Valentin Silvestrov - Symphony No. 6
ARTIST.....: Valentin Silvestrov
TITLE......: Symphony No. 6
LABEL......: ECM
URL........: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Silvestrov
RIP DATE...: Jul-10-2007
STORE DATE.: May-22-2007
GENRE......: Classical
QUALITY....: VBR / 44.1Hz / Joint-Stereo
SIZE.......: 73,7 MB
Track Listing:
01 - andantino - vivace - allegretto (attacca) 08:39
02 - allegro moderato - commodo (attacca) 06:31
03 - andantino - animato - adagio - moderato - 24:58
andante (attacca)
04 - intermezzo. larghetto (attacca) 05:26
05 - vivace con moto - larghetto 08:43
─────
54:17 min
Release Notes:
REVIEW
If you havenÆt yet encountered the music of Ukrainian
composer Valentin Silvestrov, then itÆs time you did; he seems to
have been writing his æpostludesÆ for symphonic musical history
for a good twenty years. Silvestrov calls his orchestral works
æsymphonic poetryÆ, or sometimes æmetasymphoniesÆ where time flows
in a wholly different way. HeÆs not alone in this, of course:
other contemporary composers such as P?rt, Gorecki, Tavener, Vasks
and Rautavaara are capable of warping the passage of time, yet
Silvestrov has his own fully-saturated musical language, plus a
post-Mahlerian sense of scale and all-encompassing humanity.
SilvestrovÆs Fifth Symphony has already been recorded several
times, becoming something of a cult hit in the East thanks to a
now-deleted Melodiya recording. There was a fourteen year gap
before the Sixth Symphony was finished in 2000: a five movement
work described in the notes as æa living tissue of sounds, charged
with deep dynamic forces, [which] sparkles and breathes as if
bathed in sunlight or caressed by gusts of wind.Æ I like thatà
except that it gives you no real idea of the yawning chasm from
which the work seems to drag itself, shuddering and groaning
towards that light.
Soàis the Sixth Symphony about anything? The composer talked in an
interview about its æatmosphere of imminent disasterÆ, and with
hindsight that seems prescient: SilvestrovÆs musicologist wife
Larissa died unexpectedly just after heÆd finished the first draft
in 1996, and he included a coded cipher of his wifeÆs name in the
final bars.
The notes refer to the opening of the symphony as æprimordial
chaosÆàchurning, bass-heavy chords that rumble ominously as piano
notes and vibrato-less strings pierce the gloom like shards of
shattered glass. Threads begin to appear, strands of melodic DNA
being pulled from the slime to shimmer on the surface of this dark
poolàuntil droplets of pizzicato at the start of the second
movement send ripples to rouse the grumbling monster in the
depths. The brass becomes dominant, until a dense string chord
insists on silence, and the melodic material emerges on the
violins, intact for the first time. The multi-stranded layers of
constantly shifting sound dwindle to a roll of timpani and a
single, hushed cello.
Then comes the massive middle movement, 25 minutes long, dwarfing
those around it, evoking (and quoting) the famous Adagietto from
MahlerÆs Fifth Symphony. Silvestrov constructs a breathtakingly
beautiful centrepiece for his symphony, extrapolating on the
sighing strings and the sense of timelessness that were already
there in MahlerÆs original, with a cascading string sound that
would have Mantovani doffing his hat in respect. Then thereÆs
stillness; an Intermezzo thatÆs all shimmering surface, glistening
with harp, piano, celesta, and harmonics from the upper stringsàa
ghostly vision, slowly fading as tendrils of mist envelope the
concluding chord. But all the time weÆve been making a slow,
delicate descentàand when the brass growls and woodwind shrieks
assail us at the start of the finale, the music is overpowered by
a sense of horror, and desperate loss. We end where we began, with
the last melodic remnants dissolving into infinite blackness.
Given SilvestrovÆs personal history, his Sixth Symphony could feel
as though itÆs all about him, yet he transcends the
autobiographical in a work that encompasses us all. The playing is
superb, capturing the most delicate hues and gentlest whispers of
the score, and the immaculate recording provides the inky
blackness from which the music emerges and into which, at the end,
it decays. Like so much Silverstov, you donÆt have to know how or
why it works to be deeply affected by it. It feels simple, yet it
obviously isnÆt; itÆs profoundly beautiful, timeless, and
unforgettable.
This recording is Disc Of The Week on Radio 3's CD Review
Andrew McGregor (2007-06-29)
http://www.amazon.com/Valentin-Silvestrov-Symphony-No-
6/dp/B000N0W9DS