Borys Lyatoshynsky

Borys Mykolaiovych Lyatoshynsky, also known as Boris Nikolayevich Lyatoshinsky, (3 January 1895 [O.S. 22 December 1894] – 15 April 1968) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, and teacher. A leading member of the new generation of 20th century Ukrainian composers, he was awarded a number of accolades, including the honorary title of People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and two Stalin Prizes.

He received his primary education at home, where Polish literature and history was held in high esteem. After completing school in 1913, he entered the Faculty of Law at Kyiv University, and as a graduate was employed to teach music at the Kyiv Conservatory. During the 1910s, Lyatoshynsky wrote 31 works of various musical genres. During the 1930s he travelled to Tajikistan to study folk music and compose a ballet about the life of local people. From 1935 to 1938, and from 1941 to 1944, he taught orchestration at the Moscow Conservatory. During the war, Lyatoshynsky was evacuated and taught at the Conservatory's branch in Saratov, where he worked on arrangements of Ukrainian songs, and organised the transportation of Ukrainian musical manuscripts away to safety.

Lyatoshynsky's main works are his operas The Golden Ring (1929) and Shchors (1937), the five symphonies, the Overture on Four Ukrainian Folk Themes (1926), the suites Taras Shevchenko (1952) and Romeo and Juliet (1955), the symphonic poem Grazhyna (1955), his "Slavic" piano concerto (1953), and the completion and orchestration of Reinhold Glière's violin concerto (1956). Many of his compositions were rarely or never performed during his lifetime. A 1993 recording of his symphonies first brought his music to worldwide audiences.

Despite his music being criticised by the Soviet authorities, who officially banned such compositions as his Second Symphony, Lyatoshynsky never adhered to a style of socialist realism. His music was written with a modern European style, and skilfully includes Ukrainian themes. His early musical style was influenced by his family, his teachers (including Glière), and by Margarita Tsarevich. The existence of a Polish side to Lyatoshynsky's family resulted in Polish themes being central for many of his works. He also drew inspiration for his early compositions from Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, and Scriabin. His musical style later developed in a direction favoured by Shostakovich. Soviet and Ukrainian composers who studied under Lyatoshynsky, and were influenced by him, include Myroslav Skoryk and Valentyn Sylvestrov.

Borys Lyatoshynsky was born on 3 January 1895, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire). His parents were both musical and well-educated, and their son received his primary education at home. The Lyatoshynsky family lived in towns and cities throughout Ukraine during Borys's childhood. His father Mykola Lyatoshynsky [uk] was a history teacher, who during his career was the head teacher of high schools in Zhytomyr, Nemyriv, Kyiv, and—from 1908 to 1911—in Zlatopil. Lyatoshynsky's mother Olha Borysovna played the piano and sang. Borys had an older sister, Nina.

Polish literature and history was held in high esteem in the Lyatoshynsky household; Borys read a lot as a boy, especially the historical and romantic works of Henryk Sienkiewicz and Stefan Żeromski. He signed his early musical compositions under the pseudonym 'Boris Yaksa Lyatoshynsky', using the name of a Polish knight who had fought in the Battle of Grunwald. His earliest pieces included mazurkas, waltzes, and a Chopinesque scherzo, which bear little resemblance to compositions written later in life. The existence of a Polish side to Lyatoshynsky's family resulted in Polish themes being central for much of his work. Zhytomyr was the cultural and administrative centre of a region long inhabited by ethnic Poles, and his first music teacher was of Polish origin.

Lyatoshynsky graduated from the Zhytomyr Gymnasium in 1913. Later in life, he recalled that he "became really interested in music" at school; he mastered the violin, and created his first compositions, which included a piano quartet. The pieces, although naïve and unoriginal, revealed his musical talent, and motivated his father to encourage his efforts as a schoolboy composer. In Zlatopol, Lyatoshynsky took piano lessons from a school teacher whom he later remembered with great warmth. In 1914, he first met his future wife Margarita Tsarevich.

The first work written by Lyatoshynsky was thought by musicologists to have been a mazurka, written on 20 January 1910, when he was 15. However, during the 1910s, Lyatoshynsky wrote 31 works of various musical genres—20 of which were discovered in 2017— none of which were known by his previous biographers. The pieces have provided scholars with an indication of the creative potential of the young composer.