Valentin Silvestrov
Encyclopedia
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, in the Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...
of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
) is a Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and composer of contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
.
Education
Sylvestrov began private music lessons at age 15. He studied piano at the Kiev Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958, then at the Kiev Conservatory from 1958–1964; composition under Borys Lyatoshynsky, harmony and counterpoint under Levko RevutskyLevko Revutsky
Levko Mykolajovych Revutskyi was a Ukrainian composer, teacher, and activist. Amongst his students at the Lysenko Music Institute were the composers Arkady Filippenko and Valentin Silvestrov.-Early life and education:...
.
Style
Sylvestrov is perhaps best known for his post-modern musical style; some, if not most, of his works could be considered neoclassicalNeoclassicism (music)
Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "classicism", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint...
and post-modernist. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, Sylvestrov creates a unique and delicate tapestry of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities which Sylvestrov suggests are otherwise sacrificed in much of contemporary music. "I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists," Sylvestrov has said.http://www.ecmrecords.com/Background/Background_1778.php
In 1974, under pressure to conform to both official precepts of socialist realism and fashionable modernism, Sylvestrov chose to withdraw from spotlight. In this period he began to reject his previously modernist style. Instead, he composed Quiet Songs (Тихі Пісні (1977)) a cycle intended to be played in private.
Sylvestrov's Symphony No. 5 (1980–1982), considered by some to be his masterpiece, may be viewed as an epilogue
Epilogue
An epilogue, epilog or afterword is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature or drama, usually used to bring closure to the work...
or coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...
inspired by the music of late Romantic
Romantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
composers such as Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
. "With our advanced artistic awareness, fewer and fewer texts are possible which, figuratively speaking, begin 'at the beginning'... What this means is not the end of music as art, but the end of music, an end in which it can linger for a long time. It is very much in the area of the coda that immense life is possible.”
Sylvestrov's recent cycle for violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and piano, Melodies of Instances (Мелодії Миттєвостей), a set of seven works comprising 22 movements to be played in sequence (and lasting about 70 minutes), is intimate and elusive - the composer describes it as "melodies [...]on the boundary between their appearance and disappearance"
Principal works
Sylvestrov's principal and published works include seven symphonies, poems for piano and orchestra, miscellaneous pieces for (chamber) orchestra, two string quartets, a piano quintet, three piano sonatas, piano pieces, chamber music, and vocal music (cantatas, songs, etc.)Some of his notable pieces are:
- Piano Sonatina (1960, revised 1965)
- Quartetto Piccolo for string quartet (1961)
- Symphony No.1 (1963, revised 1974)
- Mysterium for alto flute and six percussion groups (1964)
- Spectra for chamber orchestra (1965)
- Monodia for piano and orchestra (1965)
- Symphony No.2 for flute, timpani, piano and string orchestra (1965)
- Symphony No.3 "Eschatophony" (1966)
- Poem to the Memory of Borys Lyatoshynsky for orchestra (1968)
- Drama for violin, cello, and piano (1970-1971)
- Meditation for cello and piano (1972)
- String Quartet No.1 (1974)
- Thirteen Estrades Songs (1973-1975)
- Quiet Songs (Silent Songs) after Pushkin, Lermontov, Keats, Yesenin, Shevtshenko, et al. for baritone and piano (1974-1975)
- Symphony No.4 for brass instruments and strings (1976)
- Kitsch-Music, cycle of five pieces for piano (1977)
- Forest Music after G. Aigi for soprano horn and piano (1977-1978)
- Postludium for violin solo (1981)
- Postludium for cello and piano (1982)
- Symphony No.5 (1980-1982)
- Ode to the Nightingale, cantata with text by John KeatsJohn KeatsJohn Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...
for soprano and small orchestra (1983) - Postludium for piano and orchestra (1984)
- String Quartet No.2 (1988)
- Widmung (Dedication), symphony for violin and orchestra (1990-1991)
- Metamusic, symphonic poem for piano and orchestra (1992)
- Symphony No.6 (1994-1995)
- The Messenger for synthesizer, piano and string orchestra (1996-1997)
- Requiem for Larissa for chorus and orchestra (1997-1999)
- Epitaph for piano and string orchestra (1999)
- Epitaph L.B. for viola (or cello) and piano (1999)
- Autumn Serenade for chamber orchestra (2000)
- Requiem (2000)
- Hymn 2001 (2001)
- Symphony No.7 (2002-2003)
- Lacrimosa for viola (or cello) solo (2004)
- Symphony No.8 (2007)
- 5 Sacred Songs for SATB choir had its world premiere in Ireland on 24 September 2009 (2008)http://www.louthcms.org
- 5 New Pieces for Violin and Piano had its world premiere in Ireland on 24 September 2009 (2009)http://www.louthcms.org
External links
- Biography, performances, discography and work index at the Schott Music website
- Short article detailing the life of V. Silvestrov and his place in modern classical music, by Stylus magazine
- Short biography and list of works at the Soviet Composer's Page
- Composers Online
Links to music
- Hymn 2001 for piano played by Tomasz Kamieniak on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- music samples, Symphony #5