Silvestrov Sacred Works
Here is a ravishing collection of a cappella choral works by the Ukrainian Valentin Silvestrov that perfectly illustrates his own description of his music as “a.
Silvestrov Sacred Songs
Ukrainian composer is frequently grouped with other Eastern European composers like, and (with the British sometimes thrown in), as a 'holy minimalist.' The composers have very different and individually recognizable styles, but they do have in common harmonic languages anchored in tonality (or modality), austerity of means, and a predilection for works with a contemplative, mystical tone. One characteristic of the works on this ECM release made up of sacred pieces, most of which are recorded here for the first time, is the composer's tendency to create clearly defined melodic lines surrounded by a radiant haze of sustained notes. The cloud of sound is sometimes static, but it generally shifts in surprising ways, supporting the melody with subtly unpredictable harmonies. It's easy to hear works' roots in Orthodox liturgical chant, but 's free-floating harmonies give the music an individual and distinctive character. It's a sound that's not quite like what any of the other mystical minimalists are doing, but it is likely to strike a chord in listeners who love, and.
While the music included on this album rewards close and focused attention, and it is not all slow and quiet (particularly the exuberant setting of Psalm 150), its overall character of soulful spirituality could make it an appealing aid to meditation. The, led by, has a sound that is at once earthy and serenely pure.
This is obviously deeply felt music, in the tradition of the passionate chants of the Orthodox Church, and the choir sings with intensity and unreserved emotion. The acoustics of the Cathedral of the Dormition in Kiev are beautifully suited to this repertoire, with warmth and plenty of resonance, but with enough clarity that the words are understandable. ECM's engineering is characteristically immaculate.
Byline: Kristine Morris Valentin Silvestrov: Sacred Works Kiev Chamber Choir / Mykola Hobdych ECM records CD www.ecmrecords.com Hauntingly beautiful, bell-like resonances, and lingering harmonies evoke a dialogue with the divine in Valentin Silvestrov's Sacred Works for a cappella choir. 'Music is the world singing of itself,' says Silvestrov, and in this work one hears not just human song but the shimmer of wind in the trees and the golden aura of sunset, all cast in the religious sensibilities of Eastern Europe. Silvestrov, born in 1937, is a Ukrainian composer who has lived his whole life in that country's capital city, Kiev. Initially, he was led to the experimental style of the Western avant-garde, perhaps as an antidote of sorts to the mandatory artistic doctrine of Socialist realism prevalent in his country under Soviet domination. But in the 1970s, he found himself moved in a completely different direction - toward an 'art of ideas' inspired by religion. Although this removed him from the stylistic mainstream of Western composition and labeled him as somewhat of a maverick, he affirmed his position, saying, 'I have to write what I like, not what other people like, or, as the phrase goes, what the times dictate.
Silvestrov Sacred Songs
Otherwise I will succumb to an economic activity that mutilates the mind. I have to search for beauty.' For Silvestrov, this beauty can be found in the sacred, and he is in rarified, if sparse, company in his aesthetic: in the late twentieth century there were only a few Western musicians of note still concerned with sacred music, among them Olivier Messiaen, Francis Poulenc, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. The Cathedral of the Ascension in the High Monastery of Kiev serves as the reverberation chamber for Silvestrov's written-out overtones, and it amplifies and extends the aural shimmer of sound that is more like a force of nature than what one would ordinarily expect of human voices, even those speaking with the divine.