Boris Pasternak ‒ Two Preludes

Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), 2 Preludes (1906) Performed by Eldar Nebolsin 00:00 - No. 1 Prelude in E-flat Minor 01:32 - No. 2 Prelude in G-Sharp Minor It may be quite a surprise to learn that Boris Pasternak, the Symbolist poet, translator of Shakespeare and author of Dr Zhivago, who was forced by political pressure to refuse the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, was also a composer. However, he came from a musical family: his mother Roza was a concert pianist, a student of Rubinstein and Leschetizky, and his early impressions were of hearing piano trios in the home. The family had a dacha – country house – close to one occupied by Scriabin, and Rachmaninov, the poet Rilke and Tolstoy were all visitors to the family home. His father Leonid was a painter who produced one of the most important portraits of Scriabin, and Boris wrote many years later of witnessing with great excitement the creation of Scriabin’s Symphony No.3, The Divine Poem, in 1903. Boris began to compose at the age of 13 – the high achievements of his mother discouraged him from becoming a pianist – and inspired by Scriabin, he entered the Moscow Conservatoire, only to leave abruptly in 1910 at the age of twenty to study philosophy in Marburg University. Four years later he returned to Moscow, having finally decided on a career in literature, publishing his first book of poems, influenced by Alexander Blok and the Russian Futurists, the same year. The two Preludes by the 16-year-old Pasternak show the clear influence of Scriabin. The first is in the “romantic” key of E flat minor, and the contours of its melody, and its forays into the major key, are all very Scriabinesque. The second is in G sharp minor, another typical key often used by Scriabin, and the cross-rhythms between the hands are another obvious echo of his mentor. It is on a larger scale than the first, and develops with increased speed and dynamics to a powerful climax, before dying away on a major-key ending, following the paradoxical marking con fierezza (with pride), yet another characteristic of a Scriabin score.