Biography
..I have always been deeply interested in the past of humankind. Whole eras, once full of movement and life, filled with events and human thought, have receded into the past, leaving only the traces of their life and work. Centuries... Millennia...
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Valeriy Polyovyi, 23 January 1965
Borys Liatoshynsky with cats at his dacha in Vorzel. 1960s
Borys Liatoshynsky is one of the leading Ukrainian composers of the 20th century. The majority of his works have already attained the status of classics. The compositional school formed by Liatoshynsky is the most influential in Ukraine in the second half of the last century and in our own.
This biography is based on documents held in the private archive of the Borys Liatoshynsky Studio-Museum; the State Archives of the City of Kyiv, Fond R-810, Inventory 2, File 184; and the Central State Archives of Supreme Bodies of Power and Government of Ukraine, Fond 166, Inventory 12 os, File 4539.
1900-1910
3 January 1895(22 December 1894, Old Style) — Borys Liatoshynsky is born in Zhytomyr.
1904–1906 — Studies at the First Kyiv Gymnasium.
1906–1908 — Studies at the Nemyriv Boys’ Gymnasium.
1908–1911 — Studies at the Nemyriv Boys’ Gymnasium.
1910
1910 — Composes his first piano works,a Mazurka and Waltz.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Ivan Boiko, 21 January 1959, Kyiv
It was during my years at the Zlatopil Gymnasium that I began to take a genuine interest in music. At first, I began learning the violin with Bentsion Symonovych Khaimovskyi, a teacher at the local gymnasium <…>, and later, at the beginning of 1910, I began trying my hand at composition <…>. Thus, my first attempts at composition, very immature ones, of course, belong precisely to the period of my life in Zlatopil.
1911–1913 — Studies at the Second Zhytomyr Gymnasium.
1913–1918 — Studies at the Faculty of Law of the Imperial University of St Volodymyr in Kyiv.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Marharyta Tsarevych, 5 May 1916, Saratov
I already told you that I had signed up for two more examinations. I have bought both books. Very large and horribly nasty books. Especially Roman law. I have never seen anything so dreadful in my life! Oh, those Romans!
Borys Liatoshynsky. Photograph by Borys Tsarevych (his wife’s brother). Around 1914
Borys Liatoshynsky. 1910s
1914 — Begins private composition studies with Reinhold Glière.
1914–1919 — Studies composition in Reinhold Glière’s class at the Kyiv Conservatory.
From Borys Liatoshynsky’s memoirs of Reinhold Glière, 1965
Reinhold Moritsevych taught us, his students at the Kyiv Conservatory, all the music-theoretical disciplines: harmony, polyphony, orchestration, form and composition. Reinhold Moritsevych had few students, only about nine or ten altogether.
1915–1920 — Composes early chamber, vocal and symphonic works, including his First String Quartet and First Symphony.
1917 — Marries Marharyta Tsarevych in a church ceremony.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Marharyta Tsarevych, 4 May 1916, Saratov
Ah, my dear, my darling little kitten, when will the time finally come when we shall be together, with a grand piano and lots of scores in our lovely sitting room?
Tetiana Homon and the team of the Liatoshynsky Foundation. 1910s
1917–1919 — Teaches at Talnovsky’s Music and Drama Courses, the private music school of Yakobi-Pavlovych, and the Kyiv Conservatory’s summer courses.
1920
From 1920 — Member of the Professional Union of Art Workers.
1920–1941 and 1944–1968— Teaches music-theoretical disciplines, composition and orchestration at the Kyiv State Conservatory (now the Ukrainian National Academy of Music).
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Reinhold Glière, November–December 1922, Kyiv
This year I have been given my own class of special theory (harmony and counterpoint) at the conservatory. I already have about fifteen students. I am, of course, very pleased about this.
1920s — A period in which the composer’s style takes shape. Liatoshynsky composes chamber ensembles, piano and vocal cycles, including the piano cycle Reflections, Op. 16 (1925).
1926 — Becomes chairman of the Association of Contemporary Music, established at the Kyiv branch of the All-Ukrainian Mykola Leontovych Music Society.
1928 — Following the dissolution of the Leontovych Society, becomes a member, and subsequently a member of the central board, of the All-Ukrainian Society of Revolutionary Musicians.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Marharyta Tsarevych, 24 January 1929, Kyiv
Recently I have heard a great deal of new music on the radio: Schoenberg, Schreker, Korngold and other composers <…>. In Germany, such broadcasts take place quite frequently, and they evidently attach great importance to them.
1929 — Composes the opera The Golden Hoop, Op. 23, based on Ivan Franko’s novella Zakhar Berkut (libretto by Yakiv Mamontov).
1930
1931 — Begins working at the Kyiv Film Factory (now the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio).
1932 — Begins collaborating with the Kyiv Russian Drama Theatre (now the Lesia Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre).
1935 — Awarded the academic title of professor in the speciality of Music Theory and Composition.
1935–1938 — concurrently Professor of Composition and Orchestration at the Moscow State Conservatory (RSFSR).
1935–1936 — Composes the first version of his Second Symphony, Op. 26 (second version, 1940).
1936–1937 — Liatoshynsky’s music comes under severe criticism and he is accused of formalism amid a Soviet-wide ideological campaign, initiated in Moscow through attacks on Dmitri Shostakovich’s ballet The Limpid Stream and opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in editorials published in Pravda. Liatoshynsky’s works of the 1920s, the opera The Golden Hoop and the Second Symphony are subjected to criticism.
Paper cut-out profile of Borys Liatoshynsky. Artist Mykhailo Medvedovsky. 1953
Borys Liatoshynsky. 1930s
Oleksandr Bilokopytov, “Overcoming Formalism and Trickery”, Literaturna hazeta, 29 February 1936
The dominant moods of his music are decadence, pessimism and mysticism. In the works of this period, the musical language is incomprehensible even to highly qualified musicians.
1938 — Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour.
1939–1941 — Chairman of the Board of the Union of Soviet Composers of Ukraine. Removed from office following criticism of his activities at the Union’s Second Congress.
1940
1941–1943 — Evacuated to Saratov (Russian SFSR). Works as professor of composition and orchestration at the evacuated Moscow Conservatory, while also collaborating with the music department of the Taras Shevchenko Radio Station.
1942 — Composes the Ukrainian Quintet, Op. 42, and Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 41. During the evacuation years, Liatoshynsky also writes chamber and vocal works, drawing on Ukrainian folklore and the poetry of Ukrainian authors.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Reinhold Glière, 24 November 1942, Saratov
We keep waiting and waiting for this exile to end, so that we may return to our home, even if it has been looted and devastated. <…> Life is very difficult. <…> And yet one still has to work.
Borys Liatoshynsky. 1940s
Borys Liatoshynsky and Lev Revutsky with students of the Kyiv Conservatory. 1940s
1943–1944 — Evacuated to Moscow (Russian SFSR), where he works as professor at the re-evacuated Moscow Conservatory.
1944 — Returns to Kyiv and resumes his work at the Kyiv Conservatory.
1945 — Awarded the title of Honoured Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR and the medal “For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945”.
1946 — Awarded the Stalin Prize, Second Class, for the Ukrainian Quintet.
1947–1956— Serves as a deputy of the Kyiv City Council for four convocations.
1948 — During a new Soviet-wide campaign against formalism, Liatoshynsky is again accused of formalism; his works are banned from performance and his scores withdrawn from sale. The Second Symphony is subjected to particularly severe criticism.
Andrii Shtoharenko, from a speech at a Plenum of the Union of Soviet Composers of Ukraine, 1948
The composer Liatoshynsky, who has long wandered along the byways of formalism, has still not found the courage to acknowledge the erroneous nature of his mistaken positions in his creative work.
1950
25 October 1951 — The first version of the Third Symphony, Op. 50, is premiered during the Sixth Plenum of the Board of the Union of Soviet Composers of Ukraine. The work is subjected to devastating criticism in Ukraine and at the all-Union level.
Valerian Dovzhenko, from a speech at the Sixth Plenum of the Union of Soviet Composers of Ukraine, 1951, Kyiv
There is neither melodiousness nor national character in the symphony. It is cosmopolitan. Comrades have spoken of confusion. Yes, the confusion is simply overwhelming, as are the wild sounds and other things.
Borys Liatoshynsky with Ihor Belza at a dacha in Vorzel. 1950s
1951 — Awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour for his participation in the Decade of Ukrainian Art in Moscow (Russian SFSR).
1952— Awarded the Stalin Prize, First Class, for the music to the film Taras Shevchenko (1951, directed by Ihor Savchenko).
1954— Completes the second version of the Third Symphony, which receives official approval. Liatoshynsky travels outside the USSR for the first time, visiting Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia).
1956 — Serves as the USSR’s representative on the jury of the International Competition for String Quartet Compositions in Liège (Belgium).
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Marharyta Tsarevych, 16 September 1956, Moscow
It is, of course, very interesting, and there is no need to worry, because thousands of people fly back and forth and something happens only very rarely. But still, perhaps fate will play such a joke on me that I shall fly to such distant countries for the first time and never arrive. <…> But I believe that everything will be all right.
Borys Liatoshynsky. 1950s
1957 — USSR delegate to the celebrations marking the anniversary of Mikhail Glinka in Sofia (Bulgaria); member of the presidium of the Union of Soviet Composers of Ukraine; member of a delegation to an arts festival in Berlin (GDR).
1958 — Attends the Warsaw Autumn festival; receives a prize from the Polish-Soviet Friendship Society for developing musical-cultural ties between Poland and the USSR; serves on the jury of the First International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Borys Liatoshynsky (seated on the bench) in Prague. 1950s
1959 — Visits Warsaw at the invitation of the Polish-Soviet Friendship Society; serves for the second time on the jury of the International Competition for String Quartet Compositions in Liège; makes a tourist trip to Italy, travelling via Zurich and Prague.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Marharyta Tsarevych, 15 October 1959
It is terribly disappointing that Naples is out of the question, and that means Pompeii too! To be in Italy and see neither one nor the other! <…> That is what a tourist package means — someone somewhere has decided that four cities are enough for us <…> and there is nothing one can do about it.
1960
1960 — Takes a tourist trip along the Danube, visiting the capitals of the Danubian countries.
1961 — Composes the Polish Suite, Op. 60, which marks the beginning of the final period of Liatoshynsky’s creative work. Travels to Italy, Great Britain and France. He visits Great Britain together with Kyrylo Molchanov at the invitation of the British Composers’ Union.
1962 — Serves on the jury of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow; travels to Belgium.
From a letter by Borys Liatoshynsky to Anatolii Dmytriiev, 25 December 1965, Kyiv
I have been to Bruges three times, and on the third occasion, in 1962, I really did sit in the square in front of the tower, barely visible through the fog, and the chimes could still be heard in the distance even when I had reached the station to return to Brussels for the night.
At the dacha in Vorzel. Valentyn Silvestrov, Borys Liatoshynsky, Ihor Blazhkov, Vitalii Hodziatskyi. 1967
1963 — Composes the Fourth Symphony, Op. 63; makes a tourist trip to Austria.
1965 — Transfers to the position of professor-consultant at the Kyiv Conservatory, with a half-time workload, upon taking academic retirement. Travels to Austria and Switzerland.
1965–1966 — Composes the Fifth Symphony (Slavonic), Op. 67.
1967 — Travels to Poland to attend the Warsaw Autumn festival. During the final decades of his life, international travel, encounters with new European music, scores and recordings become an important part of Liatoshynsky’s professional life. He shares this new music with his students.
From Yevhen Stankovych’s memoirs of Borys Liatoshynsky, 2014
Sometimes we, his students, listened to these recordings together with him — works by Krzysztof Penderecki and Witold Lutosławski — and exchanged our impressions of their music. <…> It is therefore no coincidence that those who came from his class — Valentyn Silvestrov, Leonid Hrabovsky and Vitaliy Hodziatsky — were more inclined towards innovation, that is, towards music of a new kind.
Borys Liatoshynsky at home in his study. 1960s
12 February 1968 — Awarded the title of People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR.
15 April 1968— Borys Liatoshynsky dies during the night between Palm Sunday and Holy Monday.
Silence has settled over my room.
Letter from Borys Liatoshynsky to Reinhold Glier. 26 March 1939. Kyiv
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