Valentin Silvestrov Portrait

The Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov is one of the leading representatives of the Kiev avant-garde, which first came to public attention in 1960 and was sharply criticised by proponents of conservative Soviet musical aesthetics. Silvestrov has always retained his individuality; in 1970 he made a stylistic about-turn, forgoing the conventional compositional techniques of the avant-garde and shifting to a style comparable to western postmodern music, which he describes as meta-music, or metaphorical music.

Silvestrov’s Fleeting Melodies for violin and piano is reminiscent of the cycles of classical Romantic music, such as Franz Schubert’s Moments musicaux. The title also describes the essence of Valentin Silvestrov’s music, which very quietly, individually and subjectively forms its own, individual cosmos. His works appear like precisely notated improvisations, the sounds of daydreams embedded in musical structures full of intuition and poetry.

Silvestrov describes a host of piano pieces and miniatures, waltzes, lullabies, nocturnes and serenades as Bagatelles. They arise, according to the composer, from a motif that momentarily “flares up” and they are at first only relayed “orally”. Weightlessly “as if on spring ice”, Valentin Silvestrov often touches the keys with an unmistakable “quietest of delicate sounds”. His calm and gentle voice speaks a simple and sublime musical language.