55, No. 2, E-flat major Waltz, Op. 18, E-flat major Waltz, Op. 42, A-flat major Waltz, Op. 64, No. 1, D-flat major Scherzo No. 4, Op. 54, E major
TCHAIKOVSKY-PLETNEV Concert Suite from “The Nutcracker”	March Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy Chinese Dance Andante Maestoso (Pas de deux)
SCHUBERT-LISZT	Valse-Caprice No. 6 “Soirées de Vienne”
LISZT	“Sonnet of Petrarch No. 104”
LISZT	“La Campanella”

Green Theater

📅 August 12

Special joint project by Odessa Classics and Green Theater

Alexey Botvinov (piano)
Burhan Ocal (percussion)

“RELOADED – 2”

Concert Program
Bach	Works from “The Well-Tempered Clavier”: Volume 1: Prelude and Fugue in C minor Volume 1: Prelude and Fugue in D minor
Bach	Aria and 5 Variations from “Goldberg Variations”
Beethoven	Sonata No. 8 “Pathétique” Op. 13, Part 1
Mussorgsky	“Pictures at an Exhibition”: “The Old Castle” “Bydlo” “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks” “With the Dead in a Dead Language” “Baba Yaga”
Rachmaninov	Prelude in G minor Op. 23 No. 5
Prokofiev	Sonata No. 7, Part 3

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater

📅 August 14

Daniel Hope (violin)
Simos Papanas (violin)
Nicola Mosca (cello)
Emmanuel Pahud (lute)
Naoki Kitaya (harpsichord)
Michael Metzler (percussion)

Concert Program
“AIR”	A BAROQUE JOURNEY
Program includes	Works by Vivaldi, Falconieri, Handel, Ortiz, Matteis, Uccellini, Westhoff

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater

📅 August 15

Daniel Hope (violin)
Alexey Botvinov (piano)

Concert Program
Valentin Silvestrov	“Pastorales 2020” (Premiere. Created for Odessa Classics and BeethovenHaus Bonn)
Edvard Grieg	Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Alfred Schnittke	“Suite in the Old Style” Sonata No. 1, Parts 3 and 4 “Greeting Rondo” “Tango in a Madhouse” Polka

Odessa Regional Philharmonic

📅 August 16

Daniel Hope (violin)
Alexey Botvinov (piano)
Simos Papanas (violin)

Concert Program
Brahms	Scherzo “F.A.E.”
Arvo Pärt	“Spiegel im Spiegel”
Tartini	“Devil’s Trill” (Simos Papanas version)
Bach	Concerto for Two Violins in D minor

Odessa Regional Philharmonic

📅 August 17

GELGOTAS and Chamber Ensemble NICO

Concert Program
Antonio Vivaldi / Max Richter	“Winter” (Part 1) from the cycle “Vivaldi Reimagined” “Summer” (Part 3) from the cycle “Vivaldi Reimagined”
Philip Glass	Violin Concerto No. 1, Part 2
Gediminas Gelgotas	“Sacred Unreligious Soul” “Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean” “To the Skies” “Transitory” Hildegard von Bingen choral “Cadenza” “Sanctifaction” “Extracadenza”

Odessa Regional Philharmonic

📅 August 18

Vadim Repin (violin)
Alexey Botvinov (piano)

Concert Program
Debussy	Sonata for Violin and Piano
Prokofiev	Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1
Bartók	“Romanian Folk Dances”

Odessa Regional Philharmonic

📅 August 19

Sebastian Knauer (piano)

Concert Program
Bach	Chorale Prelude “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” BWV 659 Chorale Prelude “Wohl mir dass ich Jesum habe” BWV 147
Mendelssohn	“Songs Without Words”
Schubert	“Hungarian Melody” Allegretto in C minor Impromptus

Odessa Regional Philharmonic

📅 August 20

Sebastian Knauer (piano)
World Premiere of the project “Beethoven Variations” (Beethoven – Arash Safaian)

Concert Program
Beethoven	Sonata in D minor, Op. 31 No. 2
Beethoven	Sonata in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 “Quasi Fantasia” (“Moonlight Sonata”)
Arash Safaian	“Beethoven Variations” Excerpts from the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, solo piano version

📅 August 21
Concert postponed to 📅 June 5, 2021

Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Neeme Järvi (conductor)

Potemkin Stairs, open-air concert

📅 August 22

Alexey Botvinov (piano)
National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Volodymyr Sirenko (conductor)

FREE CONCERT

Concert Program
Mozart, Bortnyansky, Berezovsky, Lysenko, Skoryk
Rachmaninov	Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, soloist Alexey Botvinov

Odessa Regional Philharmonic

📅 August 23

Linus Roth (violin)
Alexey Botvinov (piano)

Concert Program
Beethoven	Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23
Franck	Sonata for Violin and Piano

Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art

📅 August 11 – 31

The exhibition was held as part of the “Odessa Classics” festival.
Curator – Anatoliy Dymchuk.

“In the sea, in the fields, in the night sky, there is already a sense of infinity. Most of all, in the sea. The sea is the visible image of the infinite. Understanding infinity is impossible for me; one can only know how far away the stars are.

The plastic structure of the sea – gradually diminishing wavelets on this giant sphere – makes it an image of infinity, a magical image: with its sharp freshness of seaweed scents, with the mystery and terror of its depths, the cry of seagulls, and the infinite frightening beauty of its inhabitants. All of this together creates an image of the Universe and the idea of Grandeur. Not many artists have been concerned with or inspired by these ideas. Perhaps it is my personal feeling – in the landscapes of Cézanne and Van Gogh there is a sense of the Universe. The idea of grandeur is mostly created by Wagner and Shostakovich, and much in Beethoven; and both these ideas are in Bach. Again, I may be wrong, but all of Tchaikovsky’s late symphonies are a drama between What Should Be and What Is, Chopin – an endless mourning of the Possible…”

Yuriy Yegorov is a key figure in Ukrainian art of the 20th century. Almost all his creativity was devoted to Odessa, exploring its unique landscape and spirit. Yegorov’s bright seascapes and metaphysical still lifes have long become an integral symbol of the city.

Yuriy Yegorov began his artistic practice under the influence of the severe style, but his move to Odessa in 1955 completely changed his approach to painting. Subjects close to social realism and muted tones were replaced by bright, sunny colors and a gravitation towards basic geometric forms. These traits formed Yegorov’s unique style, where portrait or landscape is not a mere reflection of reality, but a universal sign through which the artist comprehends the world.

There is no doubt that without Yuriy Yegorov, one of the most significant cultural phenomena of Odessa would not have taken place. This refers to the Odessa nonconformism of the 60s – 80s, whose members were not only influenced by Yegorov but also had close professional and personal ties with the older colleague. Valentin Khrushch, Stanislav Sychev, Viktor Marinyuk are just a few artists whose work bears Yegorov’s influence.

A significant feature that runs through all of Yegorov’s numerous works is subtle musicality. It rarely appears on the plot level but is always present in his exceptional attention to rhythm and harmony. The endlessly repeated motifs in various variations together form the symphonic character of his body of work. Harmony, as an expression of fullness, transitioned from music to Yegorov’s painting as a key philosophical element.

For Yegorov, music is an expression of the infinity of the Universe. The symbolic images that the artist creates as an expression of his existential tension ultimately have a single goal: finding world harmony.

Yuriy Yegorov (1926 – 2008) was born in Stalingrad. In 1948, he graduated from the Odessa Art School, in 1952 from the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture named after I. Yu. Repin, and in 1955 from the Leningrad Higher Art and Industrial School named after V. G. Mukhina. He taught at the Odessa Art School for two years (1955 – 1957). In the 1990s, he was the rector of the Odessa non-governmental Academy of Arts. His works are housed in the collections of the National Art Museum, Odessa and Mykolaiv Art Museums, the Zimmerli Museum (USA), the Tretyakov Gallery (Russia), and numerous private collections.