Silvestrov: Silent Songs

by Konstantin Krimmel, Helene Grimaud

Overview

The star of Valentin Silvestrov was on the rise even before the 85-year-old composer fled his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion and settled in Berlin, and this release by baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Helene Grimaud shot onto classical best-seller charts in early 2023. The impetus for the project came from Grimaud, who has championed Silvestrov's work. Indeed, she might have wanted to record these songs, for one of their attractive features is the way the piano and the voice interact on equal terms in simple textures, with the piano often doubling the vocal line. The Silent Songs were some of the first pieces Silvestrov wrote after abandoning modernist idioms in the 1970s, but they do not represent some kind of retreat into Soviet orthodoxy. They are simple but not minimalist, and they are uncanny. "We may feel we have always known these songs," Paul Griffiths wrote in the notes for an earlier recording of the Silent Songs, "and in a sense we have. The first hearing will not seem the first." The melodic material has the feel of late Beethoven in its almost naive simplicity that seems to contain depths. Krimmel does very well in not oversinging these pieces, and his rapport with Grimaud is obvious. The texts are in Ukrainian and Russian, but "The Isle" is a translation of a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and this makes a good place to start sampling (or else the translation of Keats' "La belle dame sans merci"). Yet, one can hear these songs without focusing too closely on the texts; they have a mysterious alchemy of voice and piano. This is a beautiful recording that will reveal much on multiple hearings. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	04/14/2023
Label:	Deutsche Grammophon
UPC:	0028948641048
Rank:	81794

Tracks

1. Silent Songs~Song can heal the ailing spirit
2. Silent Songs~There were storms and tempests
3. Silent Songs~La Belle Dame sans Merci
4. Silent Songs~O melancholy time! Delight for eyes! (excerpt from 'Autumn')
5. Silent Songs~Farewell, O World, Farewell, O earth (excerpt from 'The Dream')
6. Silent Songs~I will tell you with complete directness
7. Silent Songs~Here's health to thee, Mary
8. Silent Songs~Winter Journey
9. Silent Songs~The Isle
10. Silent Songs~Autumn Song
11. Silent Songs~Swamps and marshes
12. Silent Songs~Winter Evening

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Konstantin Krimmel   Primary Artist,Baritone (Vocal)
Helene Grimaud   Primary Artist,Piano

Technical Credits

Aleksandr Solomonovich Rapoport   Text Translation
Maik Behres   Photography
Wilhelm Veniaminovich Levick   Text Translation
John Keats   Text
Philipp Zeidler   Product Manager
Percy Bysshe Shelley   Text
Oliver Kreyssig   Creative Producer
Kenneth Chalmers   Liner Note Translation
Alexander Pushkin   Text
Ute Fesquet   Executive Producer
Taras Shevchenko   Text
Yevgeny Baratynsky   Text
Mat Hennek   Cover Photo,Photography
Stephan Flock   Editing,Engineer,Recording Producer
Tatjana Frumkis   Liner Notes
Sven Grot   Design
Valentin Silvestrov   Composer
Eva Reisinger   Booklet Editor
Osip Mandelstam   Text
Sergey Yesenin   Text
Juan Moreno   Mastering
Revna Karacabeyli   Production Coordination
Natasha Ward   Text Translation