Lyapunov Symphony #1, almost a Tchaikovsky symphony
I tried Lyapunov’s early Symphony #1 in B Minor, 1887, Op. 12.
The work, in four movements, with a slow movement in E-flat (it is more adagio than andante sostenuto), and a light scherzo in G that sounds familiar, leads to a finale that sounds workmanlike at first and leads to a triumphant conclusion that some observers feel is contrived.
The first movement, in fact, had ended with a triumphant conclusion in the Picardy Major, which might make the finale seem excessive. Nevertheless, as the finale develops, the rhythms get more asymmetric and interesting, and the music seems to want to decide between a Balakirev-like disco dance, or a Tchaikovsky-Fifth like conclusion based on the soaring second subject (which sounds like it had appeared in the first movement?) Two minutes before the end, he starts his big soaring tune in B Major, but doesn’t let the cadence conclude before he breaks away into a wild frantic “dirty” dance with syncopation, restating the motive in as many ways as possible before the final FFF B Major chord in full orchestra.
Some commenters in the Kuhlau copy wonder why “h moll” or B Minor, which seems particularly adapted to extremes in emotional range.
But stylistically, this work is halfway between the world of Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakoff, and Tchaikovsky. The second symphony, reviewed before, more leads toward Rachmaninoff.
Maybe this is a good work to herald “re-opening” for discos.
In the performance shown, Evgeny Svetlanov conducts the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra.
Lyapunov, Symphony #2 in B-flat Minor (1917), sounds familiar, but is the style more than typically "Russian" post-romanticism?
Sergei Lyapunov, is another post-romantic Russian composer, with two big symphonies spread years apart.This performance of the Symphony #2 in B-flat Minor, Op 66. Runs 61 miniutes, with Rvgeny Svetlanov conducting the French National Radio Orchestra.
The style reminds one of Rachmaninoff a bit (like that composer’s Second), with a touch of Rimsky-Korsakov, but with the Vienese-Germanic idea that symphonies should solve logical problems and press toward a conclusion.
The first movement is very expansive, with a slow introduction, and an opening allegro theme that is folk-like, and a second subject in D Major that is passionate and that will sound familiar (what movie was it used in?)
The scherzo in D Minor is more conventional. The slow movement in D-flat is pensive, and it seems comparable to the similar movement in Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony. The finale in B-flat major sounds a little more like Balakirev, maybe, but at the very end, triumphant, there are some harmonic experiments.
The YouTube video shows the sheet music and was created by combining that with the sound, as shown in the notes. This performance was uploaded by InvertedNinthChord. Kuhlau channel’s performance is about 14 minutes shorted, mostly in the first and last movements.