KADDISH REQUIEM “BABYN YAR”
for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra
Lyrics:
Dmytro Pavlychko
OUVERTURE
NO. 1
Choir:
LORD OF LIGHT
Lord of light, of kindness and truth, Descend from the heavens, stand on our earth. Here human blood, shed without mercy, Burns in the grave like an inextinguishable blaze.
Lord of light, of kindness and truth, Quiet the cries and shrieks in deep darkness. Envelop shattered hearts with Your grace.
Lord of light, of kindness and truth, Descend from the heavens, stand on our earth. Grant sacred ashes peace everlasting, And blessed dreams, undisturbed.
Bass solo:
Lord of light, of kindness and truth
Tenor solo:
Quiet the cries and shrieks in deep darkness
Bass solo: Descend from the heavens, stand on our earth.
Tenor solo:
Envelop shattered hearts with Your grace
Bass solo:
Here human blood Burns in the grave like an inextinguishable blaze.
Choir:
And blessed dreams, undisturbed.
NO. 2 GRANT US REPOSE
Here we lie,
In sand and in clay, Here we lie,
Scattered wide to the world’s each corner
Tenor solo:
Scattered wide to the world’s each corner.
Choir:
Jews, Jews, the Jews.
Forebears, mothers and infants
Lord, o Lord,
Grant us respite from death,
From the gaze of the killer. Lord, Lord, o Lord, Grant us respite from death, From the gaze of the killer.
Tenor solo:
Grant sacred ashes peace everlasting, And blessed dreams, undisturbed.
NO. 3 RETRIBUTION
Choir:
There will be judgement, retribution shall be, Babyn Yar will be open, Blood shall gush like a flood from the Yar (ravine), A wave will crest in the clouds. There will be judgement, retribution shall be, Babyn Yar will be open. The radiant Judge shall Appear in the heavens above. Trumpets will blare, trumpets will blare, And David’s whole family Shall resurrect, resurrect. The monster will not hide Nor shall the killer and gravedigger. Babyn Yar will be open, Babyn Yar. There will be judgement, retribution shall be, Blood shall gush like a flood from the Yar (ravine), A wave will crest in the clouds. The heavens will part, God’s might shall appear, The righteous will rise from the grave, And shall lead to the grave all who are wicked.
Narrator:
“O God, You created the human, Infusing dark clay with a soul. For goodness and sacred deeds You rewarded humanity with Its own wisdom and beauty, Commanding brotherhood and harmony.
By what token are we, Your creations, Filled with mortal travails, Driven like stones into earth?! Really, could those who dumped us Like cattle in graves have shared Your image?!
Look not at our fate, Look not at human disgrace –
Look, o God at Yourself!
Look, o God at Your own self!”
Choir:
Why are we, Your creations, Filled with mortal travails, Driven like stones into earth?! There will be judgement, Retribution shall be, Babyn Yar will be open, Blood shall gush like a flood from the Yar (ravine) A wave will crest in the clouds. There shall be a reckoning, a reckoning!
NO. 4 I STAND OVER BABYN YAR
Bass solo:
Bending with the autumn wind, I stand above Babyn Yar. I see my gray-haired father, Brother and my mother.
It was not here that they died hard, It is not here that they rest wearily. But their prayers and appeals, Rustle somewhere in the trees nearby.
Here are Kyiv and my Kozak kin, Here is our bloodied freedom. For a fraternal deceased people Pray we, the dead and living.
I see – those are mothers’ tears Glistening on the Dnipro waves. I know – my Ukraine. Will resurrect at behest of the good!
NO. 5 YOU HAVE NOT DIED IN VAIN
Choir:
Gray-haired Moses, Driven into a ravine, Your soul alive, tempered By hellfire.
Your sorrow destroyed the beastly heart. You stood proudly above the abyss, Covering children’s eyes with your hands Walking towards death Like an offering to the Lord.
Tenor, Bass soli:
O gray-haired Moses, gray, gray Moses.
Choir:
They stripped your clothes, like Christ, Your eyes revealed not revenge, But mere despair and sad reproach. As if you’d seen a new tablet, Imprinted with sorrow for humanity, And a future of injustice and infirmity.
Tenor, Bass soli:
O gray-haired Moses, driven into a ravine, O gray, gray Moses.
Choir:
Truly, was innocent blood shed in vain? Can it be that thistle will overgrow Babyn Yar, And a new czar will yoke still more peoples? No, death’s predatory vision will recoil The modern Babylon will collapse! Rejoice! – You did not die in vain! Rejoice! You did not die in vain!
NO. 6 REJOICE
Choir:
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice with us, Ye innocents killed, rejoice, Joined in death to the Creator of kindness, Rejoice, rejoice, Radiating in mankind’s conscience Like the sun in azure skies, Enduring in righteous souls, Our immortal brothers.
NO. 7 ALMIGHTY GOD
Narrator:
O, Almighty God, with Your consent we traverse the road To Babyn Yar, Where You bond peoples in death To preserve the gift of life and freedom. Quiet the cries and shrieks in deep darkness, Envelop shattered hearts with Your grace. Grant sacred ashes peace everlasting, And blessed dreams, undisturbed.
Choir:
Grant sacred ashes peace everlasting, And blessed dreams, undisturbed.
Oksana Lyniv has been the Music Director of Teatro Comunale di Bologna since 2022, making her the first female chief conductor of an Italian opera house. She made history as the first female conductor in the history of the Bayreuth Festival with her debut production of The Flying Dutchman opening the festival in 2021. Her achievements include performances at the Bavarian State Opera, the State Opera Berlin, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Opéra National de Paris, Theater an der Wien, the Stuttgart State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Lyniv studied at the Dresden University of Music, and she served as deputy chief conductor at the National Opera in Odesa until 2013. Until 2017, she worked at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. From 2017 to 2020, she served as chief conductor of the Graz Opera and the Graz Philharmonic. Furthermore, Oksana Lyniv is committed to the promotion of classical music on an international level and in Ukraine and is the founder and chief conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/YsOU. She has been awarded several international titles and prizes, including the Festival Prize of the Bavarian State Opera in 2015 and the prestigious TREBBIA International Award in 2019 and the Opera! Award for Best Conductor of the Year 2023.In times of the Russian war against Ukraine, Oksana Lyniv emerges as a dedicated cultural ambassador of her country. She passionately advocates for the performance of Ukrainian composers on international stages.
Founded in 1979, the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra has become one of the most interesting cultural actors in in Ukraine under the direction of Luigi Gaggero. Each concert is constructed as an exciting journey through works from different periods and styles, threaded together by common themes and influences. KSO performs in some of the most important European concert halls, such as Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Cité de la musique in Paris, and Warsaw Philharmonicas. The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra’s repertoire spans from the 16th century to the younger generation of today’s composers. Precisely for the quality of their interpretations of contemporary music, KSO and Luigi Gaggero have been awarded the prestigious Musical Contest Prize of the Foundation Prince Pierre of Monaco in 2022. In the field of opera, KSO performed Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine on the stage of the National Opera in Kyiv. Under its chief conductor, the orchestra premiered the opera Night by Ukrainian composer Maksym Kolomiiets and also released it on video. Since 2023, KSO has been under the official patronage of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Born in 1977 in Lviv (Ukraine), Evgeni Orkin initially studied clarinet and composition at the National Academy of Music in Kyiv. Further studies followed at the music academies in Utrecht and Mannheim, where he studied clarinet, conducting and composition. Orkin is the author of chamber symphonies, major symphonies, solo concertos for violin, piano, saxophone and clarinet, the oratorio Anne’s Passion based on texts from the diaries of Anne Frank, the opera Magister Ludi based on Hermann Hesse, several music theatre works of chamber music works. His works have been performed at festivals, including the Kontraste Festival in Lviv, the Kiev Music Festival, the New Music Festival in Odessa and the Odessa Music Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the International Lake Constance Festival 2006 as well as the New Music Premieres Festival (Kyiv). As a clarinettist, he has made a name for himself particularly through premieres of new works.
Jevhen Stankovych is one of the most important composers of contemporary Ukrainian music. His works cover a wide range of genres and genres, such as symphonies, opera, ballet, oratorios, vocal and chamber music as well as incidental music for over a hundred films. He has been honoured with several major awards, including Ukraine’s highest award for artistic creation, the Taras Shevchenko State Prize. The composer’s works have been performed in Canada, the USA, Germany, France, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, China, the Philippines, and various Eastern European countries.
The National Academic Choir Dumka is today the icon of choral singing in Ukraine. Founded in 1919 and led by outstanding conductors such as Nestor Horodovenko, Oleksandr Soroka, Pavlo Muravskyi and Mykhaylo Krechko, the ‘Dumka’ has developed its own choral traditions and performance style. It has been under the direction of conductor and Shevchenko Prize winner Yevhen Savchuk since 1984. PUBLICATION DETAILS Owner, Editor and Publisher Wiener Festwochen GesmbH, Lehárgasse 11/1/6, 1060 Wien P + 43 1 589 22 0, festwochen@festwochen.at | www.festwochen.at General Management Milo Rau, Artemis Vakianis Artistic Direction (responsible for content) Milo Rau (Artistic Director) Text credits Original text Kaddish Requiem, Dmytro Pavlychko Translation Peter Fedynsky Picture credit Cover © Oliver Wolf, S. 3 Kyiv Symphony Orchestra © Elza Zherebchuk Produced by Print Alliance HAV Produktions GmbH (Bad Vöslau)
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