SILVESTROV - Chandos Records

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A TRIBUTE TOSILVESTROVVLADIMIR FELTSMAN

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Rcorded with tube microphones, tube preamplifier, and A/D converter,designed and built by Mark Fouxman www.samaraudiodesign.com

Producer: Vladimir FeltsmanRecording engineer, editing, and mastering: Mark Fouxman

Recorded on 16 December 2004 in Fisher Performing Arts Center at Bard College, New YorkCover photograph of Valentin Silvestrov: Roberto MasottiPhotograph of Vladimir Feltsman by Robert Millard, 2012

c 2015 Wyastone Estate Limited © 2015 Wyastone Estate Limitedwww.wyastone.co.uk

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SchumannNI6307 Album for the Young, Op.68

A Tribute to RachmaninoffNI6148 Piano Concerto No.3 (Live Performance, Bolshoi Hall 1992) Russian National Symphony Orchestra. Mikhail Pletnev, conductor Elegy Op.3 No.2, Six Preludes: Op.23 Nos. 4, 7, 10. Op.32 Nos. 5, 11, 12.A Tribute to ScriabinNI6198 Preludes Op.11, 16, 22, 37, 74 (selections) Sonata No.4 Op.30, Poémes Op.32, 63 (selections) Morceaux Op.49, 51, 57 (selections) Etudes Op.42 (selections) Valse Op.38, Danses Op.73, Vers la flamme Op.72 Valse Op. Posth.

Mussorgsky / TchaikovskyNI6211 Pictures at an Exhibition / Album for the Young

LisztNI6212 Liebestraume, No.3, Ballade No.2, Six Consolations Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude, Berceuse in F sharp, Elegia, La lugubre gondola, En rêve

Schnittke Sonata No. 1Schubert Sonata ‘Relique’ D 840NI6284

SchubertNI6297 Sonata in A minor D 537, Adagio in E major D 612, Scherzos D 593, Sonata in G major D 894NI6298 Sonata in A major D 664, 12 Grätzer Waltzer D 924,

Sonata in B-flat major D 960

For track lists visit www.wyastone.co.uk

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Vladimir Feltsman on NimbusJ S BachNI2541 2CDs 7 Keyboard Concertos, with the Orchestra of St Luke’sNI2549 2CDs Art of FugueNI2507 Goldberg VariationsNI2516 4CDs The Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 & 2NI6176 2CDs The Six English SuitesNI6207 2CDs The Six PartitasNI6314 2CDs The French Suites & French Overture

BeethovenNI2561 Piano Sonatas Op.106 ‘Hammerklavier’; Op.101NI2575 Piano Sonatas Op.109; Op.110; Op.111NI6120 Piano Sonatas ‘Pathetique’; ‘Moonlight’; ‘Appassionata’NI6257 Diabelli Variations Op.120; Andante Favori

HaydnNI6242 2CDs 8 Sonatas, and 12 Variations in E-flat

ChopinNI6184 The Complete Waltzes & ImpromptusNI6128 Four Ballades; Fantasie in F minor; Polonaise-FantasieNI6126 2CDs The Complete Nocturnes; Barcarolle; Berceuse

A Tribute to TchaikovskyNI6162 Thème original et variations Op.19; Nocturne Op.10, Romance Op.5, Romance Op.51 No.5, Valse sentimentale Op.51 No.6, Rêverie interrompue Op.40 No.12, Capriccio Op.8, Dialogue Op.72 No.8, Berceuse Op.72 No.2, Tendres reproches Op.72 No.3, Médiatation Op.72 No.5, Chant élégiaque Op.72 No.14

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C P E Bach (1714 - 1788)1 Andante con Tenerezza in A minor 6.37

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)2 Klavierstück in A major 4.39

Franz Schubert arr. Valentin Silvestrov (1937 - *)3 Marriage Waltz (1826 arr. 2002) 4.18

Valentin Silvestrov Kitsch Music4 I 3.065 II 3.596 III 3.417 IV 2.538 V 2.14

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)9 Sonata in B minor K 87 6.22

Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849)10 Etude in E-flat minor, op.10 no.6 4.06

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Valentin Silvestrov11 Melody (2001) 2.4412 Melody (1967) 1.09

Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) arr. Valentin Silvestrov13 Postludia (1882 arr. 2001) 3.54

Valentin Silvestrov Two Waltzes14 I 1.5715 II 3.23

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) From Davidsbündlertänze16 No.14 in E-flat major 2.3417 No.2 in B minor 1.42

Valentin Silvestrov18 Messenger 8.34

Total playing time 67.52

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Mr. Feltsman’s extensive discography has been released on the Melodiya, Sony Classical,and Nimbus labels. His discography includes eight albums of clavier works of J.S. Bach,recordings of Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas, solo piano works of Schubert, Schumann,Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Messiaen and Silvestrov, as well as concerti by Bach, Brahms, Chopin,Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev.

Mr. Feltsman is an American citizen and lives in upstate New York.

www.feltsman.com

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VLADIMIR FELTSMAN

Pianist and conductor Vladimir Feltsman is one of the most versatile and constantlyinteresting musicians of our time. His vast repertoire encompasses music from the Baroqueto 20th-century composers. A regular guest soloist with leading symphony orchestras in theUnited States and abroad, he appears in the most prestigious concert series and musicfestivals all over the world.

Born in Moscow in 1952, Mr. Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. In1969, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Music to study piano underthe guidance of Professor Jacob Flier. He also studied conducting at both the Moscow andLeningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatories. In 1971, Mr. Feltsman won the Grand Prixat the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris; extensive touringthroughout the former Soviet Union, Europe and Japan followed this.

In 1979, because of his growing discontent with the restrictions on artistic freedom under theSoviet regime, Mr. Feltsman signaled his intention to emigrate by applying for an exit visa.In response, he was immediately banned from performing in public and his recordings weresuppressed. After eight years of virtual artistic exile, he was finally granted permission toleave the Soviet Union. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1987, Mr. Feltsman waswarmly greeted at the White House, where he performed his first recital in North America.That same year, his debut at Carnegie Hall established him as a major pianist on theAmerican and international scene.

A dedicated educator of young musicians, Mr. Feltsman holds the Distinguished Chair ofProfessor of Piano at the State University of New York, New Paltz, and is a member of thepiano faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. He is the founder andArtistic Director of the International Festival-Institute PianoSummer at SUNY New Paltz, athree-week-long, intensive training program for advanced piano students that attracts majoryoung talents from all over the world.

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Music of Valentin Silvestrov inspired this recording.

The composers featured in this recording all share something in common - an ability torecreate moments of beauty, moments of perfection that could be realised as such onlyafter they are lost... And all share a lyrical, poetic gift of subtle understatement, gift ofexpressing through the language of music the most universal and intimate humanemotions and feelings that are common to all and 'unique' in every individualexperience. That universality and uniqueness follows the Law - all in one and one inall.

This music does not belong to anybody, it has no beginning or end, no before or after -it simply is. It is one language, one vocabulary that is spoken. This recording wasconceived as one composition that unfolds in itself continuously. One could look atthis as a tea party, which brought together several composers that lived during the lastfour centuries... These composers are talking to each other, sharing their stories andvery soon it becomes apparent that this story is one and same, simply told in differentways... This music was rather remembered and overheard then composed. It comesfrom silence and resolves into it.

Vladimir Feltsman

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‘I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists.’Valentin Silvestrov

Valentin Silvestrov was born on 30 September 1937 in Kiev. He came to musicrelatively late, at the age of fifteen, and was initially selftaught. From 1955 to 1958 hetook courses at an evening music school while training to become a civil engineer: from1958 to 1964 he studied composition and counterpoint, respectively, with BorisLyatoshinsky and Lev Revutsky at Kiev Conservatory. He then taught at a musicstudio for several years. He has been a freelance composer in Kiev since 1970.

Silvestrov is considered one of the leading representatives of the 'Kiev avant-garde',which came to public attention around 1960 and was violently criticized by theproponents of the conservative Soviet musical aesthetic. In the 1960s and 1970s hismusic was hardly played in his native city; premieres, if given at all, were heard onlyin Russia, primarily in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), or in the West.

Despite successful performances in the West (the composer himself was not allowedto attend them), Silvestrov's music met with no response in his own country. Theavant-gardist tag created obstacles at every turn. For a long time his works were atleast heard on the periphery of the official music scene, thanks to the enthusiasm ofsome performers.

This situation gradually changed with Silvestrov's growing international acclaim. Oneof his earliest champions was the American pianist and conductor Virko Baley, anaficionado and longtime advocate of contemporary Ukrainian music in general andSilvestrov's works in particular. Since the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, thenumber of performances has increased, even in Russia and the Ukraine.

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Both in his earlier avant-garde period and after his stylistic volte-face of 1970,Silvestrov has preserved his independence of outlook. In recent decades he hasdispensed with the conventional compositional devices of the avant-garde anddiscovered a style comparable to western 'post-modernism'. The name he has given tothis style is 'metamusic', a shortened form of 'metaphorical music'.

In a certain sense, 'metamusic' is also a synonym for a universal style (a concept thatSilvestrov has been using for some time) and a universal language. He understands itto mean 'a general 'lexicon' that belongs to no one but can be used by anyone in his orher own way'. In Silvestrov's view - a view that reveals the lyric basis of his artregardless of the period in his career - one of the crucial prerequisites for the continuedexistence of music resides in melody. This has found expression in the remarkable rolethat vocal music has played in his musical output. Silvestrov is the author of two largeand many shorter song cycles in addition to isolated songs and cantatas, usually onpoems by classical authors. In his relation to poetry, he avoids trying to disturb themusic inherent in the poems themselves and attempts to subordinate himself to it.'Poetry ... is the salvaging of all that is most essential, namely, melody as a holistic andinalienable organism. Either this organism is there, or it is not. For it seems to me thatmusic is song in spite of everything, even when it is unable to sing in a literal sense.Not a philosophy, not a system of beliefs, but the song of the world about itself, and atthe same time a musical testament to existence'. This same approach also governsSilvestrov's instrumental music, which is always richly infused with both logical andmelodic tension.

Schott Music

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C P E Bach (1714 - 1788)1 Andante con Tenerezza in A minor Schubert (1797-1828)2 Klavierstuck in A major Schubert arr. Valentin Silvestrov3 Marriage Waltz (1826 arr.2002) Silvestrov4-8 Kitsch Music Scarlatti (1685-1757)9 Sonata in B minor K 87 Chopin (1810 - 1849)10 Etude in E-flat minor, op.10 no.6

Silvestrov11 Melody (2001)12 Melody (1967) Wagner (1813 - 1883) arr. Silvestrov13 Postludia (1882 arr.2001) Silvestrov14-15 Two Waltzes Schumann (1810 - 1856) Davidsbündlertänze16 No.14 in E-flat major17 No.2 in B minor Silvestrov18 Messenger


Total playing time 67.52With a liner note by Vladimir Feltsman

SILVESTROV - Chandos Records

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