Valentyn Silvestrov

Valentin Vasylyovych Silvestrov (; born 30 September 1937) is a Ukrainian composer and pianist who plays and writes contemporary classical music. He is a laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize.

Biography Valentin Vasylyovych Silvestrov was born on 30 September 1937 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union.

Silvestrov began private music lessons at 15. After first teaching himself, he studied piano at the Kyiv Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958 whilst training to become a civil engineer. He attended the Kyiv Conservatory from 1958 to 1964, where he studied musical composition with Borys Lyatoshynsky and harmony and counterpoint with Levko Revutsky. He then taught at a music studio in Kyiv.

Silvestrov was a freelance composer in Kyiv from 1970 to 2022. He fled to Berlin upon the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Music Silvestrov is best known for his postmodern music, some of which is also considered neoclassical. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, he creates delicate tapestries of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities he feels are often lost in contemporary music: "I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists."

In 1974, pressured to conform to socialist realism and trends of modernism, and to apologise for his composers' meeting walkout protesting the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia,Anastasia Belina-Johnson, notes to 'To Thee We Sing' (2015), Ondine Records ODE 1266-5 Silvestrov withdrew from the spotlight and began to reject his earlier modernist style, composing the Silent Songs (Тихі Пісні, 1977) cycle for private performance. After the Soviet Union's fall, he composed spiritual and religious works influenced by Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox liturgical music.Belina-Johnson, 2015 He traced his rejection of avant-garde techniques to his Kyiv Conservatory years, when Lyatoshynsky asked, "Do you like this?", a question he said was "ingrained in my soul".

His 2004-05 70-minute violin and piano cycle, Melodies of the Moments (Мелодії Миттєвостей), seven works with 22 movements, is intimate and elusive. He describes it as "melodies ... on the boundary between their appearance and disappearance".Sleeve notes to recording, Fleeting Melodies, Rostok Records, 2008 Elements of Ukrainian nationalism occur in works like Diptych, which sets the words of Taras Shevchenko's prominent patriotic poem "Testament" ("Заповіт", 1845) to music for chorus. He dedicated it in 2014 to Serhiy Nigoyan, the Armenian-Ukrainian Euromaidan activist killed in the 2014 Hrushevsky Street protests, perhaps the first of the Maidan casualties that led to the Revolution of Dignity.

Works Silvestrov's principal and published works include 9 symphonies, poems for piano and orchestra, miscellaneous pieces for chamber orchestra, three string quartets, a piano quintet, three piano sonatas, chamber music, and vocal music (cantatas, songs, etc.). +WorkYearRev.GenreSymphony No. 119631974OrchestraClassical Overture1964OrchestraMonodia for piano and orchestra1965OrchestraSpectres1965Chamber Orchestra/EnsembleSymphony No. 2 for flute, timpani, piano, and string orchestra1965Chamber Orchestra/EnsembleSymphony No. 3, "Eschatophony"1966OrchestraHymn1968OrchestraPoem (in memoriam B. N. Liatoshynsky)1968OrchestraMeditation for chamber orchestra1972OrchestraPostludium for piano and orchestra1974OrchestraSymphony No. 4 for brass instruments and strings1976OrchestraSerenade for Chamber Orchestra1978OrchestraSymphony No. 51980-82OrchestraIntermezzo1983Chamber Orchestra/EnsembleExegi monumentum for baritone (or soprano) and orchestra1985-87VocalWidmung (Dedication), symphony for violin and orchestra1990-91OrchestraMetamuzïka for piano and orchestra1992OrchestraSymphony No. 61994-95OrchestraVisnyk 96 (The Messenger) for synthesizer, piano and string orchestra1997OrchestraHymn 20012001Chamber Orchestra/EnsembleMeta Waltz, symphonic poem for orchestra2002OrchestraSymphony No. 72003OrchestraSymphony No. 82012-13OrchestraSymphony No. 92017-19OrchestraPrayer for Ukraine (arr. by Eduard Resatsch)2022Chamber Orchestra/EnsemblePrayer for Ukraine (arr. by Andreas Gies)2022OrchestraPiano Sonata No. 119601972Piano SoloSonatina1960Piano SoloPiano Quintet1961Chamber MusicFive Pieces for Piano1961Piano SoloQuartetto Piccolo for String Quartet1961Chamber MusicTriada, 13 pieces for piano1961Piano SoloTrio for Flute, Trumpet, and Celeste1962Chamber MusicMystery for Alto Flute and Six Percussion Groups1964Chamber MusicProjections for Harpsichord, Vib, and Chimes1965Chamber MusicElegy for piano1967Piano SoloDrama for violin, cello, and piano1969-71Chamber MusicChildren's Music, Books 1 & 21973Piano SoloMusic in Olden Style1973Piano SoloString Quartet No. 11974Chamber MusicPiano Sonata No. 21975Piano SoloKitsch-Music1977Piano SoloPiano Sonata No. 31979Piano SoloPostludium for violin1981Violin SoloPostludium for cello and piano1982Chamber MusicSonata for cello1983Chamber MusicString Quartet No. 21988Chamber MusicPost Scriptum sonata for violin and piano1990Chamber MusicMisterioso for clarinet and piano1996Chamber Music5 Cycles for violin and piano2019-21Chamber MusicA Winter Night’s Music for violin, piano, and synthesizer ("wind")2004-102018Chamber MusicEpitaphium (L.B.) for violin or cello and piano1999Chamber MusicFive Pieces from Melodies of the Moments for violin and piano2004Chamber MusicHommage à J.S.B. for violin and piano2009Chamber MusicMelodies of the Moments — Cycle I for violin and piano2004Chamber MusicMelodies of the Moments — Cycle II for violin and piano2004Chamber MusicMelodies of the Moments — Cycle III for violin and piano2004Chamber MusicMelodies of the Moments — Cycle IV for violin and piano2004Chamber MusicMelodies of the Moments — Cycle V for violin and piano2004-05Chamber MusicSongs Without Words for violin and piano2004Chamber MusicFugitive Visions of Mozart for violin, cello, and piano (originally titled Moments of Mozart) 20062007Chamber MusicTwo Pieces for violin and piano2010Chamber MusicPastorals for violin and piano2020Chamber MusicPastorals for violin, cello, and piano2023Chamber MusicIcon2004Chamber MusicSonata for Cello and Piano19832000Chamber MusicString Quartet No. 32011Chamber MusicDiptychon1995ChoralThree Sacred Songs2013ChoralElegy1996ChoralPrayer for Ukraine 2014ChoralLiturgical Chants2005ChoralOde to Joy2011ChoralPsalm: 8 Variations on the Ukrainian folksong "Oh, from the rocky mountain"2019ChoralRequiem for Larissa1997-99ChoralOver All the Mountain Tops is Peace2009ChoralFour Sacred Chants2022ChoralFour Psalms2024ChoralTwo Christmas Lullabies2006ChoralMaidan 2014: a cycle of cycles in the wake of the Euromaidan2014-16ChoralMoments of Poetry and Music2003ChoralAutumn Serenade for soprano and chamber orchestra19802000VocalCantata for soprano and chamber orchestra1973VocalCantata No. 12 for soprano or baritone and chamber orchestra2020VocalCantata No. 4 for soprano, piano, and string orchestra2014VocalOde to the Nightingale cantata for soprano, piano, and chamber orch19832000VocalSilent Songs1974-77VocalThree Postludes for soprano, violin, cello, and piano19811982Vocal

Discography Silvestrov has released/appeared on 16 albums with ECM, which began a dedicated series to the composer in 2002. This series includes a 1986 archival recording of the song cycle Silent Songs. Albums in ECM's Silvestrov series include:

leggiero, pesante (2002) — ECM 1776 Metamusik/Postludium (2003) — ECM 1790 Requiem for Larissa (2004) — ECM 1778 Silent Songs (2004) — ECM 1898/99 Symphony No. 6 (2007) — ECM 1935 Bagatellen und Serenaden (2007) — ECM 1988 Sacred Works (2009) — ECM 2117 Sacred Songs (2012) — ECM 2279 Hieroglyphen der Nacht (2017) — ECM 2389 Maidan (2022) — ECM 2359

Across all labels, the website Presto Music lists over 140 albums for Silvestrov, including Valentin Silvestrov: Forgotten Word I Wished to Say, released on Sony Classical by pianist Alexei Lubimov and soprano Viktoriia Vitrenko. Lubimov also released Silvestrov: ...flowering Over Lethe... on the label Fuga Libera in 2025.

In 2023, pianist Hélène Grimaud and baritone Konstantin Krimmel recorded his Silent Songs for Deutsche Grammophon. Grimaud also released a tribute album to Silvestrov on the same label in 2022. Violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Alexey Botvinov released a similar album, also for DG, that same year (which marked the composer's 85th birthday).

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Valentyn Silvestrov

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