Lyatoshynsky: Chamber Works, Volume 1

Boris Lyatoshynsky: String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 1; String Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 4

NotaBene Chamber Group

Andrii Pavlov violin, Maksym Grinchenko violin, Ihor Zavhorodnii viola, Artem Poludennyi cello.

Chandos CHAN 20475

chandos.net


If the name Boris Lyatoshynsky means little to you, you are in good company, and this is the place to put that right. In his homeland he stands among the giants of twentieth-century music; over here he remains something of a stranger. These two string quartets, played with impeccable care by the NotaBene Chamber Group, make the most agreeable of introductions.

His mature style marries late-romantic warmth with the bolder harmonic adventures of the modernists. He would later become a figure of real influence in Soviet musical life and a professor at the Kyiv Conservatoire, but these works catch him on the way up.

The First Quartet dates from his student years under Reinhold Glière, and the teacher’s fingerprints are all over its themes. The close of the second movement, however, is something else entirely: rendered with the utmost delicacy and beautifully controlled playing, it suggests a young man already listening for his own voice.

Only a few years later, with the Second Quartet of 1922, the voice had arrived. Folk melody from both sides of the Russian–Ukrainian border colours each work, yet neither strays from the familiar four-movement shape. It is the Second that delights most. Dr Iryna Tukova’s absorbing booklet notes draw out its fairy-tale imagery and nocturnal mystery, and she is a perceptive guide.

The Intermezzo has a lovely fluidity, like water rippling across a still pond, with a gentle rocking motion beneath. Then comes the haunting third movement, its melody set in 5/4 and driven at speed, with plenty of virtuosic dynamic contrast and syncopation to keep the players on their toes. They never sound anything other than at ease.

The ensemble was formed in Kyiv just over a decade ago, and its young players move as comfortably through new music as through the classics. Their playing here is shaped with great care. The dialogue between the four instruments is a constant pleasure, the contours of each line are beautifully moulded, and the ends of phrases are communicated with real intelligence, so the lyricism flows unhindered. Textures are clear, colours are varied, and the commitment is never in doubt. Technically they are entirely assured, yet it is the expressiveness that lingers.

This is billed as Volume 1, which is the best news of all. On this evidence, the rest of the cycle cannot come soon enough.