Valentyn Vasylyovych Sylvestrov ( uk, Валенти́н Васи́льович Сильве́стров; born 30 September 1937) is a Ukrainian composer and pianist, who plays and writes

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

Biography

Valentyn Vasylyovych Silvestrov was born on 30 September 1937 in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

, then part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. Silvestrov began private music lessons when he was 15. After first teaching himself, he studied piano at the Kyiv Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958 whilst at the same time training to become a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

. He attended the

Kyiv Conservatory Pyotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine ( uk, Національна музична академія України імені Петра Чайковського) or Kyiv Conservatory is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music e ...

from 1958 to 1964, where he was taught

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

Borys Lyatoshynsky Borys Mykolayovych Lyatoshynsky ( uk, Бори́с Миколáйович Лятоши́нський ()), also known as Boris Nikolayevich Lyatoshinsky (russian: Бори́с Николаевич Лятоши́нский), (3 January 189515 Apr ...

, and

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

and

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

Levko Revutsky Levko "Lev" Mykolajovych Revutskyi (, russian: Лев Николаевич Ревуцкий; – 30 March 1977) was a Ukrainian composer, teacher, and activist. Amongst his students at the Lysenko Music Institute were the composers Arkady Filip ...

. He then taught at a music studio in

. Silvestrov was a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

composer in Kyiv from 1970 to 2022, when he fled from Ukraine following the Russian invasion in February. He lives in Berlin.

Musical style

Silvestrov is perhaps best known for his

post-modern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

musical style; some, if not most, of his works could be considered neoclassical and post-modernist. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, Silvestrov creates a unique and delicate tapestry of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities which he suggests are otherwise sacrificed in much of contemporary music. "I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists," Silvestrov has said. In 1974, under pressure to conform to both official precepts of socialist realism and fashionable modernism, and likewise to apologise for his walkout from a composers' meeting to protest the Soviet Union invasion of Czechoslovakia, Silvestrov chose to withdraw from the spotlight. In this period he began to reject his previously modernist style. Instead, he composed ''Quiet Songs (Тихі Пісні'' (1977)) a cycle intended to be played in private. Later, after the fall of the Soviet Union, he also began to compose spiritual and religious works influenced by the style of Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox liturgical music.Belina-Johnson, 2015 Silvestrov traced his eventual rejection of avantgarde back to his years in the Kyiv Conservatory. When presented one of his radical works Lyatoshynsky asked him: "Do you like this?", and while he replied affirmatively "that question became ingrained in my soul". Silvestrov's recent cycle for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

and piano, ''Melodies of Instances'' (''Мелодії Миттєвостей''), a set of seven works comprising 22 movements to be played in sequence (and lasting about 70 minutes), is intimate and elusive – the composer describes it as "melodies ..on the boundary between their appearance and disappearance". Elements of

Ukrainian nationalism Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...

occur in some of Silvestrov's works, most notably in his choral work ''Diptych''. This work sets the strongly patriotic words of

Taras Shevchenko Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko ( uk, Тарас Григорович Шевченко , pronounced without the middle name; – ), also known as Kobzar Taras, or simply Kobzar (a kobzar is a bard in Ukrainian culture), was a Ukraine, Ukrainian p ...

's 1845 poem ''Testament (Заповіт)'', which has a significant national status in Ukraine, and Silvestrov dedicated it in 2014 to the memory of

Serhiy Nigoyan Serhiy Gagikovych Nigoyan or Nihoyan ( uk, Сергій Нігоян, hy, Սերգեյ Նիգոյան; August 2, 1993 – January 22, 2014) was an Armenian-Ukrainian Euromaidan activist who was fatally shot during the 2014 Hrushevskoho Stree ...

, an Armenian-Ukrainian who died in the

2014 Hrushevskoho Street riots In response to anti-protest laws in Ukraine (announced on 16 January 2014 and enacted on 21 January 2014), a standoff between protesters and police began on 19 January 2014 that was precipitated by a series of riots in central Kyiv on Hrushe ...

and is believed to have been the first

Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protes ...

casualty Casualty may refer to: *Casualty (person), a person who is killed or rendered unfit for service in a war or natural disaster **Civilian casualty, a non-combatant killed or injured in warfare * The emergency department of a hospital, also known as ...

that led to the

Revolution of Dignity The Revolution of Dignity ( uk, Революція гідності, translit=Revoliutsiia hidnosti) also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,

Works

Silvestrov's principal and published works include 9

symphonies A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

, poems for piano and orchestra, miscellaneous pieces for chamber orchestra, three

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

s, a

piano quintet In classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly a string quartet (i.e., two violins, viola, and cello). The term also refers to the group of musicians that plays a pian ...

, three

piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with t ...

s, other piano pieces, chamber music, and vocal music (cantatas, songs, etc.) His works includes: * Sonatina for piano (1960, revised 1965) * Piano Quintet (1961) * ''Triada'' for piano (1961) * ''Quartetto Piccolo'' for string quartet (1961) * Trio for flute, trumpet, and celesta (1962) * Symphony No.1 (1963, revised 1974) * ''Mystery'' for alto flute and six percussion groups (1964) * ''Classical Overture'' (1964) * ''Spectre'' for chamber orchestra (1965) * ''Monodia'' for piano and orchestra (1965) * Symphony No.2 for flute, timpani, piano and string orchestra (1965) * Symphony No.3 ''"Eschatophony"'' (1966) * ''Poem to the Memory of Borys Lyatoshynsky'' for orchestra (1968) * ''Drama'' for violin, cello, and piano (1969–1971) * ''Meditation'' for cello and piano (1972) * String Quartet No.1 (1974) * ''Thirteen Estrades Songs'' (1973–1975) * ''Quiet Songs'' (Silent Songs) after Pushkin, Lermontov, Keats, Yesenin, Shevtshenko, et al. for baritone and piano (1974–1975) * Symphony No.4 for brass instruments and strings (1976) * ''Kitsch-Music'', cycle of five pieces for piano (1977) * ''Forest Music'' after G. Aigi for soprano horn and piano (1977–1978) * ''Postludium'' for violin solo (1981) * ''Postludium'' for cello and piano (1982) * Symphony No.5 (1982) * ''Ode to the Nightingale'', cantata with text by

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

for soprano and small orchestra (1983) * ''Postludium'' for piano and orchestra (1984) * Symphony, ''Exegi Monumentum'' for baritone and orchestra (1985/87) * String Quartet No.2 (1988) * ''Widmung'' (Dedication), symphony for violin and orchestra (1990–1991) * ''Metamusic'', symphonic poem for piano and orchestra (1992) * Symphony No.6 (1994–1995) * ''The Messenger'' for synthesizer, piano and string orchestra (1996–1997) * ''Requiem for Larissa'' for chorus and orchestra (1997–1999) * ''Epitaph'' for piano and string orchestra (1999) * ''Epitaph L.B.'' for viola (or cello) and piano (1999) * ''Autumn Serenade'' for chamber orchestra (2000) * ''Requiem'' (2000) * ''Hymn 2001'' (2001) * Symphony No.7 (2002–2003) * ''Lacrimosa'' for viola (or cello) solo (2004) * 5 Sacred Songs for SATB choir (2008) * 5 New Pieces for Violin and Piano (2009) * String Quartet No. 3 (2011) * Symphony No. 8 (2012–2013) * ''Prayer for the Ukraine'' (2014) * Symphony No. 9 (2019) Silvestrov has recorded 10 albums on the ECM label.

References

Sources

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External links