New Data for the Portrait of the Ukrainian Pianist Alexander Slobodyanik

Abstract

Relevance of the study. Oleksandr Slobodyanyk is an outstanding world-class concert pianist. The study of his art is necessary for the further development of piano performance. Slobodyanyk came from Ukraine, but lived half his life in Russia and the other half in the United States. Due to this, his art in Ukraine is insufficiently known and not studied at all. Мain objective of the study: identify a number of important theses that will serve as guidelines for the study of this artistic phenomenon. Мethodology. At this stage, the main method is the collection of scattered and inaccessible materials: sound recordings of the artist's performance, memoirs of his contemporaries and friends, international press reviews. The connection of the comparative method and musicological analysis of recorded performance allows us to draw conclusions about the important features of this pianist`s art. Findings and conclusions. The article speaks about the nationality of Slobodyanyk, the sources of formation of his personality; the essential features of his performing style are formulated. The study of the pianist's repertoire policy reveals the principles of his performing aesthetics. Based on the new materials found, it became possible to evaluate the audience perception of Slobodyanyk's art in different countries. The collected memoirs analysis reveals the peculiarity of his creative method: formation of interpretation during his concert performance. Recordings analysis of his Performances reveals the originality of the content in the pianist's interpretation of the classics. The collected materials draw attention to the following important points of the pianist's performance features: lot of his biography moments still need to be clarified; the process of collecting materials for research remains unfinished; to understand the individuality of the artist, it is important to take into account and sincerely highlight his origins and the influence of family, teachers, environment; to avoid one-sided interpretation of his performance style, it is necessary to study different layers of its repertoire and reviews from different countries to its interpretation. The materials reveal the following features of Slobodyanyk's creative method – a tendency to creativity on stage, "artistic" nature, and immersion in expressive, demonic images. Identified features and problems should determine the guiding directions in the further studies of the great pianist`s art.