Pianist plays in Kharkiv ruins, reminiscent of ‘The Pianist’
April 20, 2022
By Sophia Alexandra Hall, Classic FM
Yaroslav Korolev plays in the destroyed Palace of Labour.
The moving piano melody was written by Ukrainian composer, Yury Vesnyak.
Amidst the war-torn streets of Kharkiv, Ukraine, an E minor piano melody rings through bullet-holed buildings.
The music can be heard coming from the western part of the city’s Constitution Square, where the neoclassical Palace of Labour, built in 1914, now lies in ruins.
A piano sits in the open courtyard of the now destroyed building. And at the keys is musician, Yaroslav Korolev.
Filmed by music producer Sergei Romensky, Korolev plays as the camera pans around the devastation, caused by intense fighting in the region.
The song is by Ukrainian composer, Yury Vesnyak, and descriptively named, Tenderness.
Kharkiv has been consistently shelled since the war began at the end of February earlier this year.
Multiple landmarks have been decimated, and according to the mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, as of the start of this month, Russian forces have destroyed over 1,600 buildings.
The city is just 21 kilometres (13 miles) southwest from the Ukrainian border with Russia, and has played a critical part in holding off the Russian advance.
More than half of Kharkiv’s population has fled the city since the beginning of the war, but many who have stayed now live in the underground shelters, fearful of Russian shelling.
Commenters watching Romensky’s video on Instagram and TikTok, have said the scene reminds them of the 2002 film, The Pianist, starring Adrien Brody.
The Pianist tells the story
of acclaimed Jewish musician, Władysław Szpilman, and his harrowing journey through the ‘Warsaw Ghetto’ during the Second World War.
The film is inspired by the autobiography, The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of One Man’s Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.
During the film, Szpilman is seen navigating his way through a ruined city, much like the ruins apparent in Romensky’s video.
One commenter who noted this similarity commented on Romensky’s TikTok, “it does remind of The Pianist. Beautiful sound in such horror. I pray this war ends. So many have died, their world torn apart”.
Another Artist in Bombed Out Kharkiv – Cellist Playing Bach
300 years after Bach wrote his cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, the recognizable unaccompanied solo melody fills a warzone. Cellist, Denys Karachevtsev, sits on a stool in the road in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Kyiv’s Shchedryk Children’s Choir: Heart-Wrenching Songs
Singing for peace…
as one of Ukraine’s most recognized youth ensembles.
Shchedryk Children’s Choir from Kyiv sing two ethereal songs: a Ukrainian folk song by composer Roman Surzha, and a Georgian song by composer Giya Kancheli that repeats one word ‘Sun’ over and over again - in 17 different languages. Both songs are a compelling call for peace. The choir’s conductor, Marianna Sablina, recently wrote, “We do not know if we can ever assemble the choir [again]. We do not want our music lost in the fog and fires of this terrible war.”
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