Borys Lyatoshynsky (1895-1968) was the dominant figure of Soviet Ukrainian music. He studied under R. Glière at the Kyiv Conservatory during WWI and established himself as an expressionist composer who never completely broke with tonal traditions. In 1919 Lyatoshynsky became a teacher at the Kyiv Conservatory, a position he held for the rest of his life. But during WWII he found himself at the Moscow Conservatory teaching orchestration. It is there that he wrote the Preludes Op. 44. The second prelude features a haunting folk melody over a modal, melancholy accompaniment.

Levko Revutsky (1889-1977) was one of the most promising Ukrainian composers of the early 20th century. He began his music studies with M. Lysenko and continued with R. Glière at the Kyiv Conservatory during WWI. During the 1920s, Revutsky composed most of his important works – symphonies, cantatas, concertos and the film score to O. Dovzhenko’s classic film Zemlia (Earth, 1930). In 1934 his second piano concerto was severely criticized by Soviet authorities and Revutsky all but gave up composition for the rest of his life. The brilliant Waltz and virtuosic Preludes Op. 7 are a testament to the composer’s youthful vitality and creative originality.

Yuri Ishchenko (b. 1938) is one of Ukraine’s leading contemporary composers. Born in Kherson, he studied with A. Shtoharenko at the Kyiv Conservatory and went on to develop his own unique style. Since 1964 he has taught at the Kyiv Conservatory. His ephemeral Poetic Moods capture a mystical experience that transcends the mundane. A cataclysmic crisis in the penultimate section leads directly into a musical recapitulation in the last section before the music fades into oblivion. The Four Waltzes and Just a Touch of Chopin capture the essence of post-modernist art – a combination of dodecaphonic writing with verbatim quotes from Chopin waltzes. The Ishchenko waltzes are dedicated to the talented Ukrainian pianist Borys Arkhymovych, whose musical career was ruined by the Soviet regime. From 1973 until just prior to Ukraine’s independence in 1991, Arkhymovych was forbidden to perform or even teach because he was labelled a free-thinker. Since then, his career has been restored.

Vasyl Barvinsky (1888-1963) was born in Western Ukraine. In his youth he had the opportunity to meet M. Lysenko, who encouraged him to continue with his music studies. He began publishing his works while studying at the Prague Conservatory with V. Novak. Both the Prelude in G major and Song are from this period. Barvinsky preferred a neo-romantic style with rich contrapuntal textures, which almost always included thematic materials derived from Ukrainian folk songs. But after WWII, when Western Ukraine was annexed by the Soviet Union, the composer was arrested and sent to a labour camp for ten years. When he returned home he was a broken man and his works were branded as formalist by the Soviet regime. Barvinsky’s musical legacy has been preserved mostly abroad.

Ihor Shamó (1925-1982) studied composition with B. Lyatoshynsky and graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory in 1951. As a composer, Shamó developed a rich, melodic style that epitomized Soviet music. He is known for his patriotic songs like Kyieve mii (My Kyiv), which became the unofficial anthem of the city. His crowning achievement as a composer of vocal music is the choral opera Yatranski ihry (Yatran Games). The Prelude in E major for piano is strikingly reminiscent of the featured Lyatoshynsky prelude with its meditative melody and gentle chordal accompaniment.

Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937) studied with both B. Lyatoshynsky and L. Revutsky. He is one of the few internationally recognized Ukrainian composers today. Several of his works have received Grammy nominations. During the 1960s, a period of cultural rebirth in Soviet Ukraine, Silvestrov was one of the original members of the Kyiv Avant-Garde, a group of young composers. Rebelling against the social realism of Soviet culture, Silvestrov experimented with various contemporary techniques before creating his own unique post-modern style, which he refers to as metaphoric music or metamusic – music about music – universal in character, poetic by nature. His first Piano Sonata is considered to be the paradigm of this new style. It took the composer twelve years of editing and reediting the work to perfect its aesthetic principles. The first movement is in true classical sonata form with a clear exposition, development and recapitulation of thematic materials. The second movement is like a postlude or poetic afterthought to the first. Almost the entire work is played with the soft pedal to create a luminous, mysterious, harp-like timbre. To the listener, the sonata may sound deceptively simple, yet to the performer it presents a real challenge in terms of musical phrasing and structural continuity.

Viktor Kosenko (1896-1938) was born of Ukrainian parents in St. Petersburg, Russia where he studied at the conservatory. After WWI he moved to Zhytomyr, Ukraine and later on to Kyiv where he taught at the conservatory. As a professional concert pianist he toured throughout Ukraine, but often earned a living playing the piano in silent movie cinemas. Kosenko is best known as a neo-classical composer. His piano works – gavottes, mazurkas, nocturnes, and other favourites of the music salon – recall the elegance, grace and charm of a bygone age. A fitting end to this CD.

Notes compiled by Wasyl Sydorenko