Ukrainian Piano Quintets
Boris Mikolayovich LYATOSHYNSKY (1895–1968)
Ukrainian Quintet, Op 42 (1942, rev. 1945) [40:17]
Valentin SILVESTROV (b. 1937)
Piano Quintet (1961) [19:28]
Victoria POLEVA (b. 1962)
Simurgh-Quintet (2000, rev. 2020) [17:45]
Bogdana Pivnenko (violin); Taras Yaropud (violin); Kateryna Suprun (viola); Yurii Pogoretskyi (cello); Iryna Starodub (piano)
rec. December 2020, Large Concert Hall, M.V. Lysenko KSSMBS, Kyiv, Ukraine
NAXOS 8579098 [77:21]
The three quintets to which this disc introduced me are by three generations of unknown - or at least pretty much unfamiliar - Ukrainians. Of the three composers it’s Silvestrov whose name is well above the nationalist parapets; not least from his symphonies, including the warmly psychedelic Fifth Symphony; a work which has been multiply recorded. Lyatoshynsky may well be known to some for his accessible symphonies which have been recorded by CPO, Chandos and Naxos.
The Quintets are not troublesome to grasp and there’s considerable pleasure to be had from them. The Lyatoshynsky was written in the composer’s middle age and may be taken as a major statement, not least by its scale: 40 minutes. By its title it can presumably be welcomed as having more than a trace element of national testimony. The first movement is resilient and dynamic, which unnervingly resembles the emotively riptide turmoil of Herbert Howells’ Piano Quartet and Frenchman George Martin Witkowski’s Piano Quintet. The second movement turns to misty reminiscences and is mostly downbeat and piled high with anxiety; I am not at all convinced by the ‘tranquillo’ label. A racingly threatening pulse found in the ‘Allegro’ introduces a sidling, heart-easing Balkan countryside atmosphere. The final ‘Allegro risoluto’ is fuelled by a darkly inflected
élan. Whether intended or not, it is not difficult to read into this music a sense of the tragic and murderous times endured by a country ravaged by Nazi invasion.
Silvestrov’s Piano Quintet is dedicated to his teacher Boris Lyatoshynsky. He studied at the Kyiv Conservatory with Lyatoshynsky and with Levko Revutsky, whose two symphonies are clamouring - if quietly - for CD recording. Something of a poster-boy for the avant-garde, Silvestrov increasingly adopted an accessible style that found him many friends in the West. Richard White’s helpful notes for this disc claim this 20-minute quintet, written 20 years after the Lyatoshynsky, as emerging from the “start of his Modernist odyssey”. It traces an angst-ridden pointilliste angularity but treks through a quietly ghost-ridden hinterland. A hushed spiritual mysticism lightly grips the finale. The work’s sense of energetic direction is revealed as having these imperturbable thickets as its destination.
Kyiv-born Victoria Poleva is the newcomer. She studied with, Ivan Karabits (father of Bournemouth’s admirable Kirill Karabits). Again, Richard Whitehouse in his English-only notes reports that Poleva favours “avant-garde and polystylistic aesthetics”. These have now gravitated towards sacred minimalism. Her single-movement Simurgh-Quintet is spun from largely quiet material by gentle dissonance and cool melodic interest. This work is carried high by admirable artistry from these players. By the way ‘Simurgh’ is an avian legendary creature out of Persian mythology and inspired a ballet from composer-conductor Loris Tjeknavorian (Unicorn RHS333 vinyl).
Tetiana Shved Bezkorovaina, Dmitry Yablonsky and Andrij Mokrytsky present these deserving yet unfamiliar works and the artists’ virile advocacy of them to sonorous advantage. No disappointment there and the welcome generosity of approaching 78 minutes completes the picture.
Rob Barnett
