Silvestrov: Drama; Post Scriptum; Epitaphium

Album review

Two of Valentin Silvestrov's chamber pieces for strings and piano are recorded here for the first time. His Post Scriptum, for violin and piano, was one of the first of his works to gain currency in the West and is rightfully one of his most popular and often recorded works. It was written in 1990 for the bicentennial commemoration of Mozart's death, and its tonal simplicity and purity and its sense of restraint are apt contemporary evocations of classical ideals. Its three movements are gentle and quiet, and, in spite of varying tempo indications (from Largo to Allegro vivace), consistently unhurried. Silvestrov wrote Epitaph (1999), for cello and piano, as one of several memorials for his wife. Like Post Scriptum, it's serene, meditative, and atmospheric. Drama, for piano trio, written in 1971 and revised in 2002, is the most historically significant piece on the album. It represents the point at which Silvestrov turned away from the avant-garde he had been practicing and moved toward the personal, individual style of radical simplicity for which he has become well known. It's a substantial piece both in its length (almost 45 minutes) and its musical content. It's an intriguing work because it masterfully combines elements of modernism in its harmonic language and its syntax with the emotional directness that came to define Silvestrov's later style. The first movement is scored for violin and piano, and the second for cello and piano. The three instruments come together only in the thematically and texturally rich final movement, which manages to sustain, through very simple musical means, a mood that's at once intensely dramatic and serene. Pianist Jenny Lin, violinist Cornelius Dufallo, and cellist Yves Dharamraj play with exquisite sensitivity to each other and to Silvestrov's delicate and deeply felt sound world.
© TiVo