Valentin SILVESTROV (b. 1937)
Sacred Songs
See end of review for track-listing
Kiev Chamber Choir/Mykola Hobdych
rec. St Michael’s Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine, 2008
Sung texts not included
ECM NEW SERIES 2279 [74:55]
The Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov may have come late to
choral music, but this disc - the latest in ECM’s series devoted to
the composer - brings together his a cappella pieces written in 2006
and 2007. Appropriately enough the magnificent Kiev Chamber Choir, who also
featured in Sacred Works (ECM 2117), are recorded in the cathedral
that forms part of St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, Kiev. The
building was destroyed by Stalin in the 1930s but was finally reconstructed
in 1999.
As for the Kiev Chamber Choir, it was co-founded by conductor Mykola
Hobdych just after the collapse of the Soviet Union; a quick look at their
discography reveals a mix of familiar liturgical works - Rachmaninov and
Tchaikovsky - and a smattering of more modern choral pieces. They may not be
as well known as some a cappella groups I’ve encountered from
the Baltics and Scandinavia, but nothing quite prepared me for the seasoned
loveliness of their sound. Hugely refined, darkly sonorous and lit from
within as if by an ancient light, this choir imbues Silvestrov’s
modern settings with a powerful sense of the vast and venerable.
True, this composer’s choral style is itself very traditional,
and anyone familiar with the unaccompanied liturgical works of Tchaikovsky,
Rachmaninov and Grechaninov will know exactly what to expect. That said,
Silvestrov adds to his warming cadences an occasional angularity - Come,
Let Us Worship, for instance - not to mention solos that rise from the
gloom as gentle pleas to heaven. The serene World of Peace is simple
yet indescribably beautiful, and the engineers have captured the acoustic of
this space to perfection. Voices are clear and warm, perspectives are ideal
and there’s none of the cave-like echo one so often hears in
recordings of this kind.
The best a cappella singing should sound positively
orchestral in its weight and blend, and so it does in O Virgin Mother of
God. The men lay down a rich and resonant base upon which the women so
faithfully build. It’s both effective and affecting, while in Today
You Release (Your Servant) tenor soloist Roman Puchko’s tender,
beautifully rounded singing is just one of this CD’s unexpected
delights. Ditto Ernest Biekirov’s rising vocal curlecues in Lord,
My Heart Swells Not With Pride, in which the choir ends with a glorious,
supplicatory cadence.
Some may be tempted to lower the lights and luxuriate in this
all-enveloping sound, but paradoxical as it may seem repertoire of this
nature - and singing of this calibre - demands active engagement on the
listener’s part. Soporific ‘holy minimalism’ this music
certainly is not, and the degree of invention here is simply astounding.
O King of Heaven has an artless yet sustained loveliness, and the
overburdened ear and weary heart will be soothed by Silvestrov’s
treatment of these profound and deeply resonant texts. There’s a touch
more heft in the first of the Two Psalms of David, and Puchko makes a
welcome return in the second, a luminous setting of The Lord Is My
Shepherd.
Whether or not you own up to faith of any description the
transfiguring beauty of this disc will move you, and mightily so. Rarely
have I surrendered so completely to unaccompanied choral singing as I did
here; in that respect this CD belongs with Charles Bruffy, the Phoenix Bach
Choir and the Kansas City Chorale’s unforgettable - and remarkably
idiomatic - rendition of Grechaninov’s Passion Week; that SACD
was my top pick for 2007 (review). And just when it seems Silvestrov can’t
possibly get any better the shawm-like sonorities of the Alleluia
from the Two Spiritual Refrains takes one’s breath away.
Hobdych’s control of choral blend and dynamic shifts is masterly, and
he ensures the piece fades most gently into the waiting silence.
In the Two Spiritual Songs the Cherubic Hymn finds the
women in bright raiment clad, yet in the corresponding work in the Three
Spiritual Songs they are in more sober garb. Both songs are perfectly
pitched - literally and metaphorically - but it’s the glorious Puchko
in the penultimate track and Petro Biletskij in the final one who add a
touch of deep-chested vocal magic to these settings.
This CD represents a perfect storm in that sublime music, first-rate
singing and an exemplary recording conspire to create a very special disc
indeed. That’s before one factors in good liner-notes by Paul
Griffiths and packaging that exudes quality. Normally I’d grumble
about the lack of sung texts, but that seems churlish in the presence of
such all-pervading artistry.
Nourishing repertoire, ravishingly sung; a balm for the heart and
soul.
Dan Morgan
http://twitter.com/mahlerei
Track-listing
Songs For Vespers (2006)
1. Come, Let Us Worship [3:20]
2. World Of Peace [2:57]
3. Holy God [3:48]
4. O Virgin Mother Of God [3:12]
5. Today You Release (Your Servant) [3:57]
6. Many Years (Vivat) [3:17]
7. Silent Night [3:44]
Psalms And Prayers (2007)
8. Praise God All Ye Nations [2:11]
9. Lord, My Heart Swells Not With Pride [3:15]
10. Lord Jesus Christ [4:12]
11. Blessed Is He [2:57]
12. O King Of Heaven [2:40]
13. With The Saints Grant Eternal Peace [1:45]
14. Our Father [3:35]
Two Psalms of David (2007)
15. To You, O Lord, I Call [4:24]
16. The Lord Is My Shepherd [4:30]
Two Spiritual Refrains (2008)
17. Do Not Forsake Me [3:17]
18. Alleluia [3:14]
Two Spiritual Songs (2007)
19. Cherubic Hymn [3:17]
20. Many Years (Vivat) [2:29]
Three Spiritual Songs (2006)
21. Cherubic Hymn [3:57]
22. Many Years (Vivat) [2:06]
23. Alleluia [1:48]
Soloists: Denys Krutko (18), Ernest Biekirov (9. 17), Iryna Vasenko
(23), Oleksander Biloshapka (10, 21), Olexander Bida (1), Petro Biletskij
(3, 15, 23), Roman Pohodyna (4), Roman Puchko (5, 16, 22), Tetiana
Havrylenko (2, 7, 13, 23), Victor Sachok (1)
Duet: Lillia Hrynova, Tetiana Havrylenko (18)
Nourishing repertoire, ravishingly sung; a balm for the heart and soul.
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