During the Soviet era, state oversight of musical style and substance led to composers being supervised and forced to adjust their work to align with Soviet ideology.
Compositional Technique
Klebanov's Fourth String Quartet incorporates melodies by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych, including 'Shchedryk' (Little Swallow), known in the West as 'Carol of the Bells,' and 'Dudaryk,' a popular folk tune.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Klebanov, a Jewish-Ukrainian composer, was born in Kharkiv in 1907 and began violin lessons at age six, making rapid progress.
Performer Biography
The ARC Ensemble, nominated for its third Grammy Award in 2016, focuses on researching and recovering music suppressed under repressive 20th-century regimes.
Composition History
Klebanov's First Symphony, dedicated 'To the memory of the martyrs of Babi Yar,' a site where nearly 34,000 Jews were murdered, was condemned as 'unpatriotic' for commemorating Jewish rather than Soviet casualties.
Critical Reception
After his First Symphony was banned and he was denounced as a 'bourgeois nationalist' and 'rootless cosmopolitan,' Klebanov was professionally marooned and left anxious and insecure.
Composer Biography
Klebanov refused to join the Communist Party, even when offered the directorship of the Ukraine Composers' Union, and declined requests to denounce dissidents.
