Valentin Silvestrov - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 (Jukka-Pekka Saraste)

Information

Composer: Valentin Silvestrov

1. Symphony No. 4
2. Symphony No. 5

Lahti Symphony Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor

Date: 2009
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/conductors/saraste-jukka-pekka/silvestrov-symphonies-4-and-5

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Review

Silvestrov’s symphonies find powerful advocates in these Finnish recordings

Although Valentin Silvestrov is decently represented on disc, a cycle of his eight (to date) symphonies has yet to emerge. Hopefully these accounts from the Lahti Symphony will duly expand into one, as the orchestra has the security of ensemble and timbral finesse to do full justice to this music. The two works might be described in terms of transition and fulfilment. In the Fourth Symphony (1976), the “sonorist” music of Silvestrov’s Polish contemporaries is detectable – notably in the way strings and brass emerge as interdependent sound-sources that define the overall structure, its impetus being channelled into a finely wrought culmination then a passionless epilogue. It was with the Fifth Symphony (1982) that Silvestrov arrived at full maturity, most notably in his concept of the postlude as a means of sustaining a symphonic discourse without the need for development per se. An evolution, then, which consists of musical “end-pieces” imbued with a quality, but not necessarily a function, which is intrinsically symphonic.

A symphonic logic that Jukka-Pekka Sarasate amply conveys in these responsive performances. Of the available comparisons, Andrei Boreyko is more intense in the Fourth and more expansive in the Fifth – though Saraste is truer to the spirit of the latter work in the cohesion with which its sections overlap so that salient ideas echo and anticipate each other in a process as formally inevitable as it is cumulatively expressive. Wholly natural sound (SACD encoding would have been beneficial) and informative notes round out an impressive release.

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2011/Apr11/silvestrov45_biscd1703.htm
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silvestrov-Symphony-Orchestra-Jukka-Pekka-Saraste/dp/B002SF2VGQ

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Valentyn Sylvestrov (born 30 September 1937 in Kiev) is a Ukrainian composer and pianist of contemporary classical music. He studied composition under Borys Lyatoshynsky, harmony and counterpoint under Levko Revutsky. Sylvestrov is perhaps best known for his post-modern musical style. His principal and published works include nine symphonies, poems for piano and orchestra, three string quartets, a piano quintet, three piano sonatas, piano pieces, chamber music, and vocal music. Sylvestrov's Symphony No. 5 (1980–1982) is considered by some to be his masterpiece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentyn_Sylvestrov

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Jukka-Pekka Saraste (born 22 April 1956, Heinola, Finland) is a Finnish conductor and violinist. Saraste studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula in the same class as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Osmo Vänskä. In 1983, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Saraste co-founded the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. Saraste was the chief conductor of the Finnish Radio SO (1987-2001), principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (1987-91), Music Director of the Toronto SO (1994-2001), the Oslo Philharmonic (2006-13), and the WDR SO Cologne (2010-19).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukka-Pekka_Saraste
https://jukkapekkasaraste.com/

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