Boris Pasternak ‒ Piano Sonata in B Minor

Boris Pasternak (1890 - 1960), Piano Sonata in B Minor (1909) Performed by Hiroaki Takenouchi 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