Yagling's Suite for Cello and String Orchestra (1967) is one of her first successes as a composer. According to her recording of the work, she composed it in 1968. Around the same time, she composed two pieces in the olden style Larghetto and Siciliana. Yagling (1946-2011) recorded the Suite in 1980 (released in 1983), conducted by Georgiy Vetvitskiy, released by the Melodiya (Мелодия) Label, catalog number С10 19803 002 on the collection called "Young Composers of Moscow: Chamber Music" (Молодые Композиторы Москвы: Камерная музыка). Yagling also recorded the Elegy by Andrey Golovin and the Sonata-Ballada by Armenak (Armen) Shakhbagyan on the same album.
The movement layout of the Suite is fast-slow-fast-slow, a layout also used by Dmitri Shostakovich in his Fifteenth Symphony (1971). On the back of the abovementioned album, Natalia Shantyr writes, "The Suite for Cello and String Orchestra (1968) reveals a bright and unique world of images -impulsive, colorful, full of youthful enthusiasm and charming lyricism." The first movement, Toccata, is a perpetual motion with a brisk tempo of 100 per dotted half. The viola part is almost as busy as the cello solo. The sparsely orchestrated Aria is reminiscent of Rachmaninov's Vocalise melody and Prokofiev's tonal language. This movement is the centerpiece of the Suite. The Humoresque is closely connected in style and motives to the March and Aria movements from Boris Tchaikovsky's Suite for Cello Solo, which Yagling recorded. The Finale was originally called "Chorale." This mostly homophonic movement plays with bitonality and contains several circle-of-fifth sequences.
Aria 0:00
Humoresque 3:42
Yuriy Leonovich, cello
Kristin Leonovich, piano
Recorded live on 27 June 2024 at Harpe Chapel, First Presbyterian Church, Greenville, SC, for the Varna International Festival.
Microphones: AEA R84A (cello), Schoeps MK22 pair in ORTF (piano)
Recorded: Zoom F8n
Camera: Sony AX43