Boris Lyatoshinsky (1895 – 1968) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, and teacher. A leading member of the new generation of twentieth-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. After graduating, he attended Kiev University and later the newly established Kiev Conservatory where he studied composition with Reinhold Glière in 1914. Lyatoshynsky graduated from Kiev University in 1918 and from the Kiev Conservatory in 1919. During this time, he composed his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 1, and Symphony No. 1, Op. 2. By the time Lyatoshinsky wrote his Symphony No.1 (1918) as his graduation composition, he became influenced by the music of Wagner and atonality. During this early period of the composer's development, he draws some inspiration from musical works by Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and Scriabin. Many young composers, like Lyatoshinsky, who were living in Russia during the early years of the twentieth century, regarded Alexander Skriabin's (1872- 1915) experiments as a triumphant turning point in music. Taking his initial inspiration from some techniques used by Skriabin, the young Ukrainian avant- garde took tonality to its limits and beyond. In his ‘Piano Trio No.1 (1920), Lyatoshinsky demonstrates a debt to Scriabin, still searching for new musical methods and pushing boundaries of harmonic language.
After the death of Stalin, Lyatohinsky at least was free to speak his own symphonic mind, making free use of motivic development, dissonances and atonal language. In his next and last Fifth (Slavonic) Symphony (in C major), the composer included the Russian folk song as the main theme and a song from Yugoslavia as a secondary theme. Lyatoshinsky carried on using folk material in his music, widening his repertoire of folk themes and making references to republics of the Soviet Union, such as Russia, and Slavic countries such as Poland, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Slovakia.
These preludes are from 1943. For me, the first preludes feels in half notes rather than quarter notes, which explains my tempo. My first recording was much slower, but it should not feel too dragged I suppose. The second one is pretty slow.. but i think the harmonies are so beautiful, that they need to stay quite long so that one can enjoy them.
0:00 Lugubre ma non troppo lento
3:19 Lento e tranquillo
I mean, 4:54 is such an incredible moment.
