Vocal and chamber music by a post-Soviet master of poetry and stillness.

Born in 1937, Valentin Silvestrov may be  counted a Russian minimalist alongside his contemporaries Arvo Pärt and Giya Kancheli, although not an especially ‘holy’ one; if he has gods, they are likely to be Webern and Mozart. Silvestrov distinguishes himself from those contemporaries by the sharpness of his ears and the freshness of his thinking.

Silvestrov’s Fifth Symphony achieved a cult  status among dissident Soviets and then the West through the gradual dissemination of a recording made in 1976. The loving  adieus of his later music have come about through an immersion in the Western avant-garde, with Webern as the fountain-head, that unlike Pärt he has not so much disowned as refined. This is music  perpetually on the threshold of saying goodbye, wholly in love with the Viennese classics and yet regretfully aware that their world is irrecoverable.

The 10-minute Epitaph for cello and piano is one of several works Silvestrov composed in memory of his wife Larissa, who died in 1999. The Hymn of 2001 dedicated to Kancheli is significant and touching out of all proportion to its brevity: according to the composer, ‘all melodic content from my other compositions can also be found here. A rest does not only constitute a lack of sound, in but is also a state of retardation and paralysis or a suspension of time. In early music, there was an occasional need for silence, but here it is a fundamental feature.’

This new album also contains some first recordings. Principal among them is the song-cycle Moments of Poetry and Music, setting a text by Paul Celan in Russian translation. Made live at a concert in Brussels, the recording is led by the pianist Alexei Lubimov, a longstanding friend of Silvestrov and authoritative interpreter of his music.