En continuation de ma série d’articles de découverte intensément admirative de l’œuvre musical, intensément troublant en sa pudique brièveté des pièces, de Valentin Silvestrov, débutée le 27 décembre dernier,

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voici, ce jeudi 2 janvier 2025, le significatif document « Variations on Nostalgia – Boris Berman plays Brahms and Silvestrov » publié par le Piano Street Magazine en date du 8 novembre 2022,

que vient de très aimablement m’adresser Eric Rouyer ce matin même :

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https://www.pianostreet.com/blog/albums/variations-on-nostalgia-boris-berman-plays-brahms-and-silvestrov-11940/

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Boris Berman y présente un intéressant panorama du parcours de création de son ami compositeur, entre ses œuvres des années 60, et celles, d’une très intense pudique infiniment touchante intimité _ dénuée du moindre pathos… _, de ses « Bagatelles » depuis le décès de son épouse Larissa Bondarenko, en 1996, en un temps comme suspendu, empreint de douce et réconfortante nostalgie… :

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Valentin Silvestrov: Piano Music

Valentin Silvestrov was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 1937. His music has evolved from an assertive avant-garde – earning him the wrath of the Soviet regime – to a peaceful, intimate, melodic, and tonal style _ voilà. Since 2001, he has composed a multitude of short pieces, forming a “bagatelle epic”, which consists today of more than 300 opuses. When Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, the 85-year-old composer yielded to the pleas of friends and relatives and left Kyiv – where he had lived all his life – reaching Berlin after a perilous journey by car.

Boris Berman is bound to Silvestrov by a friendship that started at the beginning of the 1960s, _ voilà ! _ when they were both Soviet citizens, and Berman performed the composer’s early Triade _ composée par Silvestrov en 1962… When embarking on an international career that has taken him to all continents, Berman continued to promote Silvestrov’s work. He is pleased that Silvestrov is now played more often, but would like to address the fact that people seem to turn almost exclusively to the late pieces. In order to present a more complete picture, Berman’s album _ le double album PDD030 « Valentin Silvestrov – Boris Berman« … _, due for release in November, offers a panorama of Silvestrov’s evolution during the past six decades, including the premiere recording of Three Pieces written in Berlin in March 2022.

– You have known Silvestrov for 60 years and you obviously appreciate both his early and new styles. What actually happened when he abandoned his modernist way of composing?

– This is true, I appreciate both his early and new styles. I feel that ignoring his earlier works makes him a much smaller figure, a mere ‘new age’ composer. Silvestrov himself sees a connection between his avant-garde works and the late ones. I wonder if Silvestrov himself realized that he was making a stylistic turn : let us not forget that after Kitsch Music written in 1977 in the “new” euphonic style, he wrote the modernist 3rd Sonata (1979). It seems that it started as another experimental foray into a new territory, which appeared to open new horizons for him. These are Silvestrov’s own words about the relationship between his avant-garde and latest works : “This was not a break but a transition. In pieces composed after the 1960s, the avant-garde did not disappear, but simply moved ‘backstage’ and permeated the musical texture from within like a grain of salt. The technique of the composer works in a hidden way in the realm of the unseen and unheard. This humility creates its own inner tension.”

– How would you describe Silvestrov’s late style? What is it that he is trying to achieve through his endless stream of introverted “bagatelles”?

– Silvestrov’s style of recent years is lyrical, intimate, and introverted _ voilà ; un style qui me touche personnellement très profondément. We can call it nostalgic insofar as it tries, somehow, to awaken his memory – that of his music, that of his life. It’s about the nostalgic attempt to unify life into a whole, which is of course impossible because life goes on and the past cannot return. It’s related to what Proust did in his colossal In Search of Lost Time, but Silvestrov tries to achieve the same thing through pieces lasting two to four minutes _ voilà ; et c’est admirable !

– Recently, you have given several recitals playing Brahms and Silvestrov side by side. Do you see any connections between the two?

– I do feel the affinity between Silvestrov and Brahms, both have this special quality of nostalgic introverted understated lyricism _ oui. Silvestrov himself pointed out to me the connection between the third piece of his Kitsch-Musik and Brahms’s E flat Major Intermezzo op. 117 No. 1. On the other hand, the robust impulsivity of the early works of Brahms on my program adds a welcome contrast.

Boris Berman on Valentin (Valentyn) Silvestrov’s music

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Regardez aussi cette brève vidéo de présentation (de 1′ 31) par Boris Berman …

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Ainsi que cette autre vidéo-ci (d’une durée de 11′ 05) de Boris Berman interprétant « Triade » de Valentin Silvestrov, composée en 1962…

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Ce jeudi 2 janvier 2025, Titus Curiosus – Francis Lippa