OLEKSA LOZOWCHUK: Bright Sadness

Oleksa Lozowchuk

Bright Sadness

© 2004 Tendershoot Music (620675103297)

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Striking contemporary chamber music for solo cello & accompaniment. Fusion of ancient and contemporary musical idioms of the East.

notes

"Oleksa Lozowchuk is a name to watch. His music endeavours to bring Heaven to earth, and simultaneously to transmute the earthly into the divine. In Bright Sadness he opens a window that looks both from earth out into eternity, and inwards to the human soul."

Ivan Moody, Composer & Reviewer for Gramophone & International Record Review

"...a lovely suite, totally unconcerned with anything but its own expressiveness...a disarming charmer, well performed and well recorded."

American Record Guide, May/June 2004

"...Indispensable***"

La Scena Musicale, avril 2004

"...sympathetic, skilled writing that fuses ancient and contemporary musical idioms in a way that is innovative and exciting. This is a very talented composer."

Maestro James Meena, Conductor of the Carolina Opera

"...a fascinating piece, full of colour and imagination, and extremely well-played and recorded..."

Simon Streatfeild, Conductor

"After hearing Bright Sadness, I was very impressed by the inspired, pure and unadulterated way that Oleksa Lozowchuk thinks about the essentials of composition and by the way he articulates his spiritual and musical vision. His sense of assurance and authority belies his age. Bright Sadness is a very well thought out, performed and produced compact disc, a necessary listening for any musician or music lover who needs to be convinced that music can make a profound difference in our world today."

Christos Hatzis, Composer

"...tout à fait originale...une fusion de musique et de spiritualité particulièrement réussie...incontestablement inspiré et même assez touchant par instants..."

Richard Boisvert, Le Soleil


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Bright Sadness is a new chamber work written for solo cello and accompaniment(contrabass, string quartet, mixed voices and tenor sopilka), loosely based on sacred and folkloric motifs of both Carpathian and Eastern Orthodox traditions.
Combining raw elements of the past with a unique Western instrument, the cello, the work weaves both traditions together, reflecting and reconciling two distinct emotions within human experience - joy and sadness. The cello leads us on this journey through a suite of spring songs, laments and dances. The result is a unique musical encounter~ Bright Sadness.

This debut recording of composer Oleksa Lozowchuk's Bright Sadness, features Blair Lofgren, principal cellist of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

reviews

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  • Love it :-)
    author: Troy

    Heard a track on Edmonton's CJSR ...ordered the CD and am very glad I did. Thank again!

  • author: Sarah Meredith

    Lyrical, strange, new, ancient, folk songs, a melancholy familiar as if it was passed along from some intimate place, like a family story held close to the heart.

  • Gorgeous!
    author: J. Cerini

    Most enjoyable! Brings peace to a chaotic lifestyle...thank you Oleksa, Blair, Kami and All!

  • Beautiful and Modern
    author: C. MacMartin

    When I first heard this recording on CBC radio, I ordered it immediately. This is a stunning piece of work and perhaps some of the most compelling new chamber music compositions out there.

  • Love your work!!! Always have!!!!
    author: Nel Neufeld

    It takes me to another place,thanks for the opporunity!!!

  • bridging the abyss
    author: A. Bee

    I never liked chamber music, classical music of any kind would cause my hand to hit the seek button on the radio... and then I discovered Bright Sadness and my world was forever changed. I made my first internet purchase so that it would be on my doorstep as fast as humanly possible, and I listen to it daily to reinstate the harmony in my day promised by its contradictory title. enjoy:)

  • wow
    author: DM
  • Sadness indeed, can shine.
    author: anthony

    Drawing from a family legacy of unspeakable suffering at the hands of communists, Oleksa quilts a sequence of songs that refuse to dwell on self-pity or retribution. Instead this suite of spring songs, laments and dances for cello, voice and violins, shine with messages of forgiveness and hope. Hauntingly beautiful.

  • Great
    author: s. blackmon

    I heard this music on CBC and had to have it. The album does not disappoint. Thoughtful and evocative music.

  • evocative of John Tavener
    author: Dana (Ksenia) Ovcharenko

    I hope it would be taken as a compliment to say that Lozowchuk's music sounds like what Tavener would write if he composed instrumental chamber music with occasional voice parts (what he does is mostly the other way round). BrightSadness (a rather dry, secular name, compared to the actual work---and the rest of the lovingly designed booklet) is highly original and at the same time firmly rooted in the profoundly rich legacy of sacred music conceived on Ukrainian territory since pagan times. I await it on CBC's "Opening Night" and at Edmonton's Winspear Centre!

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