Fanfare 2
Amazon rating: *****

A moving musical tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people.

JESSEN Decency Suite. Kyiv Suite  Natalia Gordeyeva (vn); Morten Jessen (pn) • OUR 9.70857 (37:57) Reviewed from a WAV download: 44.1 kHz/16-bit

This album, titled Ukraine Suites, presents two four-movement works for violin and piano, Kyiv Suite (2022) and Decency Suite (2026), written by contemporary Danish composer, organist, and multi-instrumentalist Morten Jessen. They were directly inspired by one of the most horrific events of the 21st century, Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
I am usually drawn to “pure” music that has no political or ideological agenda, does not depict historical events or scenes of nature, and has no program of any kind. But this is one of those recordings whose historical circumstances are impossible to separate from the music. Both suites are purely instrumental compositions without programmatic indications or descriptive movement titles, but hearing them as pure music diminishes their emotional impact in the absence of the background story. It would be akin to listening to Shostakovich’s Babi Yar symphony without knowing about the horrors of fascism and Stalinism.
The two suites are closely related but represent two very different stages of the composer’s relationship with Ukraine. Jessen wrote Kyiv Suite shortly after the full-scale invasion, before he had ever visited Ukraine. It was an act of solidarity with people whose experience he could only attempt to comprehend from afar. Decency Suite was composed after Jessen and Ukrainian violinist Natalia Gordeyeva undertook a ten-day journey through Ukraine, performing the music and meeting people whose lives had been directly shaped by the war.
Jessen’s initial response to the invasion was prompted in part by the widespread expectation that Kyiv would fall within days. Instead, the Ukrainian resistance demonstrated, in his words, that “it is actually possible to overcome the impossible through courage.” Kyiv Suite was originally conceived on a larger scale, for orchestra and choir. The current version for violin and piano was created after Jessen connected with Ukrainian violinist Natalia Gordeyeva, who contacted him after hearing him play the suite on YouTube. It was recorded by Gordeyeva and Jessen and released in 2024 as a digital EP (OUR 9.70884).
In its initial release, the Kyiv Suite movements carried titles, “Hope,” “Persistence,” “Grief,” and “Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine)”, but the composer subsequently removed them for the present album. Jessen explained that he wanted to present Kyiv Suite and Decency Suite as two closely related musical works expressing the same thing: solidarity with Ukraine. Without descriptive labels, the listener is invited to experience the music less programmatically, immersing themselves in its emotional content instead.
When we think of music influenced by war, such as Shostakovich’s Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, we expect to hear a heavy mix of sorrow and despair, with bursts of anguish and anger. Jessen’s approach to the themes of war and human suffering is deeply personal and unorthodox. He does not attempt to reproduce the sounds of war. There are no explosions, martial fanfares, or grotesque depictions of violence. Instead, Jessen responds to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through music of remarkable intimacy, restraint, and, above all, hope. Both pieces concentrate on feelings of grief, uncertainty, and human dignity in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
The music of Kyiv Suite is firmly tonal and contemplative, avoiding extremes in tempo and dynamics. Jessen does not need rhetorical gestures to establish the gravity of his subject. The violin carries much of the expressive burden, while the piano provides an often understated harmonic environment. His writing favors long-breathed melodic lines and spacious textures, and the resulting atmosphere is mostly elegiac without becoming sentimental.
The second work, Decency Suite, is in some respects the more compelling of the two because the composer's perspective has changed. Jessen wrote it after his visit to Ukraine and encounters with soldiers, survivors, and civilians in Kyiv, Irpin, Bucha, and Lviv. The title comes from his encounter with a Ukrainian soldier named Viktor, who showed Jessen the neighborhoods where he and his family had lived. Despite having experienced the devastation of war, Viktor concentrated on what had already been rebuilt. For Jessen, this capacity to remain decent amid circumstances designed to destroy human dignity became a central image of Ukraine itself.
As in Kyiv Suite, Jessen avoids extreme emotional outbursts in Decency Suite. The music unfolds without hurry and balances lyrical beauty with poignant fragility. The intimate dialogue between the violin and the piano never descends into darkness and despair. Despite the tragic overtones, the piece remains at its core optimistic and life-affirming. The emotional message of the suite is one of hope, not the hope of achieving victory on the battlefield, but of preserving human dignity under utterly inhuman conditions.
The performances here are as close to definitive as one could hope for. Ukrainian violinist Natalia Gordeyeva was one of the inspirations behind the music, and the piano part is played by the composer himself. Both performers are technically assured, completely invested in the music, and create a partnership of equals rather than a soloist-accompanist hierarchy. They work in unison to convey the message of human dignity and resilience without resorting to cheap thrills or overly dramatic effects. This is music of solidarity rather than spectacle, and of hope rather than triumph. This is an inspiring release, and I give it my strongest possible recommendation. As an added bonus, the proceeds from the album will help fund the Ukrainian people's struggle. Anton Angelo