More Lyatoshynsky Symphonies 4 & 5
After our recent trip to Waterloo for Lyatoshynsky Symphony No, 3, with the London Philarmonic under Vladimir Jurowski, I thought it was time to dig little deeper into the music of this composer, and on cpo, there is a recording of Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5: the Cracow Philharmonic is conducted by Roland Bader.
The very next symphony in sequence does from 1963, Symphony No. 4, Op. 63. It is certainly big-boned and ambitious, and it needs both vision and force to keep it alive. Lyatoshynsky offers a deeply considered symphonic canvas, working with the opening ideas in the first movement. This is very dark music, and I wonder if the Crakow orchestra's sound is too bright overall. Bader conducts well, and finds mystery in abundance. But he does not quite lead the ear to the magnificence of Lyatoshynsky's scoring (as Jurowski did in the Third).
Bader sounds a little careful throughout; the bell carillon toward the opening of the second movement (Lento tenebroso) is clear evidence of this. Lyayoshynsky's use of cor anglais is maximally effective, yet I get the impression the climax should be shattering, and here it just isn't:
The finale sounds almost filmic in this cpo recording, all the colours of the disc's modern art cover (Thomas Schmeller) and more. Yet that 'filmic' adjective is the clue: the music loses some of its visceral power though it:
While the Naxos recording seems the obvious point of comparison, maybe it's not the best. Listen to the sheer rawness of this, the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra under Igor Blazhkov (the Russian Disc release also has Lyatoshynsky's On the Banks of the Vistula and Lyric Poem). The performance of the symphony glowers darkly through the 1960s sound, the music moves unstoppably. The slow movement is unbelievable, a slow rotation of molten sound against which brass grumble. It sounds like Modernism, mostly; it is certainly maximally disturbing. What's more, under Blazhkov, the music seems like a Rothko black-on-black canvas, disturbed only later by harp washes (even they are heard against percussion that sounds like the tinkling of chains in.prison). The recording prevents the string melodies from blooming later, but the innate lyricism (morphing, soon, into desperate terror) is palpable :
While the Kuchar sounds paltry in comparison certainly to Blazhkov, it does come with rolling score, which many will, I hope, find useful. He is most successful in the slow movement:
The Fifth Symphony dates from 1966. Although the first movement is the shortest, it is powerful: the modal brass of the opening remind us of the work's subtitle, “Slavonic”. Later, we hear a decidedly Slavic theme on woodwind against brass, screamed out in true Lyatoshynsky style:
The slow movement is quiet and folksong-influenced. Until, that is, brass and percussion enter with full force, taking us straight back to the first movement's drama:
A brass fanfare announces the finale, before a set of vaariations ensues: this complex music demands, and rewards, attention. A 12 minutes this is the longest movement on the disc, and is an astonishingly inventive set of variations. The oboe/bassoon one is particularly touching (about seven minutes in, just before the horn/brass fanfares). Pealing bells (a trifle underwhelming here) surround.a brass chorale - echoes of Mussorgsky's Boris perhaps?. The ending is positively riotous:
Here's the Kuchar Naxos competition, again with useful rolling score:
It is good to gave both Lyatoshynsy's Fourth and Fiffh on one disc, even if in the can of the Fourth there is a much more convincing (if tricky to source) alternative.
The cpo disc is available at Amazon here (although I should point out that Presto Music is selling this at a song at the moment: £6.37). You can buy the Kuchar Naxos at Amazon for the knock-down price of £1.98 here.
Although the Blazhkov does not seem to be available on Amazon, I remain intrigued by this: a Vista Vera disc of Blazhkov conducting Vivaldi, Pergolesi and Carissimi!. If you are brave enough, the Vivaldi is here on YouTube, the Magnificat, RV 610, sounding for all the World like some Gothic film sound track. Perhaps he should stick to Lyatoshysky.
Streaming below: the iDagio cover is that of the Marco Polo original (the fuller-priced label of HNH Intenational, and sister label of Naxos)
