Ukrainian premiere of Wolfgang Bottenberg

An interesting concert night, which gave an opportunity to the Kyiv audience to get to know composer and professor Wolfgang Bottenberg (Montreal, Canada), famous on the American continent, but very little known in Ukraine, took place as a part of the Grand Festival VIVAT ACADEMIA. The Festival is open until December 20 and marks the Centennial of the founding of the country’s leading musical institution – Pyotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy. This meeting was made possible thanks to the initiative of the famous Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Yakovchuk, who for over 15 years already has been friends with the composer and decided to present his work to the Ukrainian audience.

 Wolfgang Bottenberg is a Canadian composer of German origin. He was born in 1930 in Frankfurt am Main and began his musical studies rather late in his life: at the age of 28 after immigrating to Canada. There he received a Bachelor’s degree in Music at the University of Alberta and his efforts to improve knowledge of composition brought Bottenberg to Cincinnati (Ohio, USA), where he studied with Scott Houston and Paul Cooper. After obtaining a Master’s degree of Music (1962) and defending his Ph.D. thesis (1970) Bottenberg began his active artistic life, realizing himself not only in composition, but also in teaching, performing, and in musicology. After several years of teaching at the Acadia University (Wolfville, Canada), from 1973 the artist’s life has been connected with the famous school – Concordia University (Montreal). There he became the founder and leader of the Ensemble of Early Music: Bottenberg played an ancient instrument viola da gamba – the predecessor of the modern cello. As a result of practical experience of performing in an ensemble, he wrote a significant scientific work on the pedagogical value of interpreting medieval and Renaissance music in original mensural notation that was published in 1983. Besides, he is the leading musicologist among those who opened the musical heritage of the outstanding German philosopher of the 20th century Friedrich Nietzsche. By his initiative an album of two CDs with recordings of the full collection of musical works by Nietzsche was released in 1993.

 The collection of Bottenberg’s works consists of about 100 compositions of different genres, including opera and large music pieces involving choir and orchestra, as well as small solo instrumental pieces. The aesthetic views of the artist are based on the idea that all music comes from the singing experience of the mankind. That’s why in his style he is committed to Gregorian chant and polyphonic of baroque era, paying tribute to the trends of retrospectivism. In fact, it was clearly demonstrated in the chamber ensemble compositions featuring piano which formed the concert program. In particular, the following compositions were performed: Sonata for Violin and Piano (2002), where the traditional three-part cycle is combined with transparency of texture and tone of thinking; Suite for Violin, Cello, and Piano (1998), where the author, based on the ancient names of the parts of the composition – Prelude, Bourree, Cantilene, and Toccata, redefines the music of the distant era through modern look; piano trio in D (2001), which showed the composer’s fascination not only with the baroque music, but also the music of the romanticism through the light of artistic figures of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms; Illuminations for cello and piano (1997, second edition made in 2006) – is a rather provocative piece, hard for perception due to the use of polytonality, its three parts are named after old instrumental genres – Prelude, Partita, and Toccata. The second part of the composition the music material is based on the theme of medieval Christmas antiphon in honor of Our Lady Alma redemptoris mater, which is subjected to several variations.

 The compositions that have been performed for the first time in Ukraine represented the achievements in the field of chamber and instrumental music of the contemporary Canadian composer Wolfgang Bottenberg, who was personally present at the concert and sincerely greeted co-creators and performers: senior lecturer of the Department of Chamber Ensemble at the National Music Academy of Ukraine Nadia Yakovchuk (piano), winners of international competitions Kyrylo Sharapov (violin), and Oleksandr Hosachynsky (cello).