This album of sacred a-cappella works from recent years offers a most fascinating addition to the wide spectrum of music by Valentin Silvestrov on ECM New Series. Silvestrov’s interest in the choir came compartively late in his career. “Being an individualist, I never imagined that I would be scoring choral works”, he has said. It was partly due to conductor Mykola Hobdytsch persistent encouragement that Silvestrov decided to immerse himself more deeply into the choral world and to study old Russian litanies. Once he had started reading them, the composer was so fascinated that, within a couple of weeks, he wrote some 40 minutes of music. By treating the choir as an ensemble of “extremely modest” soloists and dividing the sections into small groups Silvestrov acquires unique sonic and harmonic effects and an utmost flexibility of melody and rhythm. Its lyrical fluency and introvert tenderness brings Silvestrov’s choral writing close to his much-lauded “Silent Songs” to “Requiem for Larissa” and his music for solo piano. The ravishing performances from the Kiev chamber choir under Mykola Hobdytsch were recorded in Kiev in 2006 and 2007.
Valentin Silvestrov: Sacred Works
Kyiv Chamber Choir, Mykola Hobdych
- Liturgical Chants
- 1Litany07:47
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- 3Dithyrambic Song01:27
- 4Cherubic Song01:20
- 5Alleluia01:43
- 6Bless the Lord, o my soul03:58
- 7O Holy God02:52
- 8The Creed06:40
- 9Gloria01:38
- 10Cherubic Hymn02:59
- 11The Beatitudes06:24
- 12Ave Maria02:25
- Two Spiritual Songs
- 13Alleluia02:36
- 14Ave Maria03:20
- Two Spiritual Chants
- 15A Mercy of Peace03:41
- 16To Thee we Sing02:10
- Two Psalms of David
- 17O Lord, rebuke me not (Psalm 37)03:48
- 18O Praise God in His Sanctuary (Psalm 150)02:33
- Diptych
- 19The Lord's Prayer
03:55 - 20Testament
06:13 - Alleluia (2006)
- 21Evening01:29
- 22Morning01:55
- 23Night02:34
While concentrating on piano and chamber music and on symphonic works for decades Silvestrov turned to choral composition relatively late in his career. “Being an individualist, choirs were never my initial interest. The piano – there lies my fate”, he once said. In 1977, shortly after completing his “Silent Songs” (ECM 1898/99) he wrote an a cappella cantata based on verses by Taras Schewtschenko but it took almost twenty years until the piece received its première. “Diptych” (1995) was followed by the large-scale “Requiem for Larissa” (ECM 1778) in which Silvestrov tried to overcome his wife’s early demise.
It was Mykola Hobdych’s relentless encouragement that motivated Silevstrov to immerse himself more deeply into the choral world and to study old Russian litanies. “Mykola brought me masses of music with liturgies by other composers, and in one of them I found the entire texts of the divine liturgy of St. John Chrysostomos. About the general picture I had not yet made up my mind but the first litany I read gave me an initial impulse on the spot. I touched it and the text started to resonate in me.” Within a few weeks the cycle of “Liturgical Chants” was completed. While liturgical elements from the orthodox church form the backbone the music is not intended to be used in ritualistic contexts. The overall design follows immanent musical principles and the setting of the words is imbued by ecumenism. The emotional approach on the other hand is characterised by subjective lyricism. Silvestrov considers his choral music to be essentially pianistic with the piano keys being replaced by singing voices: “It’s situational singing without any directional indications” he told Mykola Hobdych.
The Kiev Chamber Choir was founded in 1990 by its director Mykola Hobdych and graduates from Ukrainian conservatories and universities. It subsequently won various European choral competitions and participated in more than twenty international music festivals. The choir has toured extensively and recorded more than 30 CDs.
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