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The star of Valentin Silvestrov was on the rise even before the 85-year-old composer fled his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion and settled in Berlin, and this release by baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Hélène Grimaud shot onto classical best-seller charts in early 2023. The impetus for the project came from Grimaud, who has championed Silvestrov's work. Indeed, she might have wanted to record these songs, for one of their attractive features is the way the piano and the voice interact on equal terms in simple textures, with the piano often doubling the vocal line. The Silent Songs were some of the first pieces Silvestrov wrote after abandoning modernist idioms in the 1970s, but they do not represent some kind of retreat into Soviet orthodoxy. They are simple but not minimalist, and they are uncanny. "We may feel we have always known these songs," Paul Griffiths wrote in the notes for an earlier recording of the Silent Songs, "and in a sense we have. The first hearing will not seem the first." The melodic material has the feel of late Beethoven in its almost naïve simplicity that seems to contain depths. Krimmel does very well in not oversinging these pieces, and his rapport with Grimaud is obvious. The texts are in Ukrainian and Russian, but "The Isle" is a translation of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and this makes a good place to start sampling (or else the translation of Keats' "La belle dame sans merci"). Yet, one can hear these songs without focusing too closely on the texts; they have a mysterious alchemy of voice and piano. This is a beautiful recording that will reveal much on multiple hearings.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Silent Songs / 5 Songs (Valentin Silvestrov)
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky, Author - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky, Author - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - John Keats, Author - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Alexander Puschkin, Author - Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Taras Shevchenko, Author - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Silent Songs / 11 Songs (Valentin Silvestrov)
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Osip Mandelstam, Author - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Alexander Puschkin, Author - Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Alexander Puschkin, Author - Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Percy Bysshe Shelley, Author - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Sergei Yesenin, Author - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Sergei Yesenin, Author - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Alexander Puschkin, Author - Hélène Grimaud, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - Valentin Silvestrov, Composer - Stephan Flock, Producer, Editor, Recording Engineer, Recording Producer, StudioPersonnel - Juan Moreno, Mastering Engineer, StudioPersonnel - Konstantin Krimmel, Baritone, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer
℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
Album review
The star of Valentin Silvestrov was on the rise even before the 85-year-old composer fled his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion and settled in Berlin, and this release by baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Hélène Grimaud shot onto classical best-seller charts in early 2023. The impetus for the project came from Grimaud, who has championed Silvestrov's work. Indeed, she might have wanted to record these songs, for one of their attractive features is the way the piano and the voice interact on equal terms in simple textures, with the piano often doubling the vocal line. The Silent Songs were some of the first pieces Silvestrov wrote after abandoning modernist idioms in the 1970s, but they do not represent some kind of retreat into Soviet orthodoxy. They are simple but not minimalist, and they are uncanny. "We may feel we have always known these songs," Paul Griffiths wrote in the notes for an earlier recording of the Silent Songs, "and in a sense we have. The first hearing will not seem the first." The melodic material has the feel of late Beethoven in its almost naïve simplicity that seems to contain depths. Krimmel does very well in not oversinging these pieces, and his rapport with Grimaud is obvious. The texts are in Ukrainian and Russian, but "The Isle" is a translation of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and this makes a good place to start sampling (or else the translation of Keats' "La belle dame sans merci"). Yet, one can hear these songs without focusing too closely on the texts; they have a mysterious alchemy of voice and piano. This is a beautiful recording that will reveal much on multiple hearings.
© James Manheim /TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 12 track(s)
- Total length: 00:56:16
- 1 Digital booklet
- Main artists: Hélène Grimaud Konstantin Krimmel
- Composer: Valentin Silvestrov
- Label: Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
- Genre: Classical
© 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin ℗ 2023 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
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