Valentin Silvestrov: Dedication (Symphony for Violin & Orchestra) / Post Scriptum (Sonata for Violin & Piano) - Gidon Kremer / Munich Philharmonic
Valentin Silvestrov (b. 1937) has only come into his own only since the late 1970s. Before then, his music tended to follow in the wake of Shostakovich and Schnittke. His true voice emerged with Symphony No. 5 (1980-81). And it's here, in full measure, inDedication: Symphony for Violin and Orchestra,a 1990-91 work for Gidon Kremer, the soloist here. Silvestrov, like Schnittke, is a polystylist; but unlike Schnittke, he keeps a constant tonal undercurrent beneath the more overt language of the orchestra which can be, at any time, tonal, atonal, serial, or anarchic. It's quite hypnotizing. Check this guy out.--Paul Cook