- Audio CD (Jun 30 2003)
- SPARS Code: DDD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Label: Ecm Import
- ASIN: B00008MNCG
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #64,222 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Details |
Track Listings
| 1. Metamusik - Symphony For Piano And Orchestra - Alexei Lubimov |
| 2. Postludium - Symphonic Poem For Piano And Orchestra - Alexei Lubimov |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
Silvestrov is among today's most imaginative composers, whose music sounds like no one else's. Metamusik, from 1992, opens like a giant wave crashing onto a seashore, and as it recedes, orchestra and piano explore the rippling echoes of its cataclysmic effect. These "ripples" are at first disturbing in their reminiscences of violent upheaval, but with repetition and dynamic variety take on a peaceful cast, and ultimately, a dreamy, mystical aura. Some of the work's episodes explore mini-aspects of that great opening event, as if the emotional impact is being remembered and explored. Subtitled "Symphony for piano and orchestra," Metamusik is in one long, large-scaled movement based on an earlier work, from 1984, Postludium, a "symphonic poem" for the same forces. Postludium is terse, more concentrated and colorful and employs greater contrasts. Both repay repeated hearings.
Deceptively simple on its face, Silvestrov's music demands performers in tune with his highly personal aesthetic, and it gets them in these committed performances by Davies and his orchestra, and especially by Lubimov, a pianist who's long championed the composer's music. This disc is a must for anyone interested in contemporary music. --Dan Davis
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Relaxing for contemporary music,
By
This review is from: Metamusik/Postludium (Audio CD)
The Metamusik for piano and orchestra was done in 1992, and recorded here in 2001. It's an interesting piece, and one that fits its title, though you would really have to hear it to get it. In short, the piece begins with a weaving of brass swells over a soundmass in the strings, with piano arpeggios, then transitions to a serene section of diatonic piano scales with orchestral caresses interspersed, something reminiscent of a Horner score, which transitions to stepwise melodies in strings somewhat like the Adagietto from the Fifth, then moving to smoothly atonal sections with piano arpeggios over brass/string soundmasses, and George Crumb-like leaky-sink repeated notes in the piano, switching to another serene treacly diatonic section with the piano, and so forth. RSO Wien plays well under Davies, though little of the orchestral or piano writing is technically challenging, but each executes the piece with depth and sensitivity, lending clarity to the architecture of the piece. For fans of contemporary music, it's worth listening to, somewhat like Giya Kancheli or even Rautavaara, if one could really draw comparisons; for those that despise modernism, it's still probably worth listening to, at least a few rungs better than Clint Eastwood's score for "Mystic River."
5.0 out of 5 stars
sublime mystery,
By A Customer
This review is from: Metamusik/Postludium (Audio CD)
This is a very powerful, evocative pair of compositions. It is actually very hard to articulate what exactly is going on in these pieces, which is perhaps part of their beauty.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
An original and impressive soundworld, but not always sustainable at greater lengths,
By Christopher Culver - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Metamusik/Postludium (Audio CD)
Of the various Soviet composers that dabbled in modernism in the 1960s and then set off on new musical paths, the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov is an unusual case. Instead of defying the authorities with programmatic Christian music like Gubaidulina, Schnittke, Knaifel or Part, Silvestrov turned towards hermeticism, long writing for private performance only. Instead of looking towards the future and searching for some new means of expression, he intended his music to be only "postludes" to the vanished era of Romanticism. This ECM disc with two works for piano and orchestra make a good introduction to his music. Dennis Russell Davies leads the Radio Symphonieorchestra Wien, with Alexei Lubimov as soloist.The 20-minute "Postludium" (1984) begins with a bang, only to quickly fall into murkiness where a melody will appear for a handful of notes before being swallowed up, the last note or two often being sustained by other instruments in a "halo" of sounds. The prevailing mood is Romantic, lush, tonal, but there are weird intervals present that unexpectedly suggest the influence of Webern. A frequent metaphor for Silvestrov's orchestral music is that of a lake where the slow stroke of an oar produces ripples. Unfortunately, Silvestrov's soundworld doesn't always work at greater lengths. "Metamusik" (1992) weighs in at nearly 50 minutes. Here the gestures that seemed so fresh in the first work come across as formulaic repetition, and instead of their being thought-provoking the listener finds his attention wandering. For those who enjoy contemporary music in the ECM spirit (contemplative, with suggestive silences), Silvestrov's soundworld is worth encountering. In spite of a tendency to drag on, he writes like no one else and he discovered something within Romanticism that comes as a great surprise. 10 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
sublime mystery,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Metamusik/Postludium (Audio CD)
This is a very powerful, evocative pair of compositions. It is actually very hard to articulate what exactly is going on in these pieces, which is perhaps part of their beauty.
7 of 13 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Relaxing for contemporary music,
By D. B. Rathbun - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Metamusik/Postludium (Audio CD)
The Metamusik for piano and orchestra was done in 1992, and recorded here in 2001. It's an interesting piece, and one that fits its title, though you would really have to hear it to get it. In short, the piece begins with a weaving of brass swells over a soundmass in the strings, with piano arpeggios, then transitions to a serene section of diatonic piano scales with orchestral caresses interspersed, something reminiscent of a Horner score, which transitions to stepwise melodies in strings somewhat like the Adagietto from the Fifth, then moving to smoothly atonal sections with piano arpeggios over brass/string soundmasses, and George Crumb-like leaky-sink repeated notes in the piano, switching to another serene treacly diatonic section with the piano, and so forth. RSO Wien plays well under Davies, though little of the orchestral or piano writing is technically challenging, but each executes the piece with depth and sensitivity, lending clarity to the architecture of the piece. For fans of contemporary music, it's worth listening to, somewhat like Giya Kancheli or even Rautavaara, if one could really draw comparisons; for those that despise modernism, it's still probably worth listening to, at least a few rungs better than Clint Eastwood's score for "Mystic River." |
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