Mikhail Zemtsov replying to Richard Pennycuick:

>This is a very fanny thing.  This symphony was presented in 1948 as a
>first symphony written by ukranian composer, it was an enormous sensation
>at that time.  Ovsianiikov- Kulikovski was supoused to be living in 19th
>century.  Orchestras have played and recorded the symphony and musicologists
>have written extended researches, but then.....  It resolted to be a
>geniously made fake by composer and violinist Mikhail Goldshtein (brothe=
r
>of more famous Boris Goldstein) The revelation of that fact made even
>more sensation than discovering of the symphony itself.  When Mr.
>Goldstein was asked why he did such a thing, he replyed that "if it was
>a Symphony by Goldstein, nobody would play it".

If I recall correctly, Goldstein did write five symphonies under
his own name and indeed, nobody seemed to take any interest in them,
which probably says nothing about their quality.  According to Frans C.
Lemaire's book "La musique au XXeme siecle en Russie et dans les anciennes
Republiques sovietiques" (XXth century music in Russia and former Soviet
Republics), when Goldstein revealed that Ovsyaniko-K.'s 21st symphony
was a pastiche of his own, authorities refused to acknowledge the fact.
Then an enquiry was made by some lofty committee chaired by Hleb Taranov,
himself an apparently capable composer (his 6th symphony could be found
on an old Melodiya LP record but I have never heard it).  The official
conclusion was that the piece was genuine, whatever that means, but the
author was neither Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, nor Goldstein.

Incidentally, it might have struck many music-lovers that
Ukrainian composers were scarcely recorded, not to mention
Ukrainians of Hebraic ascent like Goldstein (or Bibik, much
praised by Shostakovich and who ultimately emigrated in Israel).
The Association New Music in Odesa, led by high-voltage composer
Karmella Tsepkolenko, has strived to make some recent Ukrainian music
available (http://www.anm.odessa.ua/mic/u-mic-cbase.html) but much more
remains to be done, from Volodymyr Sokal'sky to Volodymyr Zahortsev.

Best wishes,

Thanh-Tam Le