"Pochayna" choral chapel. Trydcjat' tretij. (The Thirty Third)

“The Thirty Third” is an oratorio performed by the choir “Pochaina” of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the State Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. You have a good chance not only to listen to it, but also to see it being performed. Oleksandr Yakivchuk composed the music, while Viktor Stepurko made arrangements for a symphony orchestra (by the way, his compositions are also included into the choir repertoire). The oratorio contains different devices of composer expressiveness, from classical and traditional to modern and vanguard. As a result, we have a very multifarious sounding with great emotional amplitude. One might expect form the composition to have pain and weeping as a main leitmotif. But – and it is very important – hope has become its leitmotif. At that, it is strongly felt not even in words, but in music itself. And it seems to me that it is exactly hope that constitutes that inner driving force, by which the whole idea is supported. In other words, all these things make you think.