Described by Gramophone as a pianist of “consummate skill and thrilling conviction,” Margaret Fingerhut presents a deeply personal recital featuring music written between 1877 and 2005 by composers from the country of her grandfather’s birth. The survey includes Mykola Lysenko, the earliest Ukrainian composer represented. We owe our knowledge of Lysenko’s music to his pupil and editor, Lev Revutsky, who fell foul of new Stalinist cultural demands in the 1930s. Viktor Kosenko, a contemporary of Revutsky, also pursued his composing career in Ukraine. The collection includes pieces by Sergei Bortkiewicz, who suffered under both Soviet and Nazi tyrannies, and Vasyl Barvinsky, who shared Bortkiewicz’s adoption of late-Romantic Impressionism. Boris Lystoshynsky survived the Zhdanov Decree in the 1940s, which aimed to control Soviet culture and art; while the most contemporary Ukrainian composer on this recital, Valentin Silvestrov, fled to Berlin to re-establish his career following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Fingerhut was awarded an MBE in 2024 in recognition of her services to music and charitable fundraising. Royalty sales from this recording go towards British-Ukrainian Aid, which raises money for emergency vehicles and medical supplies for Ukraine.