Valentyn Sylvestrov

Valentyn Sylvestrov studied at Ukrainian National Academy of Music. Training under Borys Liatoshynsky is recorded. The recorded working language is Ukrainian. The field of work recorded is music, piano performance and music composing. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are symphony, contemporary classical and piano. Residence is recorded at Berlin. Works named in the authority record are Bagatelles, Two Dialogues with a Postscript, Liturgical Chants, Silent Music and Symphony No. Distinctions recorded are Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class, Order of Merit (Ukraine), 2nd class, People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR and Shevchenko National Prize.

• Name — Valentin Silvestrov • Native Name — Валентин Сильвестров • Born — 30 September 1937 • Birthplace — Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union • Education — Kyiv Conservatory • Occupation — * Composer • pianist • Awards — Shevchenko National Prize

Valentin Vasylyovych Silvestrov was born on 30 September 1937 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union. Silvestrov began private music lessons at 15. After first teaching himself, he studied piano at the Kyiv Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958 whilst training to become a civil engineer. He attended the Kyiv Conservatory from 1958 to 1964, where he studied musical composition with Borys Lyatoshynsky and harmony and counterpoint with Levko Revutsky. He then taught at a music studio in Kyiv. Silvestrov was a freelance composer in Kyiv from 1970 to 2022. He fled to Berlin upon the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Silvestrov is best known for his postmodern music, some of which is also considered neoclassical. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, he creates delicate tapestries of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities he feels are often lost in contemporary music: "I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists." In 1974, pressured to conform to socialist realism and trends of modernism, and to apologise for his composers' meeting walkout protesting the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Silvestrov withdrew from the spotlight and began to reject his earlier modernist style, composing the Silent Songs (Тихі Пісні, 1977) cycle for private performance. After the Soviet Union's fall, he composed spiritual and religious works influenced by Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox liturgical music. He traced his rejection of avant-garde techniques to his Kyiv Conservatory years, when Lyatoshynsky asked, "Do you like this?", a question he said was "ingrained in my soul". His 2004-05 70-minute violin and piano cycle, Melodies of the Moments (Мелодії Миттєвостей), seven works with 22 movements, is intimate and elusive. He describes it as "melodies... on the boundary between their appearance and disappearance". Elements of Ukrainian nationalism occur in works like Diptych, which sets the words of Taras Shevchenko's prominent patriotic poem "Testament" ("Заповіт", 1845) to music for chorus. He dedicated it in 2014 to Serhiy Nigoyan, the Armenian-Ukrainian Euromaidan activist killed in the 2014 Hrushevsky Street protests, perhaps the first of the Maidan casualties that led to the Revolution of Dignity.

Silvestrov's principal and published works include 9 symphonies, poems for piano and orchestra, miscellaneous pieces for chamber orchestra, three string quartets, a piano quintet, three piano sonatas, chamber music, and vocal music (cantatas, songs, etc.). • Work — Year — Rev. — Genre • Symphony No. 1 — 1963 — 1974 — Orchestra • Classical Overture — 1964 — Orchestra • Monodia for piano and orchestra — 1965 — Orchestra • Spectres — 1965 — Chamber Orchestra/Ensemble • Symphony No. 2 for flute, timpani, piano, and string orchestra — 1965 — Chamber Orchestra/Ensemble • Symphony No. 3, "Eschatophony" — 1966 — Orchestra • Hymn — 1968 — Orchestra • Poem (in memoriam B. N. Liatoshynsky) — 1968 — Orchestra • Meditation for chamber orchestra — 1972 — Orchestra • Postludium for piano and orchestra — 1974 — Orchestra • Symphony No. 4 for brass instruments and strings — 1976 — Orchestra • Serenade for Chamber Orchestra — 1978 — Orchestra • Symphony No. 5 — 1980-82 — Orchestra • Intermezzo — 1983 — Chamber Orchestra/Ensemble • Exegi monumentum for baritone (or soprano) and orchestra — 1985-87 — Vocal • Widmung (Dedication), symphony for violin and orchestra — 1990-91 — Orchestra • Metamuzïka for piano and orchestra — 1992 — Orchestra • Symphony No. 6 — 1994-95 — Orchestra • Visnyk 96 (The Messenger) for synthesizer, piano and string orchestra — 1997 — Orchestra • Hymn 2001 — 2001 — Chamber Orchestra/Ensemble • Meta Waltz, symphonic poem for orchestra — 2002 — Orchestra • Symphony No. 7 — 2003 — Orchestra • Symphony No. 8 — 2012-13 — Orchestra • Symphony No. 9 — 2017-19 — Orchestra • Prayer for Ukraine (arr. by Eduard Resatsch) — 2022 — Chamber Orchestra/Ensemble • Prayer for Ukraine (arr. by Andreas Gies) — 2022 — Orchestra • Piano Sonata No. 1 — 1960 — 1972 — Piano Solo • Sonatina — 1960 — Piano Solo • Piano Quintet — 1961 — Chamber Music • Five Pieces for Piano — 1961 — Piano Solo • Quartetto Piccolo for String Quartet — 1961 — Chamber Music • Triada, 13 pieces for piano — 1961 — Piano Solo • Trio for Flute, Trumpet, and Celeste — 1962 — Chamber Music • Mystery for Alto Flute and Six Percussion Groups — 1964 — Chamber Music • Projections for Harpsichord, Vib, and Chimes — 1965 — Chamber Music • Elegy for piano — 1967 — Piano Solo • Drama for violin, cello, and piano — 1969-71 — Chamber Music • Children's Music, Books 1 & 2 — 1973 — Piano Solo • Music in Olden Style — 1973 — Piano Solo • String Quartet No. 1 — 1974 — Chamber Music • Piano Sonata No. 2 — 1975 — Piano Solo • Kitsch-Music — 1977 — Piano Solo • Piano Sonata No. 3 — 1979 — Piano Solo • Postludium for violin — 1981 — Violin Solo • Postludium for cello and piano — 1982 — Chamber Music • Sonata for cello — 1983 — Chamber Music • String Quartet No. 2 — 1988 — Chamber Music • Post Scriptum sonata for violin and piano — 1990 — Chamber Music • Misterioso for clarinet and piano — 1996 — Chamber Music • 5 Cycles for violin and piano — 2019-21 — Chamber Music • A Winter Night’s Music for violin, piano, and synthesizer ("wind") — 2004-10 — 2018 — Chamber Music • Epitaphium (L.B.) for violin or cello and piano — 1999 — Chamber Music • Five Pieces from Melodies of the Moments for violin and piano — 2004 — Chamber Music • Hommage à J.S.B. for violin and piano — 2009 — Chamber Music • Melodies of the Moments — Cycle I for violin and piano — 2004 — Chamber Music • Melodies of the Moments — Cycle II for violin and piano — 2004 — Chamber Music • Melodies of the Moments — Cycle III for violin and piano — 2004 — Chamber Music • Melodies of the Moments — Cycle IV for violin and piano — 2004 — Chamber Music • Melodies of the Moments — Cycle V for violin and piano — 2004-05 — Chamber Music • Songs Without Words for violin and piano — 2004 — Chamber Music • Fugitive Visions of Mozart for violin, cello, and piano (originally titled Moments of Mozart) — 2006 — 2007 — Chamber Music • Two Pieces for violin and piano — 2010 — Chamber Music • Pastorals for violin and piano — 2020 — Chamber Music • Pastorals for violin, cello, and piano — 2023 — Chamber Music • Icon — 2004 — Chamber Music • Sonata for Cello and Piano — 1983 — 2000 — Chamber Music • String Quartet No. 3 — 2011 — Chamber Music • Diptychon — 1995 — Choral • Three Sacred Songs — 2013 — Choral • Elegy — 1996 — Choral • Prayer for Ukraine — 2014 — Choral • Liturgical Chants — 2005 — Choral • Ode to Joy — 2011 — Choral • Psalm: 8 Variations on the Ukrainian folksong "Oh, from the rocky mountain" — 2019 — Choral • Requiem for Larissa — 1997-99 — Choral • Over All the Mountain Tops is Peace — 2009 — Choral • Four Sacred Chants — 2022 — Choral • Four Psalms — 2024 — Choral • Two Christmas Lullabies — 2006 — Choral • Maidan 2014: a cycle of cycles in the wake of the Euromaidan — 2014-16 — Choral • Moments of Poetry and Music — 2003 — Choral • Autumn Serenade for soprano and chamber orchestra — 1980 — 2000 — Vocal • Cantata for soprano and chamber orchestra — 1973 — Vocal • Cantata No. 12 for soprano or baritone and chamber orchestra — 2020 — Vocal • Cantata No. 4 for soprano, piano, and string orchestra — 2014 — Vocal • Ode to the Nightingale cantata for soprano, piano, and chamber orch — 1983 — 2000 — Vocal • Silent Songs — 1974-77 — Vocal • Three Postludes for soprano, violin, cello, and piano — 1981 — 1982 — Vocal

Valentyn Sylvestrov is recorded as composer, pianist and actor.