Lyatoshinsky

Symphonies Nos 4 & 5

Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra/

Roland Bader

CPO 999 183-2 (1994) 53:09 mins

Here’s a timely reissue of two symphonies by the leading Ukrainian composer of his generation, Boris Lyatoshinsky (18951968). Starting out as a prodigy, he was most influenced by Reinhold Glière, although it was Scriabin’s emotional volatility that proved axiomatic in the development of Lyatoshinsky’s symphonic style. His Second Symphony was officially lambasted for not toeing the Soviet party line, after which his music became if anything more profoundly influenced by Ukrainian and Polish folk culture.

The Fourth and Fifth symphonies (both in three movements) are late works dating from the 1960s, shortly after Lyatoshinsky had served on the jury of the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition, awarding joint-first prize to John Ogden and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Captured in stunningly in-depth, wide-ranging sound, Roland Bader and the Cracow Philharmonic hurl themselves into the fray with nerve-shredding intensity. Characterised by shattering climaxes with oases of profound stillness, Lyatoshinsky appears to have an autobiographical agenda, exemplified by the Fifth Symphony’s finale, in which a passage of contrapuntal chicanery is mercilessly trampled on by mindless goose-stepping. Not an easy listen by any means, yet highly compelling. ★★★★★