Let's talk about obscure East European music

[indutrial]

I've lately been going through yet another bout of my seemingly-endless interest in digging out odd pieces from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and I found a great collection of recent pieces by Slovak composers that are available for print-out (small cost per piece) and MIDI playback at Sibeliusmusic.com:

In the storefront at https://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=stores.home&stid=172 , run a search for 'PERFECT FIFTH' and it will pull up a list of 40-odd works by contemporary Slovak composers that were commissioned by a publishing outfit named Slovak Music Bridge with the simple instruction of incorporating the Eb-Bb interval in some way. The results of this whimsical project are quite excellent. So far, I've enjoyed Jozef Podprocky's Passacaglia Piccola ( https://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=130548&stid=172 ) and Vladimir Bokes' PF2007 ( https://www.sibeliusmusic.com/index.php?sm=home.score&scoreID=123681&stid=172 ), a piece that is one of the more brutal and sarcastic (in a good way) piano pieces I've heard in recent years.

Checking this project out and reading what I could find on some of its composers definitely rekindles my interest in learning more about what seems like an endless amount of worthwhile composers from almost every country in the former Eastern bloc. Amongst just these Slovak composers are loads of piano works that are likely worthy of some attention from the outside world. Hearing Bokes' Eb-Bb work makes me really want to hear his set of preludes and fugues, a disc I will soon be ordering from Czech ( https://cdmusic.cz/inshop/scripts/detail.asp?itemId=9032&level=125 ).

I'd be curious to hear what others here think of the relatively less-known music world that exists in that region. My forays have led me to find great discoveries amonst Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, and Ukrainian composers, though most often I find myself in situations where I want to know/hear more about works that are very difficult or downright impossible to track down. It's been nice to see a greater unfolding of things like the Russian 1920s (renewed interests in Mosolov, Roslavets, Lourie, etc.) and Polish modern composers (thanks mostly to Acte Prealable) in recent years, but I'm certain there's far far more to check out.

[jpowell]

I recently returned from Slovakia with a lot of music.

Eugen Suchon (including the piano cycle Kaleidescope), Jan Cikker, Figus-Bystry, Holoubek, Martincek, Bella, Moyzes, Ocenas and others.

I carried as much as baggage allowance would permit.

[thalbergmad]

Not really my kind of thing, but i found a wierd looking piece by Juliusz Luciuk in a 2nd hand bookshop.

Never heard of him before.

Thal

[communist]

Anyone ever heard of Valentin Silvestrov? I am not exactly sure how obscure he is though.

[richard black]

I came across quite a lot of Balkan music a few years back when I produced a CD for a Serbian-born pianist. I remember being particularly impressed with pieces by Trbojevic and Mihajlovic (names quoted from memory - spelling may be dodgy).

[thalbergmad]

Anyone ever heard of Valentin Silvestrov? I am not exactly sure how obscure he is though.

Heard of him, but not his music.

Came upon a piece called "Epitath" on my travels.

Thal

[communist]

Heard of him, but not his music.

Came upon a piece called "Epitath" on my travels.

Thal

The only piece I have heard by him is his second piano sonata. I thought it was long winded and unmusical.

[indutrial]

Anyone ever heard of Valentin Silvestrov? I am not exactly sure how obscure he is though.

Valentin Silvestrov is probably one of the better-known composers out of Ukraine (though still generally less-known), owing largely to the fact that his a number of his symphonic/chamber/solo works have been released on the ECM New Music label. Pianist Jenny Lin also recorded a disc of his piano music called 'Nostalghia', which is worth a look if only because Lin is a remarkable interpreter. I recall being somewhat underwhelmed by piano pieces that were heavily reflective and stolid-sounding. It's not the same as a lot of the 'holy minimalist' stuff that is often favored in ECM's classical catalog (Kancheli, Part, Vasks, etc...), but Silvestrov's work draws from similar dramatic points in his tonality, long pauses. I think I liked his string quartets more than his piano works. Those were put out on the Etcetera label a few years prior. His style of music is good, but like Vasks from Latvia and Part from Estonia, Silvestrov just makes me more interested in whatever else his country might have to offer (especially since Vasks, Part, and Silvestrov seem popular because their work has that East European documentary feel like Gorecki's recent work does with Poland - don't get me wrong, these composers are nice, but I feel like their relative popularity in the West is tied in with a sappy and dismal worldview of their respective countries' histories, besides the idea that tonal music seems to always get a pass). Amongst Ukrainians, I really want to hear more from their nationally-recognized composer, Volodymyr Huba, whose recognition outside of Ukraine is a big goose-egg at the present time. A search through the Odessa Music Centre's old website lists numerous others who are likely worth a look.

[jpowell]

Silvestrov I met and worked with him in June when I played some concerts - including some of his music - in Kyiv. A very individual composer and charming man. I could recommend his 5th Symphony to anyone. The Sony recording was produced by composer Martyn Harry and all-rounder Michael Haas. It's really very good. Of his piano music, I know the 3rd volume published by Beliaeff, and some more recent pieces which were on a CD Valentyn S made for me (I think played by himself, possibly at home!). Like hearing in the present an echo-chamber of the past.

[pies]

any recordings to share?

[retrouvailles]

any recordings to share?

There are plenty of recordings by Silvestrov which are widely published that I'm sure you could easily buy if you google him. Amazon has a ton, for example. I would only consider posting a recording if he were less recorded, commercially.

[lontano]

Anyone ever heard of Valentin Silvestrov? I am not exactly sure how obscure he is though.

I have this one, but I haven't listened to it in a while. I like the Postludium; it has a dreamy, mystical, other-worldly quality, dare I say "something like a "Ukraine Takamitsu"? (don't shoot me   - the piano part is very subtle for the most part:
Valentin Silvestrov - Symphony No 5/Postludium

01 - Symphony No 5 - I Maestoso, pesante
02 - Symphony No 5 - II Moderato, leggiero
03 - Symphony No 5 - III Animato, leggiero, con moto
04 - Symphony No 5 - IV Andante
05 - Symphony No 5 - V Piu mosso
06 - Symphony No 5 - VI Meno mosso
07 - Symphony No 5 - VII Leggiero
08 - Symphony No 5 - VIII Andantino
09 - Symphony No 5 - IX Moderato
10 - Postludium, Symphonic Poem for Piano and Orchestra (1984) - I Comodo
11 - Postludium, Symphonic Poem for Piano and Orchestra (1984) - II Allegro vivace
12 - Postludium, Symphonic Poem for Piano and Orchestra (1984) - III Dolce

Alexei Lubimov, piano
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
David Robertson, conductor

Sony Music  SK 66 825 (1996)
AG/BladeEnc 192/44, stereo HQ

[kay3087]

About Valentin Silvestrov. I would willingly recommend the Bagatellen und Serenaden album which was released only two years ago, with the composer himself performing the piano works. Incredible sound quality, and the pieces are remarkably of an antiquus style, somewhere near Ravel's solo piano works?

[retrouvailles]

Yeah, Silvestrov is sort of an "anti-modern" modernist, at least the works composed after his Silent Songs. He has some early works which are extremely dissonant and dabbled in serialism, but he isn't known for those really. The Bagatellen und Serenaden are very nice to listen to and sort of remind one of Arvo Pärt and what indutrial likes to call the "ECM Crowd" or something like that (basically I'm referring to the so-called "holy minimalists"). He would perhaps be a good composer to listen to who doesn't know much about modern music and is used to just common practice music (not a good situation to be in, but no one is perfect).

[kimie44]

Silvestrov is perhaps best known for his avant-garde musical style; some, if not most, of his works could be considered neoclassical and modernist. Using traditional tonal and modal techniques, Silvestrov creates a unique and delicate tapestry of dramatic and emotional textures, qualities which Silvestrov suggests are otherwise sacrificed in much of contemporary music. "I do not write new music. My music is a response to and an echo of what already exists," Silvestrov has said.

Silvestrov's Symphony No. 5 (1980-1982), considered by some to be his masterpiece, may be viewed as an epilogue or coda inspired by the music of late Romantic composers such as Gustav Mahler. "With our advanced artistic awareness, fewer and fewer texts are possible which, figuratively speaking, begin 'at the beginning'... What this means is not the end of music as art, but the end of music, an end in which it can linger for a long time. It is very much in the area of the coda that immense life is possible.”

In 1974, under pressure to conform to both official precepts of socialist realism and fashionable modernism, Silvestrov chose to withdraw from spotlight. In this period he began to reject his previously modernist style. Instead, he composed “Silent Songs” ("Tихие Песни" (1977)) a cycle intended to be played in private. His recent cycle for violin and piano, Мелодії Миттєвостей (Fleeting Melodies), a set of seven works comprising 22 movements to be played in sequence (and lasting about 70 minutes), is intimate and elusive - the composer describes it as "melodies [...]on the boundary between their appearance and disappearance"

[indutrial]

^ For any of us who don't know how to use Wikipedia yet...

Here are some links to an excellent performance of Bulgarian composer Lazar NIKOLOV's 7th piano sonata, composed in 1991.

Pt. 1 -

Pt. 2 -

Pt. 3 -

Over the course of his career (1922-2005), Nikolov's work gradually integrated more and more avant-garde elements into his compositions, resulting in a very personal sound that greatly stood out in the Bulgarian music scene. He was originally a student of Pancho Vladigerov and, alongside Konstantin Iliev (1922-1986), Dimiter Christoff (b. 1933), and Ivan Spassov (1934-1996), worked a great deal towards liberating Bulgarian composition within the country's oppressive sanctions. I'm particularly very interested in hearing more from all of these composers.

The performer, Bulgarian virtuoso Angela Tosheva has also recorded a disc of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Michail Goleminov and her repertoire includes Xenakis and Ligeti.

On the Ukrainian front, I think I'm going to try to get two CDs by pianist Borys Demenko, the first of which includes the complete piano works by Lyatoshynsky and the second of which explores the works of 13 different Ukrainian composers (including Silvestrov).

Anyone interested can hear samples at:
https://www.umka.com.ua/eng/singer/borys-demenko.html

[retrouvailles]

I don't know if he counts as East European, or European at all (for most of his country is in the Middle East, with a small portion in Europe), but I think the Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun deserves a mention. He has a sizeable amount of piano music, including 2 piano concertos, which have recently piqued my interest. He was good friends with Bartók, and one can see the similarities between the two easily, particularly how Saygun handles Turkish folk music around a modal, somewhat Bartókian idiom. To give an idea of what his music is like, I have attached the first movement of his Piano Concerto No. 1. I would think that even Thal doesn't know his piano concertos, which is part of the reason why I am attaching this sample. It is taken from an out of print CD on the Koch label with the two piano concertos on it. There is a new recording of the piano concertos out on the CPO label, but that one isn't as good as this one (despite having the same pianist). The CPO label has recorded quite a bit of his music, including all of his symphonies. Naxos has also recorded some of his solo piano music. For the presented recording, the pianist is Gülsin Onay, the conductor is Gürer Aykal, and the orchestra is the NDR Rundfunkorchester Hannover. Enjoy!

https://rapidshare.com/files/258519288/01_Saygun_-_Piano_Concerto_No_1__Op.34_-_I_Deciso.mp3