[Lyatoshynsky: Symphony No. 1. Grazhyna, Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra / Theodore Kuchar – Naxos (8.555578) Total Time: 56:50. Available at Amazon | iTunes ]
[Stankovych: Symphonies 1, 2 and 4, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine/Theodore Kuchar – Naxos (8.555741) Total Time: 70:07. Available at Amazon | iTunes]
Ukraine has often been in the news lately, and for all the wrong reasons. It is not easy sharing a border with Russia, especially after gaining its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Russia under Vladimir Putin resents Ukraine’s aspirations to move closer to the West and has acted militarily to crush them. First it was Crimea and now it is eastern Ukraine. NATO has been acting to support Ukraine but whether its efforts will be enough remains to be seen.
For over 100 years Canada has been enriched by waves of immigrants from Ukraine. Today, Canada has over 1.2 million people of Ukrainian heritage, among them such luminaries as hockey players Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Eddie Shack and Joffrey Lupul, former governors-general Ray Hnatyshyn and Ed Shreyer, game show host Alex Trebek, artist William Kurelek and violinist Steven Staryk. Canadians know Ukraine and its people and care deeply what happens to them.
In my last article for Musical Toronto I told the story of an American conductor (Roger McMurrin) who has dedicated much of his life to making music in Ukraine. This week I want to draw your attention to the music of some fine Twentieth Century Ukrainian composers: Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) and Yevhen Stankovych (1942-).
The best-known Ukrainian composer is probably Reinhold Glière (1875-1956). His Symphony No. 3 “Il’ya Muromets” was played and recorded by major conductors such as Stokowski and Ormandy. It then dropped out of the repertoire but seems now to be back in favour. There is an excellent recent recording by the Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by JoAnn Falletta (Naxos 8.573161). Glière was the head of the Kiev Conservatory for many years and among his students was Boris Lyatoshynsky.
According to conductor Theodore Kuchar there was a Golden Age in Ukrainian music for a 10-year period from the end of the Ukrainian War of Independence (1917-1921) until 1929. Lyatoshynsky was only 24 when he completed his Symphony No. 1 in 1919. Glière conducted the first performance four years later. The work is heavily influenced by Scriabin. It is passionate music and highly chromatic. It is very much the work of a young man immersed in the latest musical trends of his time. Later on Lyatoshynsky became enamoured of Alban Berg’s music. Unfortunately, by the early 1930s Stalin and his cronies had taken over and music was forced to conform to their demands for socialist realism in the arts. Like Shostakovich and other Soviet composers Lyashotynsky was forced to write music that was easy to understand and which inspired the masses.
While he was severely compromised as a composer for most of his career Lyashotynsky also worked steadily as a teacher both in Kiev and Moscow. Among his students was Yevhen Stankovych. His Symphony No. 1 (1973) for fifteen solo strings is only fifteen minutes long but it exudes great intensity. There is not much forward motion but rather sustained chords and shifting harmonies, rather in the manner of Penderecki.
Stankovych’s Symphony No. 2 “Heroic” composed in 1975 may be his masterpiece. It is anti-war in its inspiration and seems an apt expression both for Ukraine’s history and for its present traumas. The first movement’s pounding rhythms lead to a march that suggests armies gone berserk. There is some relief in the second movement but there is more uneasiness than comfort. The brief final movement returns to the violent militarism of the opening movement.
The orchestras on these two CDs are one and the same. The Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra changed its name to the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in 1994, around the time these recordings were made. The conductor, Theodore Kuchar, was music director of the orchestra from 1994 to 2004. He is Ukrainian by birth but he has also headed several orchestras in the U.S. The performances of these important works by Lyatoshynsky and Stankovych are excellent. These same performers have recorded all five Lyatoshynsky symphonies for Naxos as part of the label’s “Ukrainian Composers” series.
- SCRUTINY | TSO Lets Berlioz Do The Talking In Season Opener - September 21, 2018
- RECORD KEEPING | Even Yannick Nézet-Séguin Can’t Make Us Love Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito - September 6, 2018
- RECORD KEEPING | Giovanna d’Arco With Anna Netrebko Explains Why The Best Operas Survive - August 30, 2018
