Valentin Silvestrov

This music was created in memory of Larissa Bondarenko, the late wife of the composer. The work is a hybrid combination of strophic lied form and Baroque lamento (more or less chaconne). The exquisite...

The Sonata for cello and piano introduces a 'novel imaginary instrument', a cello piano which is played in a mysterious way, as if by a musician.This metaphorical instrumentation creates a metaphorica...

Quasi Vc-solo means that the two cellists shall communicate with each other in a very careful and gentle way, shall respond to each other in a sensitive way, to sound as only one instrument, a cello '...

Anja Lechner, cellist and dedicatee of 'Hieroglyphs of the night' explains her feelings with Silvestrov's music: '... it changed me. I was so moved by this delicate, breathing sounds and melodic fragm...

Diptychon is a two-part composition which may be compared to altarpiece. In addition to an image of Christ, this usually depicts the life of a saint. The image of Christ corresponds to the Lord's Pray...

Kein Sommernachtstraum, sondern Eine Winternachtsmusik - mit elektronisch erzeugten Windgeräuschen: 'Ein sehr leiser Winterwind, den man wie aus der Ferne von draußen durch das Fenster hört.' - so die...

Silvestrov thinks that a coda is more than something which brings a work to an end. It is one of the most important parts of a composition, or at least just as important as the other sections. His can...

The Trio is the last work composed on the basis of dodecaphonic techniques, which at the time I considered to be a way of composing lyrical music. The work has two movements (I Sonatina, II Variations...

Though Silvestrov's 'Elegy' for cello and two tam-tams continues the series of his earlier elegy compositions in some ways, it is here given a whole new shape, with the cello being accompanied by two...

This composition is both a milestone and an interface in Silvestrov's work: it is the end of his 'avant-garde period' and the beginning of what he later calls 'metamusic'. The structure of the work is...

Metamusik is not only the title of this work, but also a concept with which the composer has attempted to describe his style. He considers Metamusik to be 'a semantic overtone above music'. 'Meta', Si...

Symphony no. 6 is 'a gigantic farewell symphony written at the end of the millenium. It is at one and the same time retrospective, sums up, and, in a visionary manner, is directed towards the future ....

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitude to Eamonn Quinn, Artistic Director of Louth Contemporary Music Society in Ireland, for his deep empathy, appreciation and great...

Written for the Kronos String Quartet, this piece contains Irish accents and some simple ideas that both convey the composer's enthusiasm for Ireland, the historical fate of which reminds him of his n...

String Quartet No. 1 is one of the most successful and most frequently performed works by Silvestrov. It can be described as a work standing on a threshold between avant-garde and post-avant-garde and...

The edition contains two string quartet miniatures which are 43 years apart. Quartetto piccolo (1961) is Valentin Silvestrov's first twelve-note composition which consists of three little movements me...

This work is a noble song of praise with a fanned-out texture on a tonal and harmonic basis. 'My hymn is enveloped in silence although it looks like a normal string setting on the outside. The paradox...

Silvestrov's violin sonata 'Post scriptum' is another of his chamber music postludes. The composer once stated that the title of the work signifies that it is 'a postscript to Mozart and the whole cla...