Lyapunov was a pupil of Tchaikovsky and more crucially, of Balakirev, whose formidably interventionist teaching methods he repaid with the lively orchestration of Islamey here recorded. There will be English music lovers, amateur pianists especially, who know his name as a composer of studies and other short pieces, some of whose titles and nature indicate an affinity for Poland in general, stronger than is common among Russians, and for Chopin in particular. His Polonaise is an energetic piece, cheerful, of no great moment, but genuine in its enthusiasm for the dance form and showing nothing of the sarcastically empty glitter with which some of the greatest Russian composers, Glinka and Mussorgsky among them, have indicated their corn for their Western neighbours.
The most attractive piece recorded here, indeed is the tribute to Chopin, named after his birth-place Zelazowa Wola. The somewhat inadequate sleeve-note indicates a programme concerning the infant Chopin surrounded by Polish folk-music and then (beautifully scored in the central section) by the melody of the famous Cradle song. The involvement is subtler than that; no mention, for instance, is made of the fact that the opening makes use of one of Chopin's strangest and most searching Mazurkas (Op. 17 No. 4 in A minor: here in B minor), which returns several times and closes the work on its drifting, harmonically enigmatic chords.
The Solemn Overture on Russian Themes is a fairly predictable piece of work that might have been written in an idle moment by the composer Lyapunov succeeded at the Imperial Chapel: Rimsky-Korsakov. It begins with jubilant, ceremonial panoply, moves into a lively dance, turns to a lyrical cor anglais solo, and goes through the paces of a not very testing fugato before rounding matters off cheerfully. It is well scored, in Rimsky-Korsakov vein: the recording makes rather heavy weather of the bass here and throughout the record, though it is perfectly acceptable. The ''Oriental Symphonic Poem'' Hashish is based on a poem by Golenishchev-Kutuzov (also poet of two of Mussorgsky's song cycles); and I suppose the nature of the enterprise pre-empts the criticism that it seems incoherent.'