Borys Lyatoshynsky
Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky (; January 3, 1895April 15, 1968) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, and teacher. A leading member of the new generation of 20th century Ukrainian composers, he was awarded a number of accolades, including the honorary title of People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and two Stalin State Prizes. Biography. Family and early life. Borys Lyatoshynsky was born on January 3, 1895, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). His parents were both musical and well-educated, and their received his primary education at home. The Lyatoshynsky family moved with Borys's father, , a  history teacher, who during his career was the head teacher of high schools in Zhytomyr, Nemyriv, Kyiv, and—from 1908 to 1911—in Zlatopol. Lyatoshynsky's mother Olga Borisovna played the piano and sang. Borys had an older sister, Nina. Polish literature and history was held in high esteem was respected in the Lyatoshynsky household; Borys read a lot as aboy, especially the historical and romantic works of Henryk Sienkiewicz and Stefan Żeromski. The composer signed his early works under the pseudonym 'Boris Yaksa Lyatoshynsky', using the name of a Polish knight who had fought in the Battle of Grunwald . His earliest works included mazurkas, waltzes, and a Chopinesque scherzo, which bear little resemblance to compositions written later in life. The existence of a Polish side to Lyatoshynsky's family resulted in Polish themes became the central line of his work. Zhytomyr was the cultural and administrative centre of a region long inhabited by ethnic Poles, and his first music teacher was of Polish origin. Borys graduated from the Zhytomyr Gymnasium in 1913. Later in life, he recalled that he "became really interested in music" at school; he mastered the violin, and created his first compositions, a mazurka, a waltz , and a piano quartet. The pieces, although naïve and unoriginal, revealed his musical talent, and motivated his father to encourage his efforts as a schoolboy composer. In Zlatopol, he took piano lessons from a school teacher, whom he later remembered with great warmth. In 1914, he first met his future wife Margarita Tsarevich. Student years. Before the 21st century, the first work written by the composer thought by musicologists to have been a mazurka, written on 20 January 1910, when Lyatoshynsky was fifteen. However, during the 1910s, Lyatoshynsky wrote 31 other works of various musical genres—20 of which were discovered  in 2017— none of which were known by his previous biographers. The pieces have provided scholars with an indication of the creative potential of the young composer. In 1913, on the advice of his father, Lyatoshynsky entered the Faculty of Law at Kyiv University after leaving high school. His piano quartet was performed in public in time for his father's birthday. The local press praised the work, although the piano part was over-dominant. Lyatoshynsky's family decided to ask the composer Reinhold Glière, then the director and professor of the newly opened Kyiv Conservatory, to teach the young  man composition. His mother brought Glière the score of the quartet, and Glière agreed to teach him. His early musical style was influenced by his family, his teachers, and his future wife Margarita Tsarevich—in his letters to her written between 1914 and 1916, his ideas about writing music can be seen. After Glier became the director of the Kyiv Conservatory in 1914 (now the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music of Ukraine), Lyatoshynsky enrolled there as a student. He graduated from the university in 1918. After graduating from the Conservatory the following year, he was employed there as a music  composition teacher. During his student years, he composed his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 1 (1915), and his Symphony No. 1, Op. 2 (19181919, revised in 1967). According to the musicologists Igor Savchuk and Tatiana Gomon, perhaps the most tragic of his early piano works is "Mourning Prelude", a transitional work and one of his most powerful, which was written on 19 December 1920, the day his father died of typhus. During this early period of Lyatoshynsky development as a composer, he drew inspiration from works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Glazunov, and Alexander Scriabin. Many young composers of the  Russian Empire similarly regarded Skriabin's experiments as a turning point in music. His Piano Trio No.1 (1922) for violin, cello, and piano, is a work that attempts to have greater dynamic content and complexity; it's sections are more contrasting than in previous works. Career at the Kyiv Music Conservatoire. From 1922 to 1925, Lyatoshynsky, then a 25-year-old lecturer and teacher of composition in the Kyiv Music Conservatory, organised and led the . Despite receiving a conservative musical education, he was determined to raise the standards of contemporary composition, making innovative changes regarding his own music, but also  helping other young composers to establish new methods of writing. Modernism was found in the works of other composers, such as , , and Mykhailo Verykivsky, whose compositions show the influence of impressionism, expressionism, neoclassicism, and constructivism, but Lyatoshynsky encapsulated modernism. In the 1920s, the Communists introduced a policy of korenizatsia ('growing roots'), designed to foster indigenous cultures as a way to undermine what was perceived as imperial domination, Korenizatsia produced a cultural climate that encouraged Lyatoshynsky and his contemporaries to be experimental and innovative. During the first half of the decade, he concentrated mainly on composing chamber music for the violin  and the piano, writing pieces such as the his second string quartet, the Trio for piano, violin and cello, and two piano sonatas. He also composed songs, some of them set to the lyrics of the Chinese ancient poets. "Reflections" (1925), a cycle of seven pieces for the piano, is one of a small number of works for the instrument by Lyatoshynsky; his other works are the sonatas (written in 1924 and 1925), "Ballade" (1928), a suite (1942), and seven of his , written in 1942 and 1943. During the 1920s Lyatoshynsky composed a series of romances based on the writings  of poets that included Heinrich Heine, Konstantin Balmont, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, Percy Shelley, and Maurice Maeterlinck, and including a setting of Heine's poem "Black sails on a boat" (19221924). Other works include his Sonata for Violin and Piano (1924), and the String Quartet No 3. His opera ' (1929), based on a novel by the Ukrainian writer Ivan Franko, describes the struggle of the Ukrainians against the Mongol invaders in the 13th century. Lyatoshynsky's second opera, ' (1937), was based on the story of the Ukrainian communist Mykola Shchors during the conflict in Ukraine that followed  the end of the First World War. The Piano Sonata No.1 was published in Moscow in 1926; Lyatoshynsky avoided using the traditional sonata structure; the sonata has a single movement and uses challenging rhythmic combinations. The Sonata No 2 (1925), dedicated to the Russian composer Nikolai Myaskovsky, includes the use of the romantic shapes and a strongly defined thematicism; the melodies are supported by a growling accompaniment. In 1926 he composed an overture based on Ukrainian folk music. During 19311932, Lyatoshynsky wrote an orchestral suite for orchestra. From 1932 to 1939, he was a committee member of the Bureau of  the Union of Composers of Ukraine. Amongst works composed in the 1930s were the Second Piano Trio and arrangements of Ukrainian songs. Following the commission from the officials of the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre, Lyatoshynsky travelled to Tajikistan to study folk music and compose a ballet about the life of local people. Following his visit to Tajikistan, he composed his "Three Pieces after Folksong-Themes" for violin and piano, based on the folk music of the region. Moscow Conservatory. From 1935 to 1938, and from 1941 to 1944, Lyatoshynsky taught orchestration at the Moscow Conservatory. He wrote his Second  Symphony in B flat (1936) in his favourite modernistic style, knowing that this was not what was expected of him by the Soviet regime. With this composition, Lyatoshynsky had taken a huge risk. His symphony was finished at the time when Dmitry Shostakovich and other composers were being singled out for political attack. The planned premiere in February 1937 did not take place; the premiere was delayed until 1941. During the orchestral rehearsals, Lyatoshynsky noted with surprise that the orchestra had divided opinions about the work, and that some of the musicians regarded it as "insolent", "rubbish” and written by  a formalist, something that the composer denied. ‘I have written it sincerely’, he told them, ‘using my own characteristic musical language’—many of the musicians remained unimpressed. A journalist who was present at the rehearsal, later wrote a critical article in "Sovetskaya Musica". Lyatoshynsky recalled that he had "never heard such destructive criticism". Lyatoshynsky was the chairman of the Union of Composers of Ukraine in 1939. In April 1948, Lyatoshynsky came to the National Conference of the Composers in Moscow, even though he was excluded from the Union of Soviet Composers. He wrote at this time of his despondency over the  prohibition of his music by the authorities. After receiving further official criticism of his Symphony No.2, in which the work was dismissed and performances forbidden, Lyatoshynsky was labelled as a formalist. Evacuation to Saratov. When the threat to Kyiv became real during the German invasion of the USSR, the government in Moscow worked to protect the city's main artistic organisations and artists. Theatre groups, orchestras and composers were evacuated to the interior of the USSR. Whilst helping to develop the culture and art of the republics they were sent to, Ukrainian artists continued to develop their national music. Many  faculties of the Moscow Conservatoire, including the music department, were relocated to Saratov, a town near the Volga. Evacuated there along with his colleagues, In Saratov, the Ukrainian Taras Shevchenko Radio Station broadcast political speeches and daily concerts of Ukrainian music. During his period as an evacuee,  Lyatoshynsky taught at the Saratov branch of the Moscow Conservatory, worked on arrangements of Ukrainian songs, which were then broadcast. He composed several chamber works, such as the Ukrainian Quintet (1942, 2nd ed. 1945), the String Quartet No 4 (1943), a suite on Ukrainian folk tunes for string quartet (1944), and a suite  for a quartet of wooden wind instruments (1944). He established contacts and worked collaboratively with the administrators of the local Concert Hall and Radio Committee; he took charge and led operations to save and transport Ukrainian musical manuscripts away to safety. Post-war career. In September 1943, Lyatoshynsky was invited by the Moscow Conservatory to work there for a year, but on 10 November 1943, after the liberation of Kyiv, he returned on the first flight back to the city, as part of a delegation that included the poets Maksym Rylsky and Mykola Bazhan, and the artist Mykhailo Derehus. After  the war he wrote a number of symphonic poems and other orchestral works: ' ("Reunion", 1949); ' ("Grazhina", 1955); "" ("On the Banks of the Vistula", 1958); the Taras Shevchenko Suite (1952); his Slavic Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1953); the Third and Fourth symphonies, and the "Slavic Overture" (1961). His Fourth Symphony was performed in the Moscow Conservatoire shortly after its completion in October 1963. In a letter to A. Dmitriev, he wrote that the symphony contained "autobiographical features" and was "very precious" to him. In the years following the death of Joseph Stalin, Lyatoshynsky was more able to make free use  of motivic development in his works, and make greater use of dissonances and atonal language. During the 1960s, Lyatoshynsky, by then a member of the Composers’ Union of the USSR, was allowed to take ‘cultural’ trips abroad, where he met fellow composers. Accompanied by his wife, he visited Austria, Switzerland, and other countries. He was a member of international competition juries for the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958 and again in 1962, the Belgian Quartet Competition in Liège (in 1956, 1959, and 1962) and the Mykola Lysenko Music Competition in Kyiv in 1965. He was the artistic director  of the Ukraine Philharmonic, and worked as a music consultant on the Ukrainian State Radio Committee. He travelled to Poland on several occasions to Warsaw Autumn festivals of contemporary music. In 1957, as a representative of the Union of Composers of the USSR, he travelled to Bulgaria during the centennial celebrations for the death of Mikhail Glinka. During the last years of his life, Lyatoshynsky completed the "Solemn Overture" Op. 70 (1967) for orchestra. He died on 15 April 1968, and was buried in the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv; a bust has since been added to the grave. Honours, awards , and commemorations. A monument to Lyatoshynsky was erected in Zhytomyr in honour of the composer. A commemorative plaque was erected in Kyiv at the house where he lived from 1944 to 1968 (now 68 B. Khmelnytskoho Street), and in 1977 a street in Kyiv was renamed in his honour. The Kyiv Chamber Choir and the are named after Lyatoshynsky. Works. Lyatoshynsky wrote a variety of works, including five symphonies, symphonic poems, and several shorter orchestral and vocal works, two operas, chamber music, and a number of works for solo piano. He produced four string quartets, in 1915, 1922, 1928, and  1943. His earliest compositions (such as his First Symphony) were greatly influenced by the expressionism of Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninoff. His musical style later developed in a direction favoured by Shostakovich, which caused significant problems with Soviet critics of the time, and as a result Lyatoshynsky was accused (together with Sergei Prokofiev and Shostakovich) of formalism and creation of degenerative art. Many of his compositions were rarely or never performed during his lifetime. The 1993, a recording of his symphonies by the American conductor Theodore Kuchar and the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra (on the Naxos/Marco Polo label) brought his  music to worldwide audiences. Symphonies. It has been suggested by the music writer Gregor Tassie that Lyatoshynsky's First Symphony (19181919), is the earliest symphony to be composed in Ukraine after Maxim Berezovsky. It was written as his graduation composition at a time when he had become influenced by the music of Scrabin and Richard Wagner. It was conducted in 1919 by Glière. The First Symphony is described in the 1999 edition of "The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs" as "a well-crafted, confident score" that "abounds in contrapuntal elaboration and abundant orchestral rhetoric". The music for the Second Symphony  (19351936) can be interpreted as depicting images of the reality of Soviet life, often using atonality. Written in the conventional three-movement form, the symphony is full of contrasting moods and dramatic contrasts. The bellicose Third Symphony (19511954), with its combative first movement, has been compared with Shostakovich better-known Symphony No. 7 (?), but other movements, such as the start of the second movement, have a personal and original lyricism and imaginative orchestration, such as at the end of the work, when a folk song (first heard in the opening movement) returns accompanied by brass and bells. According to "The  Penguin Guide to Compact Discs", the Third Symphony "tries hard to be a good Soviet symphony". Lyatoshynsky's Fourth Symphony (1963) is more reminiscent of Shostakovich than its predecessors. The second movement uses bells and a celesta to depict the Belgian city of Bruges. In his Fifth Symphony (the 'Slavonic', in C major, (1965–1966)), which included a Kievan Rus' theme ("") and liturgical melodies from the Orthodox Church, the music is more post-Nationalist in nature than other works conposed during this period in the composer's career, Lyatoshynsky included a Russian folk song as the main theme and a song  from Yugoslavia as a secondary theme. Operas and choral works. Lyatoshynsky wrote the opera "Schors" (19371938, revised as "The Commander" in 1948), and "The Solemn Cantata" (1939). Reputation and legacy. According to "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", Lyatoshynsky is one of the three Ukrainian artists of the first half of the 20th century to have received international recognition, and the most accomplished Ukrainian composer to emerge following the death of Dmitry Bortniansky in 1825. A number of Soviet and Ukrainian composers studied under Lyatoshynsky, including Igor Boelza, Ihor Shamo, , , , Myroslav Skoryk, Yevhen Stankovych, Lesia Dychko, Leonid Hrabovsky , and Valentyn Silvestrov.