Melbourne-based Ukrainian-Australian violinist Markiyan Melnychenko shines a welcome light on Ukrainian music, which has been repressed both at home and abroad in this attractive collection of first recordings.

Seven 20th-century composers – Mykola Lysenko, Borys Lyatoshynsky, Vasyl Barvinsky, Anatolyi Kos-Anatolskyi, Stanislav Lyudkevych, Mykola Kolessa and Ivan Karybyts – are represented with seven decades worth of works heavily influenced by Ukrainian folk tunes and dances in the first volume of a series of “postcards” by Toccata Classics.

Melnychenko, who was Principal First Violin with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, is joined by Australian pianist Benjamin Martin for all 17 tracks bar the showpiece opener, Lysenko’s Ukrainian Rhapsody – memorable tunes and Cossack rhythms – which is performed with Melburnian pianist Peter de Jager.

Lyatoshynsky’s more modern slant is evident in two posthumous miniatures, but his three Tajik Folk Themes are a highlight. Barvinsky studied with Dvořák but was sent to a Soviet prison camp for ten years and was forced to burn all his works. He spent his remaining...