Valentin Silvestrov, a genius or a lot of the same notes in different wraps?

[Thom]

I have been listening to his Symphony 5 & 6, and a disc called 'Leggiero, Pesante' and I am not sure (see the title of this thread). I also have his Requiem for Larissa which is really quite beautiful. So I wonder what you think about this composer who has been given high praise by someone like Arvo Pärt whose reputation is beyond any doubt (I think).

X

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I do love the Requiem. It is beautiful like you say - I love the Shevchenko setting, which sounds like it's coming from very far away (and how often do we get to hear a Ukrainian text in classical music?), and the mock Mozart of the movement that follows. He really makes his "nostalgic" technique (constantly evoking older forms of music, often in fragments) work here. And since a requiem is essentially a remembrance, it's totally appropriate.

On the other hand, I hated the 5th Symphony - like being immersed in a lukewarm bath for 40 minutes.

Certainly, given my extreme positive & negative responses, he's a composer that intrigues me.

[Thom]

Certainly, given my extreme positive & negative responses, he's a composer that intrigues me.

Yes we agree then.

[Harry]

Again a composer which is on my path, and I am bound to go hunting for some introduction music, but first Hartmann, Kokkonen, Sallinen, Bergman, Krenek, Melartin, Englund, Lloyd, Wellezs, Langgaard, Olsson, etc etc...........................

[Varg]

I purchased this a couple weeks ago:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=5979999&style=classical&BAB=5

I am one happy man!! 

I'm not surprise to see you showing interest in this composer, Harry. Have you finally got to hear some of his works?

[Brian]

I purchased this a couple weeks ago:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=5979999&style=classical&BAB=5

I am one happy man!! 

I'm not surprise to see you showing interest in this composer, Harry. Have you finally got to hear some of his works?

Not sure I would pay $42 for a single CD of music by any composer... 

[Hector]

Not sure I would pay $42 for a single CD of music by any composer... 

I am, I wouldn't! This is an import which suggests it could be acquired cheaper abroad!

I heard the 5th the other week and although I had found all of his music beforehand not to my taste this had a mesmerising effect and is, now, on my 'buy list.'

I am, probably, completely wrong.

[Cato]

I purchased this a couple weeks ago:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=5979999&style=classical&BAB=5

I am one happy man!! 

I'm not surprise to see you showing interest in this composer, Harry. Have you finally got to hear some of his works?

Amazon Deutschland offers this disc for under 13 Euros: depending on where you are, that could be cheaper, even with overseas shipping.

http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=sr_pg_2?ie=UTF8&rs=255966&keywords=valentin%20silvestrov&rh=n%3A255882%2Cn%3A255966%2Ck%3Avalentin%20silvestrov&page=2

[Sean]

I've been listening to Silvestrov's Mysteres for alto flute and percussionists over the last couple of days, a 12 minute listenable piece that doesn't add up to that much. Larissa is a minor masterpiece and very touching, and the Fifth symphony I do think deserving of its good reputation- neo-romantic but indicating an original voice, no mean feat today. Metamusik and Postludium both for piano and orchestra are again less distinctive.

Requiem for Larissa is remarkable.

[lukeottevanger]

The Silent Songs are the most unusual and impressive things I know of Silvestrov, in their incredibly understated way - understated in every way possible except the overall effect. Rarely has a quiet, restrained voice been so powerfully compelling.

[Maciek]

I've been meaning to expand for a long time and still haven't but the single Silvestrov disc that I do have is this:


Valentin Silvestrov: Dedication (Symphony for Violin & Orchestra) / Post Scriptum (Sonata for Violin & Piano) - Gidon Kremer / Munich Philharmonic

It's been a very long time since I listened to it last. But back in those days (must have been 7-8 years ago! ) it had such a profoundly depressing effect that somehow I never felt compelled to give it another try. I'm afraid it would either turn out to still be depressing or... boring as hell.

[Varg]

Not sure I would pay $42 for a single CD of music by any composer... 

I didnt pay that much for the recording; i got it on ebay for 10 bucks. There's no way i'm gonna pay $42 for one single recording!

[tab]

Death of his wife is a breaking point in Silvestrov's life. Most people here in Russia prefer his early works when Larisa was alive. 

[Harry]

I be meaning to get some of this music, but all of the orchestral discs are full price, and I hate that.

[Guido]

Aww shucks I thought there was no Silvestrov thread, and was about to make one called, Silvestrov's Silver trough. Quite glad actually that I didn't need to, would have been embarassingly trite.

Listening to Schoeck's Elegie made me wander next to Silvestrov's Silent Songs... I remember you saying Luke that he used the level of beauty as another expressive parameter in these songs, and I just wondered whether you could expand a bit on this and maybe give some specific examples? Not asking too much I hope... 

[Rabbity Baxter]

I'll be playing his Post Scriptum sonata and Pamyati P.I. (i.e. in Memory of Tchaikovsky) next month in the Kiev Composers' Union with a Ukrainian violinist who knows Silvestrov fairly well. I've become rather fond of his music. He is also a charming man - made me some CDs and used a highlighting pen to point out which he thought were the best pieces! Will do a rather post-Mozartian piano trio in November as well, but haven't looked much at that yet. He has been writing a series of old-fashioned Russian romances to classic Russian (mostly early 19th-C poems) with an old friend of his. He impressed upon me the importance he places on silence in his music, and on the written-out minute tempo fluctuations, which appear to be a way of "structuralising" (yes, I know, horrid word) those aspects of performance usually called "expression".

[snyprrr]

I've never heard a note of this guy, but I keep thinking the slow mvmt to DSCH Sym 5, or Gorecki 3. Will have to YouTube tomorrow.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

He is also a charming man - made me some CDs and used a highlighting pen to point out which he thought were the best pieces!

Can you tell us which he thought were the best, Rabbity?

I've never heard a note of this guy, but I keep thinking the slow mvmt to DSCH Sym 5, or Gorecki 3. Will have to YouTube tomorrow.

Not really - he's more polystylistic, closer to Schnittke. But he does have his own voice, which is paradoxically constructed out of other composers' voices.

[snyprrr]

Not really - he's more polystylistic, closer to Schnittke. But he does have his own voice, which is paradoxically constructed out of other composers' voices.

I checked out some YouTube today:

1) one of the "silent songs". mmm...meh? Not for me. I can hear why, if you like this, you'd like the Schoeck. No cut, jus sayin

2) Dedication and Post-something, with Kremer. Once again, I like Myaskovsky's Cello Concerto better. Thaaat's Nostalghia!

3) Symphony No.4: not at all.

4) SQ No.1: I guess,...patronage was not pleased.

5) 5mins. of Requiem for Larissa. I could barely hear it.



Couldn't find the "infamous" Sym. 5, haha , but, unless it's absolutely perfect, then I don't think his idea of a "post-scriptum" to orchestral history, and mine, sound the same. I do like this concept though, of an immense post-scriptum. But, for me, just dragging out that intro to Myaskovsky's Cello Concerto would do the trick for me.

Am I wrong to think that he sounds like Vasks, or am I just confusing the two? Does Vasks have any of "that" sound? I didn't really like the Wergo disc (forget what's on it).

[CRCulver]

Am I wrong to think that he sounds like Vasks, or am I just confusing the two? Does Vasks have any of "that" sound? I didn't really like the Wergo disc (forget what's on it).

Vasks' music lacks the Webernian intervals of Silvestrov's curious melodies, and also Vasks loves to layer Shostakovich-inspired conflict that a friend of mine calls "battle music" and says always sounds like Tsarist troops riding down downtrodden protestors.