Friday Afternoon Musicale: Valentin Silvestrov
One of the greatest composers of our time, Valentin Silvestrov withdrew from public attention in the 1970s, and rejected his earlier modernist style. The three sonatas presented here exemplify his period of transition. Each presents elements of modernism (atonality, extended techniques, etc.) and a renewed interest in tonality/modality, as well as classical structures. Silvestrov has remained creatively independent and in recent decades has shed avant-garde devices and discovered a style which he calls “metamusic” (a truncation of “metaphorical music.” His work, Der Bote (The Messenger), has become his most well-known of his later style. James Iman created an introduction for this program that you can watch here.
You can watch his performance from October 21, 2022 at this link.