Valentin Silvestrov: Maidan

by Kyiv Chamber Choir, Mykola Hobdych

Overview

Valentin Silvestrov is widely regarded as Ukraine's greatest living composer, but until early 2022, the title work here, Maidan 2014, was largely unknown outside the country (and Silvestrov himself was far from a household name). The work was composed at the piano by Silvestrov as a kind of chronicle of the pro-Western Euromaidan demonstrations of 2013 and 2014, reworked for the fine Kiev (Kyiv) Chamber Choir, and recorded in 2016. For obvious reasons, its patriotic and prayerful texts lifted it onto classical best-seller charts in 2022, during which year Silvestrov fled Ukraine and settled temporarily in Berlin. Even without the stimulus of current events, the work marked a new aspect in the thinking of Silvestrov, whose career has traced many seismic shifts. He terms the work "a cycle of cycles," with each cycle consisting of from three to five short pieces, the first of which is a section of Ukraine's national anthem. Most are sacred, but there are other patriotic texts as well as some of an elegiac nature. The whole thing represents an inflection of Silvestrov's lyrical, neo-Renaissance style in the direction of public statements and away from the inward quality it has had for many years. Several shorter works, a set of Four Songs plus a Diptych and Triptych, date from slightly later and are more typical of Silvestrov's recent work. ECM's excellent engineering is accomplished at St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv, whose bells rang during the Euromaidan protests for the first time in alarm since the Mongol siege of Kyiv in the year 1240. An album vitally connected to the events of the day, it may well be seen as a landmark of the period. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	12/02/2022
Label:	Ecm New Series
UPC:	0028948580842
Rank:	186711

Tracks

1. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle I: National Anthem
2. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle I: And Glory, Mountains Blue, to You
3. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle I: Give Rest, O Christ, to Thy Servants
4. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle II: National Anthem
5. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle II: Lacrimosa
6. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle II: Holy God
7. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle III: National Anthem
8. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle III: The Lord's Prayer
9. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle III: Requiem aeternam
10. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle III: Agnus Dei
11. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle IV: National Anthem
12. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle IV: Elegy
13. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle IV: Prayer for Ukraine
14. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle IV: National Anthem
15. Maidan 2014 (Cycle of cycles)~Cycle IV: Lullaby (Belarusian folk song)
16. Four Songs~The Mighty Dnieper
17. Four Songs~On Earth There is Fortune
18. Four Songs~A Cherry Orchard by the House
19. Four Songs~My Testament
20. Diptych~To Little Mariana
21. Diptych~Psalm (The Mighty Dnieper)
22. Triptych~Oh Shining World
23. Triptych~Come to Your Senses
24. Triptych~Alleluia

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Kyiv Chamber Choir   Primary Artist,Choir/Chorus
Mykola Hobdych   Primary Artist,Choir Conductor,Conductor

Technical Credits

Ulrike Patow   Lyric Translation
Annelies Varaldiev   Photography
Taisiia Iurieva   Photography
Sascha Kleis   Design
John Weir   Lyric Translation
Manfred Eicher   Producer
Taras Shevchenko   Lyricist
Tatjana Frumkis   Liner Notes
J. Bradford Robinson   Liner Note Translation
Valentin Silvestrov   Composer,Liner Notes
Andrij Mokrytsky   Engineer,Recording
Andrij Mokrytskij   Engineer,Recording
Pavlo Chubynsky   Lyricist
Inga Nikolenko   Photography