Vitaliy Hubarenko: Chamber Symphony for Violin and Orchestra No. 1

Vitaliy Serhiyovych Hubarenko (Ukrainian: Віталій Сергійович Губаренко) (13 June 1934, Kharkiv – 5 April 2000, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian composer. He graduated from Kharkiv Conservatory in 1960 (where he studied under Dmitri Klebanov). He was awarded the Ostrovsky Prize in 1967, and the Taras Shevchenko Prize in 1984. His first opera, Zahybel’ eskadry (‘The Destruction of the Squadron’) (1966) brought him to public attention. His compositions include operas (of which he wrote many including in 1980 the ‘opera-ballet’, Viy, Reborn May (1974), The Reluctant Matchmaker (1985), and Remember, My Brotherhood, described as an ‘opera-oratorio’ (1990–91)), film music, and Pys’ma lyubvi (‘Letters to Love’) (1972) a cycle of four monologues for soprano and chamber ensemble.

Chamber Symphony No. 1 for violin and orchestra, composed in 1967, was the first of four such symphonias concertante composed by Hubarenko which features string soloists. While the second one from 1978 also features a solo violin, the third (1983) features two violin soloists, and the final one from 1996 features a solo violoncello. Although Hubarenko composed many other concertante works, the only work he named a concerto was an even earlier Flute Concerto with chamber orchestra from 1965.