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SIREN BLARES
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Images of the war in Ukraine
are seared into the collective memory.
But now, a new front line is opening up.
And it's being fought not with rockets,
but with musical instruments
and the rise and fall of a conductor's hand.
My baton is my weapon.
It's one that reaches to the soul.
It's not one that kills.
Music is such an important tool in our lives,
not just to bring pleasure,
but also to heal and to bring hope.
75 of Ukraine's best musicians are about to come together
to form an extraordinary new orchestra.
Today, I am a bit nervous.
The trip has begun.
But creating a world-class ensemble from scratch is ambitious.
And there are just eight weeks before their first concert.
I'm going to follow their journey across Europe.
Can they escape the tumult of their homeland
to play on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall?
Why is the message they're carrying so important
that they're willing to leave those they love behind?
And I'm going to ask whether musical notes arranged on a page
have the power to defy and ultimately heal.
We want to prove
that this is the voice of Ukraine,
that you cannot...
..erase it. You cannot erase the culture.
BBC NEWS THEME
Good evening, we're live in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv
in an underground shelter.
Russian forces are closing in on the city and...
As a journalist, I reported on the first days
of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
It was a full-scale military assault
by land, sea and air.
For months now, the Ukrainian people
have been fighting a battle for national survival.
And the cost, in lives and destruction,
has dominated the nightly news.
But I've heard about a group of Ukrainian musicians
who want to fight back in a different way,
with the weapons they know best -
their musical instruments.
75 of them have decided to come together
to form a brand-new ensemble -
the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra.
Now I'm returning to the country.
I want to meet some of the performers
and find out why playing classical music together
is as important to them as fighting on the front line.
In just two months,
the new orchestra is due to perform at one of the most high-profile
classical music festivals in the world -
the BBC Proms.
But there's a catch.
The orchestra still doesn't exist.
And many of its members remain here in Ukraine.
VIBRAPHONE PLAYS
MUSIC: Oh, The Red Viburnum In The Meadow by Stephan Charnetsky
This song, an adaptation of a 17th-century Cossack march,
was banned here during Soviet times,
but it's recently become popular again,
as Ukrainians turn to music to express solidarity
with their homeland.
Yevhen Ulianov is a percussionist
with the National Symphony Orchestra in Kyiv
and now a member of the nascent Freedom Orchestra.
Yevhen...
He's also a new dad.
Good to see you. And I have a present!
The birth of a child
is a transformational moment for any parent.
But for Yevhen, there's an added twist.
His wife Tetiana gave birth to their daughter Anna
on the very same day Russia invaded their country.
I just remember one moment.
My husband was standing close to me
and I saw him a little bit in tears.
Really? And I realised that something is going on.
For him, it was too much.
48 hours later, the war reached their own doorstep.
ORLA GUERIN: An early-morning strike on a block of flats.
The authorities here say
it was a Russian missile that killed two people.
SIREN WAILS
That big building. Right.
It was, like, from that side.
You can see the damage from this side, but from that side you can...
It's much more devasta... And...
Then... Oh, this is the video. Yeah.
YEVHEN SPEAKS UKRAINIAN
That must have been terrifying.
I couldn't even...
..like, understand what's happened...
It will be difficult for Yevhen
to leave Tetiana and baby Anna behind,
but for him, joining the orchestra is important.
Many of the people are trying to volunteer
to help our government, our soldiers.
For me, it's also help, because I can do my job.
And I can help my country and support people.
TETIANA SINGS SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
SINGING, UKULELE AND GLOCKENSPIEL
# And I'm singin'
# Just singin'
# In the rain! #
ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYS
SINGING
Like Yevhen,
many of the musicians in the new Freedom Orchestra
are living in a war zone.
There are no flights to or from Ukraine,
so two weeks before the concert,
those still based in the country
hope to make the journey by road to Poland,
where they can safely gather to rehearse.
Hundreds of miles away from the frontline with Russia
is the city of Lviv.
Although far from the battlefield,
this metropolis of almost three quarters of a million people
has been dragged directly into the conflict.
Just weeks ago, seven civilians here were killed in a missile strike.
I'm in Lviv to meet Anna Bura,
a 30-year-old violinist,
whose entire family are fighting for Ukraine
in their own separate ways.
VIOLIN PLAYS
This is a family with a strong musical lineage.
VIOLIN PLAYS
Anna's grandmother was a professional violinist
and encouraged her to take up the instrument
when she was just five-years old.
Today, Anna plays for the Lviv National Opera.
You can't play.
I couldn't play first 45 days, then I just...
After the war started? Yeah, yeah,
because the point of music is the point of joy.
Even when it's sad music, it's the joy of this sadness.
So the music helped fill that emptiness that you had at
the beginning of the war?
Yes, actually, I felt that it helps me to put myself together,
you know, because when you practise, you can concentrate.
Also, I realised that we can help people
with music as a way. Yes.
So people also need this healing.
VIOLIN PLAYS THROUGH LAPTOP
I loved... I always had this beautiful dress
just for performance, you know? For concert.
Anna and her friends are practising a work by
the 20th-century Ukrainian composer Vasyl Barvinsky.
He was arbitrarily denounced by the Russians in 1948
and imprisoned for a decade.
The secret police also burned his musical scores.
But lovers of his work have been able to reconstruct some of them.
Actually, I cannot listen or play Russian music now.
I have to play Ukrainian music,
to promote Ukrainian music in the world,
not Russian, because everyone knows Russian composers,
but not so many people knows about Ukrainian.
And this is our mission, like musicians,
to make people know about our culture more.
The war might be far away geographically,
but it's actually really close to you,
because your father is on the frontline.
I miss him really much.
And I haven't seen him for already six weeks.
Of course I'm worrying about him.
You know, it's not a safe place at all.
But also, I'm proud.
Anna is determined to bring Ukraine's distinctive
musical traditions to a wider audience.
And I want to understand her father's feelings
about his daughter's quest.
I need to get near the frontline of the fighting
to speak to Yaroslav.
He's in an infantry unit at a classified location near Sumy,
a city in the far north-east,
very close to the frontier with Russia.
Naturally, we need permission to get anywhere near the frontline,
and in order to speak with Yaroslav,
we need the permission of the Ukrainian forces.
We're just 17 kilometres from the border with Russia
and this area is still under constant rocket attack.
Clive. Pleasure to meet you. It's great to meet you.
Your whole family. They miss you.
Yaroslav did his national service decades ago.
Now, aged 55, he's volunteered to come back and fight.
And is that what you told your wife when she asked you not to go?
So now, both your daughters
are going to be playing in the Ukraine Freedom Orchestra.
Yaroslav is fighting in a war for independence,
the kind of struggle Ukraine has known before.
This is a country with a long and bitter history
of being fought over by its bigger neighbour.
It's been ruled at different times by empires based in Warsaw, Vienna,
St Petersburg and Moscow.
And each imperial power has left its mark on the country.
IMPERIALIST-STYLE MUSIC PLAYS
Ukraine's been the object of desire and aggression for centuries.
This imperial legacy has left Ukraine often embattled,
so it's indeed a kind of battleground,
but it's also been a proving ground, and a proving ground for an idea
at the centre of Ukrainian national identity,
and that is the concept of "volya" - defiant freedom.
Art and culture have expressed that defiant freedom
for a very long time,
and not freedom for Ukrainians only,
but freedom for all peoples.
From the folk songs of the 17th century
to the romantic verse of Shevchenko in the 19th,
the dramatic poetry of Lesya Ukrainka in the early 20th,
to what we're seeing now in popular music,
with Ukrainian rap taking the stage at Eurovision.
Now we're coming to grips with just how often
external forces have sought to obscure
Ukrainian culture from the world.
Although Ukraine has been
an independent country since 1991
following the break-up of the Soviet Union,
Vladimir Putin now insists
that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people".
And Russia has been accused in the current conflict
of deliberately targeting historical and cultural sites
as a way of trying to destroy an independent Ukrainian identity.
The Ukrainian state clearly understands
the importance not only of winning on the battlefield,
but also showcasing Ukraine to the world,
because one of the reasons why this war
has been so violent and aggressive
is partly because of our own ignorance about the country.
We've let this happen, in many respects,
because we haven't paid attention.
So the orchestra is bringing Ukrainian culture to the world,
but I also think it's working towards a victory
in which we all understand and see Ukraine
much better than we ever have before.
VIOLIN PLAYS
One member of the new orchestra, violinist Yulia Rubanova,
knows all too well what Russia's attempt
to obliterate Ukrainian culture really means.
She lives here in Austria,
but grew up in Ukraine's southern port city of Mariupol,
where her parents, both musicians, still live.
In March this year, Russian forces announced
they'd taken control of the city,
trapping tens of thousands of civilians.
For two months, they managed to cling to life in the besieged city.
Her parents, Serhiy and Vita,
have finally been able to escape.
This is the first time Yulia has seen them in months.
Yulia's family lived within sight of Mariupol's theatre,
and had performed on its stage.
In March, Russian bombs destroyed the building.
More than a thousand people
were reported to have been sheltering in the basement.
But in the aftermath of all the destruction,
and after more than 400 other attacks on cultural sites,
Yulia is determined to fight back.
For Ukrainians, the Mariupol theatre attack
felt like a deliberate assault on their culture.
A heritage that can be traced back to the late medieval world
of wandering Cossacks, who sang songs that spoke to
an illiterate and virtually enslaved peasant population,
of past days of freedom.
Over centuries, this cultural history
influenced generations of Ukrainian musicians and composers
seeking to assert an indigenous identity against foreign rule.
Time to head to the capital.
In just five days, the Freedom Orchestra
will finally come together for rehearsals.
Percussionist Yevhen is getting ready to leave his family.
Hello.
How are you?
Yevhen's been given special permission
to leave his country in wartime...
..but he's uncertain about what the trip will bring.
PURRING
Within days, he'll be leaving for rehearsals in Poland,
but he's heard some men of military age
are being turned away at the border.
He calls a friend in the orchestra to check he has the right paperwork.
It's too late to get an extra permit.
He'll have to gamble that the border guards will let him cross.
Most of the new orchestra's musicians are based here in Ukraine.
They hope to travel by coach across the border to Poland.
In just two weeks, they'll play the Royal Albert Hall.
In the city of Lviv,
violinist Anna is making her final preparations.
It's time for her to join
the other young musicians from across Ukraine.
This is the start of a long international tour -
months away from their families back home.
Today, I am a bit nervous.
The trip has begun,
so I'm really excited.
Sometimes it's hard -
you realise, yes, that the war is going on,
it's not over.
But we need to get some power for future fight.
The war means tighter checks on who can and cannot leave.
The coach is held up for six hours at the border.
Finally, it's waved through, and passes into Poland.
For the musicians, it's the first stop on their musical odyssey.
They're heading to Warsaw,
where they'll be based for rehearsals and an inaugural concert.
It's another country, another people,
another conductor, so many things will be different.
This orchestra is not the first in history
to be formed in defiance of an enemy invasion.
Ironically, it was the Russians who were the earliest to understand
the propaganda power of orchestral music during wartime.
In September 1941,
German troops advanced on the Russian city of Leningrad.
Renowned composer Dmitri Shostakovich
was one of 3-million inhabitants who found themselves trapped.
Shostakovich tried to join the army, but they wouldn't let him
because they didn't want to risk his death on the front lines.
He ends up assigned to defend the Leningrad Conservatory.
He was meant to be on the roof,
so that if any artillery landed on the roof,
they would extinguish the fire.
But any time there was ever any danger,
they would send Shostakovich to perform some menial task
so that he was never actually in any danger.
MARTIAL MUSIC
As the siege took hold, Shostakovich began to write
the music that would become emblematic
of his country's struggle against the Nazi invasion.
Life in besieged Leningrad was terrible.
It was apocalyptic.
People were desperate.
He started composing the symphony
to memorialise everything that was happening around him.
It's why it's so emotionally powerful.
Shostakovich started writing it in Leningrad, under the siege,
when the worst bombing was happening,
and then he was thankfully evacuated from the city.
Once he finished writing the score,
it had to be flown back to Leningrad.
And as preparations were made to perform the symphony
for the first time, the orchestra was swelled
by musician soldiers taken from the front line.
When it was first performed in Leningrad,
it was an event of such magnitude
it gave the people who had been in that besieged city
a sense that they were not alone and that there was hope
and that there was solidarity with others around the Soviet Union.
That score was smuggled out of the Soviet Union.
It came to the UK, the United States,
and conductors fought one another to try to get the first performance.
It became a symbol of defiance.
The Americans and the Europeans
became united with the Soviet Union through this music.
The Freedom Orchestra's musicians have made it to Warsaw.
PIANO MUSIC
Soon, the hard work will begin, at the city's famous opera house,
to mould a credible ensemble in just ten days.
I'm also here for the start of what will be
an intensive rehearsal period.
And here are our musicians.
The poster for the concert,
there's Yevhen at the bottom there,
and Anna, our violinist, there.
They're all here in Poland at the home of the National Opera
and they're finally going to be playing together.
This incredible project is going to get some life.
I want to meet the person who came up with
this extraordinary musical idea...
..the conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.
What was the motivation for creating this orchestra?
I'm Canadian-Ukrainian.
My great-grandparents came from Chernivtsi,
which is in the west of Ukraine,
and when I was a child I heard Ukrainian spoken in the home,
I was taught all of the beautiful traditions of the Ukrainian culture,
and very passionate about my Slavic blood.
So at the beginning of the invasion, I wanted to fight.
But as a musician, instead of taking up a...a pistol or a gun,
I wanted to hold my baton in defence of its culture, of its soul.
Vladimir Putin says Ukraine doesn't have a culture. Mm.
He doesn't understand his history.
I don't think he understands the human soul
and how...
..we are all brothers and sisters of Slavic,
of the Slavic nations.
There's such a strong history between Ukraine and Russia.
So this fight is not only about Ukraine,
it's about all of us.
We can speak to one another, despite our differences,
and share at least music together.
ORCHESTRA WARMS UP
How did you go about finding them?
There were glitches along the way.
We had a bass player who was drafted to the military.
And believe it or not, just two days ago we had...
..our principal second violinist was packing
and he found his passport on the table
which had been chewed by his dog,
so he's now unable to come.
The programme that the orchestra's playing -
Silvestrov, Chopin,
Beethoven, Fidelio -
there is a link between all of those, isn't there?
I selected this programme first of all
because I love the music. That I have to establish.
I had to have a Ukrainian composer.
Valentyn Silvestrov is the most famous and celebrated
living composer, he's now 84-years-old,
after spending a life in Ukraine.
So what are you hoping to achieve, then?
This orchestra is united
to play to the world,
to galvanise audiences on our tour.
And I feel that there's not a better time now.
The war is becoming a little less present
in the news cycle, but it's getting stronger.
There's more death, there's more fighting every day.
The musicians who have families now in Ukraine,
it must be absolutely horrific. But we're all determined and strong
and united for this reason - that you will not silence us.
ORCHESTRA PLAYS
On the first day of rehearsals,
there's a nervous energy amongst the musicians.
SHE DEMONSTRATES
Fantastika, fantastika.
The first run-through seems to have gone well.
I wanted to catch up with violinist Yulia,
who's learned much more about her parents' escape from Mariupol.
Mariupol was a beautiful city. Yeah.
And...
Like here.
Just like this? It was like this.
And now it's devastated.
As a professional musician,
Yulia continued to perform regularly in Austria,
but her parents were never far from her mind.
Did you fear that you wouldn't see them again?
Tell me about when you finally made contact with them. Yeah.
What was that like?
Has music helped you through the darkest of times?
We are united to fight for Ukraine on the cultural front.
It's not long until the Proms,
and they're still getting used to playing together.
There is a pride all the musicians feel in playing for their country,
and percussionist Yevhen is carrying his national flag,
which he hopes his fellow musicians will all sign.
All of this orchestra is 100% Ukrainian.
It's like the whole world becomes Ukrainian in one moment.
It's a great opportunity to...
..to world know more about Ukraine, about Ukrainians.
We're not like small part of Russia or Soviet Union.
We are independent country,
with its own art.
We have great culture.
We usually think of music as able to transcend borders,
to knock down barriers.
But actually, it's in times of crisis, like wars,
when nations tend to turn music to show their patriotism.
And there is one living Ukrainian composer
who has a special place in the hearts of its musicians.
His name is Valentyn Silvestrov.
Silvestrov is such a revered father figure
for younger composers of all stripes.
In 2017, there was a concert of Silvestrov's music
at the Kyiv Conservatory.
The minute they opened the doors, it was like a storm to get seats.
People were literally fighting over seats.
There was this great need to hear his music.
Silvestrov began his career in the 1960s,
but after falling foul of the Soviet authorities,
his music took a new direction.
It was Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991
that would affect him most profoundly.
CHANTING
Once Ukrainian independence is declared in 1991,
the end of the Soviet Union,
Ukrainians are beginning to try to figure out
what that means for them as a country, as a people,
and Silvestrov very slowly begins to write music
that is much more nationalistic, it's much more religious,
and it's much more engaged with this idea of
what does it mean to be Ukrainian?
He is articulating in sound this growing self-awareness.
In 2014, violent demonstrations broke out
protesting against corruption, police brutality,
and the then-government's close ties to Russia.
SIREN WAILS
Over three days, more than 100 people were killed.
It became known as the Maidan Uprising,
and inspired Silvestrov to write his most political music.
CHORAL-STYLE MUSIC PLAYS
Silvestrov wrote a few songs in memory of those protesters.
These had very overt political causes
and they were meant as a way to memorialise
and to give listeners a sense that they were not alone.
CHORAL-STYLE MUSIC CONTINUES
For decades,
I'd hear Ukraine in Silvestrov's music.
He started referring to Ukrainian music,
Ukrainian folk songs and Ukrainian language,
way before the current events.
CHORAL SINGING
What better piece to programme than his 7th Symphony?
Silvestrov wrote it for the person most dear to him.
His wife died in 1996.
As a gesture to all of our sisters and brothers in Ukraine,
everyone that we've lost,
and all of those beautiful souls that will live on,
this is our dedication to them.
Listening to the rehearsals for the Symphony No 7,
one passage is striking.
The brass players blow into their instruments
without forcing notes.
SPEAKS UKRAINIAN
Like a wave.
MUSICIANS CHATTER
I was standing in the wings while you were practising
the Silvestrov 7th Symphony,
and there is an incredibly powerful moment
where you've got the tolling of a bell with the percussion
and then the brass section,
the players in turn force air into the instrument
but there's no note that comes out,
and that is incredibly poignant.
What was Silvestrov trying to represent there?
Well, there's a beautiful story behind this symphony,
is that he dedicated it to his wife.
Ultimately, it is about her spirit, it's about her dying breath.
But for me, it represents soul and life,
and this is symbolic, why I choose the symphony,
because it was dedicated to her,
but we can dedicate this as a symbol of the soldiers
and all of the victims who are dying
and who have died in Ukraine.
So this is a very profound and spiritual work for us.
It's, uh...
It's why this is such a great piece we can perform
because audiences will understand...
..the emotion that we all have together.
So it's hope,
it's a message of continuity despite all of the tragedy,
and that's our message, ultimately, on this tour.
While rehearsals continue in Warsaw, I'm travelling to Paris
to meet the ensemble's star pianist, Anna Fedorova.
PIANO PLAYING
She's been busy playing a series of benefit concerts for Ukraine.
Anna. Hi. Pleasure to meet you, it's good to see you.
Very nice to meet you.
The Chopin is very special to you,
particularly in recent times. Just explain why.
All of us Ukrainians, I think we feel even closer to Chopin
because our destinies are quite similar at the moment.
He was also forced to escape from his own beloved country, Poland,
because of the invasion of Russia at that time.
And he lived in exile in France for the rest of his life.
I just wonder how intense your playing has become.
I feel especially when it's, er, really dramatic music,
the tragic music, the dark music,
I feel that it connects even more with me now
because also this emotions are the ones which I'm going through.
And are there moments when you're angry about what is going on?
Oh, yes. When you attack the keyboard? Yes.
Yeah, that also comes through a lot when I'm performing. Really?
ANGRY RIPPLING SEQUENCE
I think with Chopin, you can never be aggressive when you play Chopin,
so what emotions that rather are coming through here
is the scream of the soul.
That's what you're thinking? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
The drama, the dramatism of the situation,
the tension -
those are the emotions.
The bombing of your homeland,
is that the kind of...
..desperation of the soul that you're talking about?
Yes, yes. It's... It's absolutely heart-breaking
and it's...just physical pain to see and understand
that actually, this is really happening.
Music is such an important...tool in our lives, basically,
not just to bring pleasure but also to heal and to bring hope.
Mmm. Chopin famously never returned to Poland. No.
Yeah. I hope it won't be the case with us, with Ukrainians.
ORCHESTRA PLAYS
THEY LAUGH
Pretty good...
SPEAKS UKRAINIAN ..that we played together.
Er, just, we need a little more life.
SPEAKS UKRAINIAN
er...joie de vivre.
When you make crescendo.
SHE DEMONSTRATES
Just let it go. OK?
Sunshine. Sontse.
Freedom.
In Warsaw, Anna Bura has been settling in
among the first violins in the orchestra.
I had a recorded message from her dad,
on the front line in north-east Ukraine.
I feel more emotional that I was expected to.
And you understand why your father is there?
He has to fight for future of his kids.
I am sure that he is in the place he has to be now.
And thanks to people like my dad,
we still have our homes and we still have our country.
This morning, I felt for first time
we are united here...
..to help Ukraine, so, and it really feels like that.
Mmm. It feel...there's unity.
The gruelling rehearsals continue, with the Proms not far away.
SPEAKS UKRAINIAN
When we come together, we make music together,
and these ten days... I bet nobody's going to complain.
I have a feeling I won't see one musician complain,
because we all know what the soldiers are going through.
I want us to all be resolved that this war is not going away -
we all have to stay in solidarity
and fight with every mean we can,
artistically, in every way possible.
CHATTER
Just to keep these people in Ukraine,
keep them feeling like there's hope.
After coming together for the first time just two weeks ago,
the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra arrives in London.
A crowd has already gathered in support.
What are the thoughts now of our musicians
just one hour before taking the stage?
Anna. Oh, Clive!
Hello. Good to see you. Hey! So great to see you!
What are your hopes for this kind of concert?
What do you think it can bring to the Ukrainian story?
It's spreading the spirit of Ukrainian people,
which is very strong and powerful.
This is, of course, a huge stage, a huge exposure.
We will reach a lot of people with this concert.
People in the UK were so supportive this whole time for the Ukrainians.
And I think it will be very, very special.
Well, I know you've got to get ready, so good luck.
Thank you.
Yevhen!
It's good to see you again. Good to see you again.
My word, look at you. Ready to go. Yeah. How are you feeling?
Excited.
And all that work, all the preparation over the last few weeks,
it's come to this now. In just a few minutes, you will be on the stage.
Yeah, yes. Very excited.
Hope we can perform very well
in such a great hall, such a great acoustic.
It's wonderful.
Yulia, Anna, it's so good to see you here.
I can see the excitement!
We are still fighting.
And we need
all the world to continue helping us
because we cannot stand alone.
It's only been a few weeks since I first met
members of the new orchestra,
and to come together here,
many have had to leave behind friends and relatives
in the middle of a war zone,
but in that time they've forged a new collective
with a powerful message to carry to the world
about Ukrainian culture.
They're doing their bit for their country,
inspired by the conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.
Now you are here at the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
How difficult was it getting this orchestra into shape
from that first moment?
Of course, the first rehearsal was rough,
but ten days of intensive military boot camp
for musicians, it was...
The results are phenomenal, and I couldn't be happier.
As their leader, together we are united as soldiers of music.
To show the world that Ukrainian culture is alive,
it's rich, and it can't be erased.
APPLAUSE
My baton is my weapon.
It's one that reaches to the soul.
It's not one that kills.
It's one that is about life, and hope...
..and freedom, and unity.
Maestro, standing by.
INSTRUMENTS TUNE UP
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
ORCHESTRA BEGINS TO PLAY