Galina Ustvolskaya

Born in 1919 in St Petersburg, Russia, Galina Ustvolskaya was a pupil of Shostakovich and subsequently developed into one of the most distinctive composers of the 20th century. Her body of work is small—just 21 pieces in a career spanning five decades—but intensely expressive. Ustvolskaya’s Piano Sonata No. 6 (1988) is typical—pulverisingly rhythmic and containing some of the most violently confrontational pages ever written for the instrument. Although life under Soviet dictatorship undoubtedly influenced the uncompromising, sometimes bleak nature of her soundworld, Ustvolskaya’s music often has a marked spiritual content. This surfaces particularly in the keening incantations of Symphony No. 3 (subtitled “Jesus Messiah, Save Us!”, 1983) and the dramatically foreshortened Symphony No. 4 (“Prayer”, 1985-87). Ustvolskaya’s pin-sharp ear for fresh, innovative sonorities can also be sampled in the three Compositions (1971-75), where the combination of eight double basses, piano and wooden cube in Composition II: Dies irae is particularly striking.