Silvestrov, Valentin - Requiem for Larissa

---

---

Grammy Nomination 2005
BBC Music Magazine, CD of the month

"At the heart of the Requiem is his Taras Shevchenko setting, "The Dream", as breathtakingly moving here as in its original place in the cycle "Silent Songs". Otherwise he fragments the Requiem text and disposes its incomplete phrases across seven mostly slow movements; only the "Lacrimosa" survives intact. The choir features a basso profundo section and three soloists who gently ease in and out of the texture. ...
Initially I wondered if the music might not have benefited from an acoustic with rather more bloom on it. But Silvestrov's scoring has its own built-in echo chambers, which are extraordinarily telling when he brings them into play, and the central movements are effectively distanced. nor is there any doubting the devotion of the performance - the composer's compatriots do him proud. Paul Griffiths's booklet-note shows how the poetic aspirations of ECM's documentation can be taken on board without pretentiousness or wishful thinking. ...
Whether or not you know the fragile, haunting sound world of Ukraine's senior composer, this is a disc I urge you to try."
(Gramophone)

Yevhen Savchuk, choirmaster
The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
Volodymyr Sirenko, conductor
Valentin Silvestrov, conductor

Recorded February 2001