Some Tasty Bites on Ukrainian Buffet

Since declaring independence in 1991, Ukraine became a magnet for such enterprising Americans as Roger McMurrin, who founded a ministry (the Church of the Holy Trinity), a nonprofit organization (Music Mission Kiev) and the Kiev Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, which he and a team of Ukrainians conducted Friday night at El Camino College’s Marsee Auditorium.

While the main musical purpose of this organization seems to be to perform major European sacred works that were banned by the Soviets, what we heard was a variety show geared to short attention spans, trying to be all things to everyone.

A truncated edition of the third movement from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 served as an “overture”; a pompously kitschy elaboration of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” by Ovid Young introduced the chorus. One could hear Italian operatic arias and duets agreeably sung by the four soloists featured in the “Ode,” sample the finale from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mussorgsky’s “The Great Gate of Kiev,” or experience the cultural dislocation of hearing the Quintet from “West Side Story” sung in lusty Ukrainian.

Yet there was ample compensation in the soaring a cappella choral settings by Rachmaninoff and Ukrainian composers such as Dmytro Archangelsky and Artemly Vedel. Best of all was the interlude of high-spirited Ukrainian folk music near the close, complete with colorful costumes and Eastern European instruments like the cimbalom and bandura.

From this hodgepodge, one could draw a few conclusions. The chorus is a very good one with a solid, rich bass end, shown off at its best in the a cappella material. The orchestra’s playing, though, needs a lot of work, as well as better-quality instruments (always a problem in Eastern European countries). And the shameless hawking of souvenirs onstage by the McMurrins was unintentionally amusing; it felt like a pledge break on PBS.