An extraordinary evening in the Lansdowne Club all decked up for Christmas. Here in their sumptuous ballroom we were awakened to the plight of innocent children in Ukraine whose childhood has been robbed by the ignominious war that Putin is waging against their homeland.

On wings of song, ‘Gen Ukrainian’ or the equivalent of Save the Children were holding a gala Christmas concert to raise funds and awareness of the rape of innocence by an egocentrical dictator.

Sasha Grynuk’s own parents fled his hometown that was in flames and were able to seek refuge the UK.

And it is Sasha with his wife and parents together with their Ukrainian friends that have organised concerts to raise funds for the innocent people in their homeland left almost without hope for a peaceful solution to this cruel invasion.

https://www.facebook.com/share/M2BiNTo1fSzNS4B3/?mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2022/03/12/war-or-peace-the-help-ukraine-concert/

It was by chance that there was another ‘wake’ upstairs to celebrate John Leech the founder of the Keyboard Trust who breathed his last breath a week ago in his 100th year.

Sir Geoffrey Nice ,the renowned peacemaker barrister ,had spoken of his great friend’s unstinting generosity in helping others, at the family service held in the beautiful Farm Street Catholic Church. A church just a stones’ throw from Berkeley Square where the nightingales have long given up trying to be heard !

https://youtu.be/jRLAstUfIBA?feature=shared

A concert also run by a Ukrainian barrister, Ksenia Iaremych for an organisation that brings together a skilled team of psychologists,trauma specialists,and educators all committed to helping children integrate their traumatic experiences ,rebuild resilience and rediscover the joys of childhood ,many of whom orphaned.

Paintings that these children ,some only 9 or 10 years old were on display and later auctioned after a sumptuous feast of music that had finished with the moving ‘Carol of the Bells’ played by Sasha Grynuk and Maya Irgalina .The Great Gate of Kiev springs to mind as an imaginary symbol of bells that will bring exhilaration, hope and peace.

The concert had begun rather late due to the pre- concert celebrations for the sponsors and guests.However when Sasha did sit at the piano silence reigned and music took over where words are just not enough.Sasha playing with passionate conviction and mastery a work by Schubert that was a revolutionary new form as he too was looking forwards not backwards and creating a sublime new world that was to shine a light and create a path for all those that came after.Sasha carrying the torch for his homeland as his hands ignited the fantasy and invention of a genius who had died at the age of barely 31 years .I have written about his performance recently in Florence and Milan for the Keyboard Trust and he plays every week to Noretta Conci Leech,founder with her late husband John Leech of the Keyboard Trust. A disciple of Benedetti Michelangeli who in a give and take exchange of ideas inspires Sasha to the heights that we heard tonight. Rythmic energy,a kaleidoscope of colour allied to a clarity and precision due to a very particular mastery of the pedals.Above all the wonder at the beauty and freshness that they could find in the many masterworks that they have studied together over the past few years.

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2024/06/01/sasha-grynyuk-italian-tour-2024/

Maya Irgalina followed Sasha on this beautiful Bluthner piano (Bluthner regularly hold concerts here for aspiring young musicians https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/09/13/gabriele-sutkute-takes-mayfair-by-storm-passion-and-power-with-impeccable-style/).Some beautiful playing of Debussy from Images Book 2: ‘Cloches à travers les feuilles’ with the bells again that were to close this memorable evening .But these were bells seen through a haze of sounds which from Irgalina’s hands were ravishing and of glowing fluidity as the vision of the bells came more and more into view. A performance of extraordinary sensitivity and radiance that ignited the vision of a Gold Fish that had so inspired Debussy’s imagination.This was a famous piece of Benedetti Michelangeli who played it with a more chiselled clarity but Irgalina chose richer velvety sounds bathed in pedal as Debussy’s genial imagination brought this picture vividly to life miraculously transmitted to us this evening by her ten inspired fingers.

Stefan Bulyha played a piece for solo clarinet with improvised freedom and musicianship: B.Kovács Tribute to J.S. Bach.

He was also united with Svitlana Shamina in a beautifully suggestive performance of the Melody by B.Lyatoshynsky.

A star shining brightly ,too,was the soprano Tetiana Zhuravel,in London for the Tales of Hoffman at Covent Garden ,and was here accompanied by Sasha. Her voice was of such passionate radiance that as she reached for the long top C I feared for the beautiful candelabra in the Lansdowne such was the intensity and perfection of her voice.

Of course the stars of the evening were Sasha Grynuk and Maya Irgalina for playing with such passionate intensity the traditional Ukrainian Hymn to Peace that is the ‘Carol of the Bells’ by M.Leontovych. Playing of passionate intensity that ignited even more the atmosphere and prepared the public for the auction of the paintings of these children so scarred by a useless war for whom we hope the nightingale will return to sing once more in peace in Berkeley Square.

https://youtu.be/2jyq9-BDTFI?feature=shared