“Russian bombs fall daily on Kharkiv since the invasion of Ukraine, but time stood still briefly on Saturday as a group of Ukrainian musicians moved listeners with a classical concert,” writes Hervé Bar in Saturday’s (3/26) Agence France-Presse. “Three violinists, a cellist and a bass player delighted an audience of a few dozen people for half an hour in one of the largest subway stations in Ukraine’s second city, close to the Russian border. Underground and protected from rockets and missiles, the musicians, aged 20-35, played the national anthem and several tunes from popular Ukrainian folklore. The enraptured listeners were displaced people [who] have been living in the station since the invasion began on February 24…. Sergiy Politutchy, director of Kharkiv Music Fest, one of the most prestigious music festivals in Ukraine … [organized] the concert [which took place] on the same day that the annual event would have begun…. The musicians [performed] an extract from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 as well as Dvořák’s humoresques. They then played a tune by Myroslav Skoryk—a Ukrainian composer who died in 2020…. [Violinist Tatiana Chukh] said, … ‘Maybe it was the best concert of my life.’ ”
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