Valentin Silvestrov: Musical dedication to Arvo Pärt e.a.
Tobias
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov returns to the limelight with a new album on ECM records. “Bagatellen und Serenaden” comes as a hybrid between a concert document and a set of spontaneous recordings and aims at providing a full and detailed portrait of his art. While preparing for the staging of several of his orchestral works, Valentin Silvestrov decided to take a seat behind the piano and play a string of short pieces himself. Part of these were recorded early morning, the rest in the late afternoon and can now be found on the first half of “Bagatellen und Serenaden”. After Valentin Silvestrov finishes his private solo session, Alexei Lubimov takes over pianistic duties, as Christoph Poppen conducts the Munich Chamber Orchestra in five small- to medium length pieces. All of them are dedicated to personal friends and respected colleagues: Arvo Pärt has called Valentin Silvestrov “one of the greatest composers of our time” and the latter returns the favour with “Zwei Dialoge mit Nachwort”. Fellow composer Ivan Karabits is the dedicatee of “Abschiedsserenade for string orchestra” (“Serenade of Parting”). And on “Stille Musik”, Valentin Silvestrov expresses genuine thanks for the hard work done in his name by Manfred Eicher, ECM label head and an important mediator of his music. The most sentimental message, however, comes close to the end of the disc: “Der Bote” (“The Messenger”) was composed for Larissa Bondarenko, his wife who died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1996.
It is not the first open allusion to Bondarenko, who championed Valentin Silvestrov’s music in public and is held to be an important influence on its development. In fact, “Requiem for Larissa” is even more outspoken than “Der Bote”. And yet, it is the most immediate one, composed the same year. Still, “Bagatellen und Serenaden” is not a statement of sadness and despair. Quite on the contrary, fans of Valentin Silvestrov will he glad to see his spirits reawakened after it seemed he would never again score a single note after finishing the requiem. With most compositions dating back to as recently as 2002, this is not only a comprehensive portrait of Silvestrov - it is also a contemporary document of his activities.
Homepage: ECM Records