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SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra/Andrey Boreyko ECM 1935 [54 mins] Valentin Vassilievitch Silvestrov (b.Kiev, 1937) is a composer who divides opinion and whose music requires, above all else, a relaxed and patient listening mode. When he first came onto the scene, I enjoyed his piano and cello sonatas [Erato 2292-45631] and Symphony No 5 and Postludium [Sony SK 66 825], both those featuring his loyal devotee, pianist Alexei Lubimov. A good succinct introduction to Silvestrov's sound world is Ates Orga's review of the latter disc for BBC Music Magazine: " - - his belief that ‘form continues to resonate in invisible, inaudible space, in spite of a unity that exists on every level' - - a lyrical tapestry of emotions, illusions and reflections, a music of the subconscious that rolls inexorably on, like waves pounding and receding. Both works suddenly erupt with a big bang, then lingeringly spiral down into silence. Both are about repetitive melodies and encircling sequences, sensuously suggestive colours and comforting, hypnotic sounds. Memories of worlds glimpsed by visitors, from Mahler and Respighi to Hovhaness and Enya, of a space continuum where earth time all but stands still, haunt their voluptuous, ambient experience". No 6 by this Ukrainian "avant-garde romantic" has the arch form he favours, with his romanticism overlaid with "a kind of uniquely radiant melancholy". Five movements, played continuously, its core the long, Mahlerian middle movement: "the symphony's most emotionally poignant and musically limpid expression of the crystalline nostalgia that is characteristic of the composer's aesthetic" (Stephen Eddins).I go along with this, and enjoy (occasionally) wallowing in this sensuous bath of sound. But I can also understand a more robust response to the present disc: Silvestrov lacks Mahler's gifts as a melodist or as a musical architect, and lapses into posturing gestures. The over-heated essays in the CD booklet do Silvestrov few favours either. (Andrew Clements, The Guardian). It is played with obvious commitment to its lingering beauties and recorded beautifully; something for late night listening or (as now) early Sunday morning on my iPod before anyone else is up... This is one to try to sample befor purchase. Peter Grahame Woolf q.v. my report on Silvestrov's Symphony No 5 with the same conductor [Megadisc MDC 7836] |
