# Arkady Filippenko



## Portamento

*Arkady Filippenko* (1912-83) was a Soviet Ukrainian composer who is unjustly forgotten today. Filppenko helped organize the Ukrainian Composers Union and served as its executive secretary and vice-president in the mid-50s. He wrote for nearly every genre and left several symphonies, an opera, nine works of chamber music (including four string quartets), and more than 500 songs. He was perhaps best known in the Soviet Union as a composer for the cinema.

I am only familiar with Filippenko's string quartets, but thankfully they are all masterpieces - comparible with most of Shostakovich's essays in the genre. The 2nd String Quartet, which evoked the struggles of the Soviet people during WWII, won the State Prize in 1948 and is especially well-crafted.

Recordings of Filippenko's work are rare, most coming in the form of old Melodiya recordings. Thankfully I've got my hands on them to enjoy for a while. I believe a user on eBay sells some of these CDs.

String Quartet No. 1:





No. 2:





No. 3:





No. 4:


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## Pugg

Those string quartets sounds like almost "classical" as in the classical period.
( bit of Klezmer also)


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## Portamento

Pugg said:


> Those string quartets sounds like almost "classical" as in the classical period.
> ( bit of Klezmer also)


That is my experience with most Ukrainian composers - very nationalist in style. I don't very much see the classical in Filippenko, more neoromantic with bits of folk elements in between.


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