Directions of concertmaster activity of Oleksandr Nazarenko

Formulation of the problem. At the current stage, concertmaster activity as a kind of performing art requires a comprehensive study to justificatе the artistic effectiveness of the artist. Thereby, there was a need for research of the concertmaster activity of Oleksandr Nazarenko (Professor of the Department of Ukrainian Folk Instruments in I. P. Kotlyarevsky Kharkiv National University of Arts), in order to characterize his performing skills. This article is about the instrumental work of a accordionist, which is an organic component of the activities of art institutions in a variety of forms of work with the listener. The nuances of the instrumental accompaniment of a vocal composition (and not only) in conditions of genre and style diversity of the musical life of Kharkiv were the peculiarity of fruitful activity of the musician for many years. Is there a connection between this form of creative activity (at first glance, simple and not the most important) and other manifestations of the academic professional development of a musician? The answer to this question is the relevance of the topic of the article, devoted to the characteristics of O. Nazarenko’s concertmaster activity. The lack of a special study of the stylistic aspects of his concertmaster’s activity drove a necessitaty to take note to the biographical facts of the artist’s life in order to generalize the components of his performing skills. Analysis of the latest publications on the topic. O. Nazarenko’s compositional work for accordion is presented in the researches of Kharkiv accordionists and musicologists Y. Dyachenko (2012), M. Plushenko (2017), I. Snedkova (2016), A. Sagittarius (2018).However, these authors did not address the problem of concertmaster activity of O. Nazarenko, which was an important part of his professional growth as a model for the young generation of accordionists, drawing attention to this aspect of his performing arts. The object of research is the musical activity of O. Nazarenko; subject – concertmaster component of the artist’s creative universalism. The purpose of the article is to comprehensively research the process of evolution of the concertmaster’s activity of the famous Kharkiv accordionist Oleksandr Nazarenko. The research methodology is based on a complex of historical, genre-style and system approaches. Presenting of the main material. His acquaintance with concertmaster’s skill and it’s mastering O. Nazarenko began quite early – during the third year in B. Lyatoshynsky Kharkiv Music School (1955). Working with artists, he went with concerts to small factories, factory workshops (during breaks in the “red corners”), dormitories and clubs, where were held 40-minute meetings, where O. Nazarenko was accompanying dancers and vocalists. While studying at the Kharkiv Conservatory (1957–1962), he toured with a student team, where he was accompanying the instruments of the folk orchestra (domra, balalaika), symphony orchestra (violin, cello) and vocal performances. O. Nazarenko strived for performing activity, and therefore he chose the direction of creative work as a soloist-accordionist of the Kharkiv Regional Philharmonic (1962–1967), where together with solo performances he began professional concertmaster activity, working in various genres (vocal, dance and original). After graduating from the conservatory, O. Nazarenko paid much attention to the technique of reading from a sheet of works for piano, studied professional accompaniment to soloists, gained experience in concertmaster’s work to learn the new repertoire with artists. At the Department of Folk Instruments, students and teachers competed with each other in better technique of reading from a sheet, transposition into any key, play a tune by ear, improvisation, and skillfully translation the piano texture into accordion. According to the professor’s words, in order not to lose his performance skill during the tour and to maintain the technical level, he tried to practice even on a bus. He played accordion technical exercises with ready-made chords and fragments from masterpiece works (G. Diniku “Romanian round dance”, introduction to the opera “Ruslan” by M. Glinka); always worked on the plastic of his right hand. Most often, the acquaintance with the musical text took place during the move or a short time before the concert. Soloists-vocalists gave piano notes and indicated in what key they were comfortable to sing. Thus, the accordionist had to analyse the texture without an instrument, sing the melody in the required key with his inner ear, and transpose the musical material. O. Nazarenko tried to enrich the instrumental accompaniment with texture (counterpoint, melodic undertones) in order to move away from the primitive form (bass-chord support). The intention to complicate the accordion part made O. Nazarenko to improve his skills constantly in the selection of means of expression, intonation, the search for timbre diversity, all means which create true artistic values. Accompanying the soloists, the artist paid special attention to the thinning of the sound, imitating stringed instruments. While accompanying a group of brass instruments of a symphony orchestra (trumpet, trombone), he tried to convey the effect of “spaciousness”, equalling the techniques of sound production of brass instruments. Thus, performing a popular song of the Great Patriotic War “At Nameless Height”, O. Nazarenko imitated the replicas of the trumpet signal, and in the song “Buchenwald’s alarm” his performance gained maximum tension, sharpening and concentration in the transmission of bells. The world-famous song for the musical of the same name “Hello, Dolly” accompanied by O. Nazarenko gained a swing accent due to the alternation of the first and fourth parts of the bar and bright intonation. The material for accompaniment in the original genres (acrobats, jugglers, tightrope walkers, illusionists) was Latin American tunes (“Malagenya”, rumba “Valencia”), music for movies (“Serenade of the Sunny Valley”), personal improvisations. Between 1967 and 1987, the Union of Composers of Ukraine had author’s concerts-meetings, where among soloists were present the artists from the Philharmonic, the Opera House and teachers from the Institute of Arts. Well-known composers of Kharkiv such as G. Finarovsky, O. Zhuk, T. Kravtsov, F. Bogdanov, I. Kovach, N. Yukhnovska, O. Litvinov, G. Faintukh, V. Zolotukhin selected the soloists and completed the concert program. In general, during the whole period devoted to concertmaster’s activity, O. Nazarenko performed with more than a hundred soloists-vocalists of academic (bass, baritone, soprano, mezzo-soprano) and folk singing, as well as with numerous instrumentalists. Conclusions. Fruitful work on improving his own professionalism made the master a famous concertmaster-accordionist of Kharkiv. Collaboration with talented artists filled the emotional and intellectual state of the young musician, a rich palette of genres allowed the musician to think more widely and go beyond academism. The variety in the choice of means of expression enriched the technique of reading from a sheet, transposing and transition a piano works into an accordion. The expansion of the dramatic functions of the accordion accompaniment, the arsenal of means of expression contributed to the formation of a new type of ensemble based on the cocreation (equality / subordination) of its participants. This determined the active role of the accordionist concertmaster at all stages of the development of the interpretation plan: from the search for a key idea to its implementation on the concert stage. Working as an accompanist influenced not only his performing skills, but also Nazarenko’s work as a composer. Thanks to the personality of O. Nazarenko, the concertmaster activity of a whole generation of accordionists reached a qualitatively new professional level, and the profession of accompanist became popular among the younger generations working in this complex performance format.