Valentin Silvestrov: Symphony No.5 / Postludium - Alexei Lubimov / Berlin German Symphony Orchestra / David Robertson
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDCD Release Date: 1996-05-28
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Symphony No. 5: Maestoso, pesante
- Symphony No. 5: Moderato, leggiero
- Symphony No. 5: Animato, leggiero, con moto
- Symphony No. 5: Andante
- Symphony No. 5: Piu mosso
- Symphony No. 5: Meno mosso
- Symphony No. 5: Leggiero
- Symphony No. 5: Andantino
- Symphony No. 5: Moderato
- Postludium: Comodo
- Postludium: Allegro vivace
- Postludium: Dolce
Free Music Notes for Valentin Silvestrov: Symphony No.5 / Postludium - Alexei Lubimov / Berlin German Symphony Orchestra / David Robertson
Free Music Review: A unique and fresh soundworld which works in a great orchestral piece, but unsustainable at the symphony's length
Hit: 3 Stars
After running afoul of Soviet music bureaucrats for writing bold and independent-minded music, the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov left the public eye for several years. When he returned in the late 1970s, it was with a radical new style. The modernist who had once tried to blaze a new trail forward with the latest techniques felt that music had split into too many different directions, and the area he would direct his energies would be into "postludes" on last common musical heritage, the Classical and Romantic eras. The distinctive soundworld he developed is marked by lush orchestral textures based greatly in traditional harmony, but without any development. The critic Paul Griffith's compared a Silvestrov orchestral work to a black lake, whose surface is disturbed by strokes of an oar, melodies arising in one instrument to leave "ripples" in the lines of surrounding players. Yet, this is not a complete return to the past, for here and there we find weird leaps in Webern-like intervals
The Symphony No. 5 (1980-1982) was Silvestrov's first big orchestral work in his new style. Cast in a single movement, we find layers and layers of "commentary" on the works of late great Romantic composers like Bruckner and Mahler. Lovely flute and harp lines that contemplatively go on and on are interrupted by sudden bangs on percussion and brass, and then replaced with new melodies. The only problem is the length. While the music is beautiful, it doesn't seem like it can be sustained at 47 minutes. One's attention begins to wander not much past halfway in.
But luckily the disc includes the shorter orchestral work "Postludium" (1984). It is essentially the same sort of attempt as the Symphony, but with a notable piano part. Here one feels no fatigue at listening all the way through, and in fact I return to this piece more than any other Silvestrov work. There isn't much of a difference in this performance from the one on the ECM disc, and Alexei Lubimov is the soloist there as well. I would recommend hearing the piece here on Sony, though, because the symphony is a more historically important work than "Metamusik" on the ECM disc.
A major reservation I have about Silvestrov is that he seems to have gotten himself stuck in a rut, and stylistic progress appears in only a few recent works. To me he resembles very much Einojuhani Rautavaara, who has been rewriting the same piece for over 30 years now. Even his successful works, like the "Requiem for Larissa", seem to appeal to me only by the skin of their teeth. Silvestrov is a composer worth encountering for his unique style and to understand better the late Soviet arts world--Silvestrov maintained close friendships with Gubaidulina, Schnittke, Aigi and others. Still, there's no guarantee that you'll want to move past this disc.
Valentin Silvestrov: Symphony No.5 / Postludium - Alexei Lubimov / Berlin German Symphony Orchestra / David Robertson Poster
Silvestrov (b. 1937) is a Russian composer who takes a bit after Schnittke, but who nonetheless has his own voice. Silvestrov's Symphony 5 (1980-82) is a breakthrough work and a clear masterpiece. It takes discordant exclamations (or atonally structured sound clusters) and weaves them into an overall tonal skein. Silvestrov does the same in Postludium (1984), which is for piano and orchestra, and which is both lucid and disturbing. These are absolutely stunning works and should be in everyone's collection of 20th-century music. --Paul CookClassical Music CDs
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