Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968)
Symphony No. 2, Op. 26
Symphony No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 50
The history of Ukrainian culture during the
first third of the twentieth century reflects the history of the people of the Ukraine, their greatness and their tragedy,
with their deliverance from bondage and from the oppression of their national
dignity. The period, in short, brought about a short-lived Ukrainian
resurrection, when the people worked hard to create an entirely independent
land and culture. This brought great creative power in literature, art and
theatre, with Ukrainian music taking the lead in the cultural development of
these years.
Boris Lyatoshynsky, a composer, conductor
and teacher, was a leading member of the new generation of twentieth century Ukrainian
composers and is today honoured as the father of contemporary Ukrainian music.
Arriving in Kiev from his native city of Zhitomir in 1914, Lyatoshynsky
enrolled in the law school of Kiev University, while continuing his musical
studies at the new Kiev Conservatory in the composition class of Reinhold Glière,
with whom he was to continue a life-long relationship. Having completed his law
studies in 1918, he graduated in 1919 from the Conservatory, where he was soon
to take up a position as a teacher and later professor, continuing this
connection until his death. From 1935 to 1938 and from 1941 to 1944 he taught
concurrently at the Moscow Conservatory. As a composer he wrote a variety of
works, including five symphonies, symphonic poems and other shorter orchestral
works, choral and vocal music, two operas, chamber music and a number of works
for solo piano. His earliest compositions were romantic and lyrical in style,
influenced most of all by his esteem for the music of Schumann and Borodin. By
the time of his Symphony No. 1, his graduation composition, he had begun
to be influenced by the impressionist music of Scriabin, but with his Piano
Sonata No. 1 of 1924, he finally turned away from tradition, moving towards
the new musical language of Central and Western Europe, atonality. This period
lasted until 1929, when there gradually appeared more and more evidence of
simplification in harmonies, following the broad outlines of Ukrainian national
music, with increased reference to the folk-songs and music of the Ukraine,
relying on the earlier research in this field of Mykola Lysenko.
There is now general awareness of the
tragic effects of the gradual suppression of cultural life in the Soviet Union,
with complete state control of all musical activities. By the late 1920s the
Soviet government strenuously opposed the development of a national Ukrainian
musical style, repressing all the arts and using them as a means of political
propaganda, with a consequent disastrous decline in artistic standards. Eventually
the Central Committee condemned the formalism of Western European music, while
firmly controlling popular taste and the creativity of composers. Systematic
purges and censorship enforced the principles of Socialist Realism.
The Second Symphony of Lyatoshynsky,
written in 1935-36, is the first example of a Ukrainian-Soviet symphonic drama
of conflict, with underlying contrast of pictures and moods by means of linear
polyphony in the development of symphonic material. Here, however, is an
example of a masterpiece doomed for long to remain unheard through historical
circumstances. The history of early critical opinion and the consequences of
the symphony reflect the general situation in that period of Ukrainian culture,
when each new work was judged by its effectiveness in the promulgation of the
canons of Socialist Realism. Censors were not satisfied with Lyatoshynsky's
success in portraying a complex and eccentric reality and a generally insulting
atmosphere throughout the symphony, a work turbulent, nervous, filled with deep
pain and flashes of protest, yet, equally clearly, showing the composer's love
of life and his ideal of artistic and ethical responsibility towards his own
people. Immediately after the completion of the symphony in 1936 came the most
damaging insinuation, a review published before the scheduled first performance
and resulting in its cancellation, although the cancellation was attributed to
the death of a leading member of the Communist Party. Although revised in 1940,
the symphony joined the ranks of works by Prokofiev and Shostakovich, whose Fourth
Symphony had to wait 26 years for its first public performance. With others
held guilty of formalism, forgotten and awaiting eventual rehabilitation, the
symphony was not performed until 1964.
It is difficult to find a Ukrainian
musician who is not familiar with Lyatoshynsky's Third Symphony, written
in 1951 and revised in 1954, a work that represents a typical illustration of
continued Party criticism. The symphony, which was first performed in 1951 at
the Congress of Ukrainian Composers in Kiev, is the most frequently performed
and recorded of the composer's five symphonies. The first performance caused a
great sensation, but the Soviet censors still forced the composer to rewrite the
last movement, changing the original concept and removing the epigraph
"Peace will defeat war", if he hoped to see it performed again. After
a long period of indecision, the composer offered a revised version, but only
after a further revision did the Party permit a performance. In its new form
the symphony was performed in Leningrad in 1955 by the Leningrad Philharmonic
Orchestra under the direction of Evgeny Mravinsky, and subsequently in Moscow,
Kiev and other cities throughout the Soviet Union. Although the symphony was
accepted, after revision, the four years separating the two versions, the
second of which is heard in this recording, proved very damaging to Lyatoshynsky.
Accusations of formalism, decadence, aggression, sadism and cacophony were
levelled at him in official discussions of his work. In spite of this, the Third
Symphony represents the greatest example of Ukrainian symphonic music and
for many of us remains one of the great symphonies of the twentieth century.
© 1993
Theodore Kuchar
Theodore Kuchar
Theodore Kuchar graduated from the
Cleveland Institute of Music and by the age of 25 held the position of
principal viola in orchestras of Cleveland and Helsinki. He has appeared as
soloist and chamber musician throughout the world, performing at major
festivals including Blossom, Edinburgh, Kuhmo and Tanglewood. In 1980 he was
awarded the Paul Fromm Fellowship from the Boston Symphony Orchestra for study
and performance at Tanglewood, where his mentors included Bernstein, Colin
Davis, Ozawa and Previn, while at the same time working under the guidance of Lorin
Maazel as music director and conductor of the Cleveland Sinfonia. He has
subsequently served as music director of the Finnish Chamber Orchestra,
Queensland Philharmonic Orchestra and West Australian Ballet while having guest
conducted the leading orchestras of cape town, Helsinki, Kiev, Prague and
Tallinn, amongst many others. He also serves as artistic director of the
Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In 1992 he was appointed principal guest
conductor of the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, with which he records for
Marco Polo the complete symphonies of the leading Ukrainian composer of the
twentieth century, Boris Lyatoshynsky.
Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra
Established in 1937 under Nathan Rachlin,
the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra has continued to serve as one of the
most celebrated and accomplished instrumental ensembles in the territories of
the former Soviet Union. During its long history the orchestra has appeared
with soloists and conductors of the greatest distinction. Praised by Shostakovich
and by David Oistrakh, the orchestra has made many recordings and its tours
have taken it to cities throughout the former Soviet Union and Europe. Under
its principal guest conductor Theodore Kuchar, appointed in 1992, it has
continued to offer an extensive repertoire of music to audiences in the Ukraine
and elsewhere.