b. 1937
Valentin Silvestrov
Composer, a classic of modern music
At home his music was hardly played and the Soviet press tore it apart, yet in 1967 he won the Koussevitzky Prize in the United States. Valentin Silvestrov went from the “Kyiv avant-garde” to quiet, meditative music performed around the world.
Key accomplishments
- Member of the 1960s “Kyiv avant-garde”; International Koussevitzky Prize (USA, 1967) and a prize at the Gaudeamus competition (Netherlands, 1970)
- Symphonies, String Quartet No. 1, the song cycle Quiet Songs, cycles of piano bagatelles
- Choral works to poems by Taras Shevchenko, a cappella sacred music, the choral piece Maidan – Kyiv
- People’s Artist of Ukraine (1989), Shevchenko Prize (1995)
The avant-gardist no one played at home
Valentin Silvestrov (in Ukrainian transliteration, Valentyn Sylvestrov) was born in 1937 in Kyiv. In 1958–1964 he studied at the Kyiv Conservatory: composition under Borys Liatoshynskyi and counterpoint under Levko Revutskyi. By the early 1960s he was one of the most prominent composers of the “Kyiv avant-garde,” young musicians who took up twelve-tone writing and other techniques of the Western avant-garde.
In the 1960s and 1970s the Soviet press harshly criticized his music, and he was temporarily expelled from the Union of Composers of Ukraine. His works were hardly ever performed in Ukraine, but premieres in Leningrad, among them his Second Symphony conducted by Ihor Blazhkov, caught the critics’ attention. International recognition came with the Koussevitzky Prize in the USA (1967), above all for his Third Symphony, and the Gaudeamus competition in the Netherlands (1970).
Quiet music
In the 1970s, with his String Quartet No. 1 and the song cycle Quiet Songs, Silvestrov moved away from the avant-garde towards slow, tonal, meditative music. He called his style “metamusic,” short for “metaphorical music.” He has written symphonies, concertos for soloists and orchestra, cantatas and songs to poems by Taras Shevchenko, Pushkin, Lermontov and John Keats, a cappella sacred choral music and music for 15 films. He received the 1995 Shevchenko Prize for his Fifth Symphony, String Quartet No. 1 and a cantata to Shevchenko’s words. His music has been performed by Gidon Kremer and Gennady Rozhdestvensky, among others. The events on the Maidan found an echo in his choral piece Maidan – Kyiv and in choral prayers for Ukraine.
In March 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the 84-year-old composer left Kyiv for Berlin at his family’s request.
Why it matters today
Silvestrov’s works are published by leading Western publishers, and his music is heard across Europe, Japan and the United States. His path from an avant-gardist no one played at home to a composer recognized worldwide shows how Ukrainian music broke through to the world despite Soviet isolation.
