Valentin Silvestrov: Stufen (Song Cycle) (1999)
Alexei Lubimov (piano), Jana Ivanilova (Soprano), Valentin Silvestrov (piano)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 154 Mb | Covers included | Time: 01:12:42
Classical, Contemporary | Label: Megadisc | # MDC 7832
Alexei Lubimov (piano), Jana Ivanilova (Soprano), Valentin Silvestrov (piano)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 154 Mb | Covers included | Time: 01:12:42
Classical, Contemporary | Label: Megadisc | # MDC 7832
Valentin Silvestrov is not just the Ukraine’s most prominent composer but also a major voice in the music of our time: a quiet voice, to be sure, and one that some will pigeon-hole at the soft-core end of the New Spirituality. But even a first encounter should suggest the presence of deeper perspectives, and encounters with the full range of his music only serve to confirm that impression. Russian commentators have long since ranged Silvestrov alongside Schnittke, Gubaidulina and Denisov as one of the most important figures that came to maturity in the 1970s. It was then that he produced music such as the two Cantatas – the earlier one for soprano and chamber orchestra, setting words by Tyuchev and Blok, the later one for a cappella choir to verses by Ukraine’s national poet, Taras Chevchenko. Both works blend Webernian angularity with an ecstatic lyricism.