****
A touching release, expertly performed with real heart by Gordeyeva with the composer at the piano
È JESSEN Ukraine Suites. Natalya Gordeyeva (vn); Morten Jessen (pn) OUR RECORDINGS 9.70657 (39:03) Reviewed from WAV files: 24-bit, 44.1 kBps. Also available in LP format

The terrors and horrors of war are many things, one of which is a spur to creativity, with music offering a channel for the processing of emotions. Such is the case here: composer (and pianist) Morten Jessen began the first of these two suites, Kyiv Suite, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was the staunch determination of the Ukrainians and later correspondence with Viktor Marynchak (a priest who conducted services in Kharkiv’s metro stations and who layer contributed to a series of benefit concerts recorded in a church in Kharkiv, and played as an introduction to the music), that took Jessen to the heart of the matter.
The meeting of Jessen and violinist Natalya Gordeyeva is a story of digital technology acting as a bridge: Gordeyeva found the suite online while she was actually in Kyiv (there is an interesting YouTube video in which the two performers explain all this, including their initial contact via Facebook). Gordeyeva found instant resonance with the story; the result was a musical partnership that was to include a ten-day tour of Ukraine, and it was this tour that inspired the second piece, Decency Suite.

The two have distinct approaches: Kyiv Suite was born from Jessen’s broad impression of Ukraine and its people; Decency Suite is the result of actual encounters with people in Irpin and Bucha. The whole release, though, comes together in solidarity with Ukraine; it also appeals to the West to remain steadfast in its support. No movement of either suite is given a title.

It is Decency Suite (2026) we hear first, written after the composer visited Kyiv and named after the trait that he found most prevalent there: the first movement is sweetly lyrical, and how sweet is Gordeyeva’s tone. A hankering for better times seems to suffuse the surface; there is a real sense of nostalgia, even to brief reminiscences of dance. The second movement goes more interior still, simple doublings of rhythm between violin and piano taking on a sense of shared statement. The third movement is the slow movement proper, a gentle unfolding of lines in pianissimo. Gordeyeva’s G-string is nicely resonant, while higher up there is a tensile strength that suits the music well. No fireworks finale here: there is after all little cause for celebration. Instead, the music marries a sense of desolation (sometimes achieved through bare scoring) with an indefatigable human tenderness and empathy. Gorseyeva varies her vibrato sensitively, non-vibrato implying an emotional numbness against the faster-vibrato expressivity..

The 2022 Kyiv Suite begins with a solo violin lament before the piano subtly underpins the heart-breaking melody. Modality gives the music a floating, timeless quality. The music is more wistful: while Decency is born of direct interactions, Kyiv is an imagined other. The piano launches the second movement, harmonically rather untethered; it is the violin that gives the directionality in its song. The close is beautifully thought-provoking, not quite settled, an impression reinforced by the fragility of the third movement, a line of violin silk the thread. Gentle descending lines later in that movement may be memories of church bells; The finale seems bereft at first: harmonies are hollow, motifs seem to seek something outside of themselves. Perhaps symbolically, violin and piano cone together, hesitantly, one moment of conjoined thought fleetingly found, then lost, then found again, moving towards a shared vision of a better , brighter future. A quiet revolution, perhaps, founded on memories of a golden past and rising to a unified climax; and yet the music quiets, to end in reflection. There is more history to create yet, more hope to embrace, the music seems to say.

The recording of the piano is perhaps not OUR’s finest (a Steinway, but sounding rather more like a Bechstein in its less definite attack and warmer tone, and overall a little lacking in body), but the violin is caught very well indeed. A touching release, expertly performed with real heart by Gordeyeva with the composer at the piano. Colin Clarke

Colin Clarke is a freelance Classical Music Journalist. Master's Degree focused in Analytical Musicology from King's College London and a BMus (Hons) from the University of Surrey.