Valentin Silvestrov

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Valentin Silvestrov (born September 30, 1937 in Kiev) is a contemporary Ukrainian composer of classical music, increasingly regarded as one of the finest composers of his generation.

Silvestrov is perhaps best known for his avant-garde musical style; some, if not most, of his works could be considered neoclassical and modernist. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, Silvestrov creates a unique and delicate tapestry of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities which Silvestrov 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," Silvestrov has said.[1]

Silvestrov's Symphony No. 5 (1980-1982), widely considered a masterpiece, may be viewed as an epilogue or coda inspired by the music of late Romantic composers such as Gustav Mahler. "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.”

In 1974, under pressure to conform to both official precepts of socialist realism and fashionable modernism, Silvestrov chose to withdraw from spotlight. In this period he began to reject his previously modernist style. Instead, he composed “Silent Songs” ("Tихие Песни" (1977)) a seminal cycle intended to be played in private.

[edit] Education

Silvestrov 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 B. Liatoshinsky, harmony and counterpoint under L. Revutsky. His contemporaries include Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Sofia Gubaidulina.

[edit] Principal works

Silvestrov'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 and most popular 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 Boris Lyatoshinsky for orchestra (1968)
"Drama" for violin, cello, and piano (1970-1971)
"Mediation" 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 Keats), 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", synthesizer, piano, and string orchestra (1996-1997)
"Epitaph", piano and string orchestra (1999)
"Autumn Serenade" for chamber orchestra (2000)
Requiem (2000)
"Hymn 2001" (2001)
Symphony No. 7 (2003)