Valentin Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa (Live) Bavarian Radio Chorus, Munich Radio Orchestra & Andres Mustonen

• Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937): Requiem für Larissa:
• 1 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: I. Requiem aeternam. Largo - Allegro vivace (Live) 08:21
• 2 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: II. Tuba mirum. Adagio - Moderato - Allegro - Andantino (Live) 09:23
• 3 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: III. Lacrimosa dies illa. Largo - Allegro moderato (Live) 11:01
• 4 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: IV. Prochai svite. Largo (Live) 06:46
• 5 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: V. Agnus Dei. Andante - Moderato (Live) 12:03
• 6 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: VI. Requiem aeternam. Largo (Live) 06:22
• 7 Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa: VII. Requiem aeternam. Allegro moderato - Andantino (Live) 06:19
• Total Runtime 01:00:15

Info for Valentin Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa (Live)

Valentin Silvestrov is probably the best-known Ukrainian composer, and his Requiem for Larissa, now released on CD by BR-KLASSIK, was written in response to the unexpected death in 1996 of his wife, the music and literature scholar Larissa Bondarenko. She had stood by his side from the very beginning of his artistic career. It was in 1999, shortly before the turn of the millennium, that Silvestrov was finally able to complete his Requiem. He did not set a drama of the Last Judgement to music, as Mozart, Berlioz or Verdi had done before him, but rather wrote a lament - in seemingly endless, world-forlorn repetitions. The composer stepped out of the present and into the past, commenting on his life with Larissa with memories of music that had inspired her, and with profound allusions, retrospections and epilogues of the most personal nature.

Silvestrov set the words of the Latin mass for the dead to music, yet he did not compose a mass in the sense of a liturgically close or ecclesiastically compatible piece of music. In his seven-movement requiem, the theological order of the Catholic requiem mass is irrevocably dissolved. As if religious gravity had been suspended, isolated words drift about freely and forlornly. The work begins and ends with "Requiem aeternam". At the end, only the wind rushes out of the synthesiser – and, at the very end, an echo of the wind.

Valentin Silvestrov, born in Kiev in 1937, studied at the Conservatory there. In 1963 he presented his First Symphony at the composition exam but it met with rejection, as works in the style of socialist realism were expected at the time. His music, in contrast, was avant-garde. In around 1970, his style changed to a kind of "neo-romanticism", after which his compositions became more popular. He also became known in Western Europe and especially in the USA. It is no coincidence that his name is often mentioned in the same breath as Arvo Pärt, Pēteris Vasks or Giya Kancheli. In March 2022, the Russian invasion of Ukraine forced Silvestrov to flee to Berlin with his daughter and granddaughter.

Priska Eser, soprano
Jutta Neumann, alto
Andreas Hirtreiter, tenor
Wolfgang Klose, bass
Michael Mantaj, bass
Bavarian Radio Choir
Munich Radio Orchestra
Andres Mustonen, conductor

Andres Mustonen
established and is Director of the ensemble Hortus Musicus (1972). Graduated as a violinist from the Tallinn State Conservatoire (today the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, 1977) and trained in Austria and The Netherlands.

Founded the ensemble Hortus Musicus while still a student. The ensemble established the practice of early music concerts in Estonia, and Mustonen himself became an active proponent of authentic performance in our country and in other countries in northern Europe, and has recorded twenty-five albums with the ensemble.

The musician devotes particular attention to oratorios and other genres of church music from the baroque era to the present day. His repertoire includes works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Anton Bruckner, Giya Kancheli, Krzysztof Penderecki, John Tavener, Alexander Knaifel and Sofia Gubaidulina.

Collaborates with numerous outstanding ensembles, among them the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Musica Viva chamber orchestra and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. For many years he has worked with the Tallinn Philharmonic and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

Performs chamber music with Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman, Gidon Kremer, Tatiana Grindenko, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alexei Lyubimov, Eliso Virsaladze and Ivan Monighetti. Founded the chamber ensemble Art Jazz Quartet and tours with the orchestra throughout Europe.

Also appears as an opera conductor. Has conducted Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Euridice at the Birgitta Festival held at the Tallinn Philharmonic (2010) and Handel’s operas Giulio Cesare in Egitto (2014) and Rinaldo (2015, 2016, 2017) at the Estonian National Opera.

In 1989 he organised the MustonenFest, which in 2002 became an international festival. In 2014 he established the MustonenFest Tallinn – Tel Aviv.

Booklet for Valentin Silvestrov: Requiem für Larissa (Live)