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Utterly Idiomatic
RODERIC DUNNETT listens to
vocal and choral music in Kiev
It could be argued that in times of conflict, religion has a forceful additional role to play. Perhaps that applies nowhere more in Europe than Kiev and the Ukraine, where tensions in the east of the country accentuated by the loss of Crimea mean this Easter has seen an intense flow of worshippers hoping the Paschal story will fire some measure of hope and optimism and brotherly love at a time when the gun seems set to take over.
On Palm Sunday [13 April 2014], the Liturgy at the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was performed in the presence of Patriarch Svyatoslav himself (the patriarchal throne and headquarters moved in 2005 from Lviv to Kyiv [Lvov to Kiev]). This supremely holy occasion received a rare uplift in front of a packed, seething congregation, the very small children and adults alike brandishing willow cuttings in place of palms, with the appearance of the Bulava Chorus, founded by the British-Ukrainian operatic bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka, to sing the setting of the Liturgy by Kyrylo Stetsenko (1882-1922)...
Copyright © 26 April 2014
Roderic Dunnett,
Coventry UK
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