Though Valentin Silvestrov's tempos mostly range from very slow to very, very slow, and his harmonic language usually hovers between barely tonal and screamingly dissonant, his music is nevertheless compelling when performed with passion and unyielding conviction. All these qualities are abundantly present in this outstanding recording of Silvestrov's Sixth Symphony with Roman Kofman leading the Beethoven Orchester Bonn. Written in 1996, the Sixth is a visionary work of striking intensity that grabs at the ears with its big ...
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Though Valentin Silvestrov's tempos mostly range from very slow to very, very slow, and his harmonic language usually hovers between barely tonal and screamingly dissonant, his music is nevertheless compelling when performed with passion and unyielding conviction. All these qualities are abundantly present in this outstanding recording of Silvestrov's Sixth Symphony with Roman Kofman leading the Beethoven Orchester Bonn. Written in 1996, the Sixth is a visionary work of striking intensity that grabs at the ears with its big, opening gestures and never lets go. Bringing more guts and dedication to this endeavor than they did to their contemporaneous Shostakovich recordings, the Bonn orchestra and the Ukrainian conductor create a performance that might conceivably do for Silvestrov what Bernstein did for Mahler: turn him into a superstar. As always, Musik Dabringhaus und Grimm's digital recording is as real as it gets. ~ James Leonard, Rovi
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