Valentin Silvestrov, Ukraine’s leading composer, currently lives in exile in Berlin. His life in the late-Soviet period was harsh and included expulsion from the Composers’ Union which led to his withdrawal from participation in public life. This album brings together the two superlative works of Silvestrov’s early maturity. Postludium for Piano and Orchestra is yearning and dissonant, embodying the atmosphere of a lament, but without nostalgia, cast in a style full of ambiguity and allusion. The Symphony for Violin and Orchestra ‘Widmung’ (Dedication) is another melancholy, mystic work, a homage to the human spirit and life-force, but also, through hard-won lyricism, to love, hope and renewal.

Valentin Silvestrov’s Seventh Symphony is on 8574123: ‘A demonstration-class recording and detailed notes by Christopher Lyndon-Gee complete a very appealing release’ (Gramophone).

His orchestral music on 8573598 was praised by Fanfare: ‘These are beautiful, sensitive performances that make a strong impression even though they never raise their voices. Yablonsky gives these works the transparency of chamber music, and the Ukrainian musicians respond to the music’s tender requiems’.

Silvestrov’s Quintet is on an all-Ukrainian Piano Quintets disc on 8579098. It won a Fanfare Want List accolade: ‘This is a terrific introduction to an unfamiliar corner of the chamber repertoire’ (BBC Music Magazine).

The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) was established in 1940 by the composer, conductor and pianist Balys Dvarionas. The orchestra presents around 50 concerts annually in the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall and across Lithuania. It has also performed in some of the most prestigious international concert venues, such as the Musikverein Wien, the philharmonic halls of Cologne and Berlin, and the Barbican Centre in London.