Spartiti per ensemble misto

The piano quartet is one of Taneev's most impressive pieces, and one of the most important in the Russian chamber music repertory. It is a 'late' work in which Taneyev's famous contrapuntal mastery re...

'Little Requiem' is a small-scale and inventive composition by a composer who is one of the most unconventional figures of his generation in Russia. He manages to produce a striking effect with rather...

für hohe Stimme, 2 Klarinetten, Viola, Violoncello und Kontrabass

This one-movement work consists of an unusual set of double variations in which two contrasting textures take the place of what would normally be two themes. The subdued metrical and rhythmic dissonan...

The idea for this composition was suggested by part of a poem by Anna Akhmatova: Only the mirror dreams of the mirror / Silence watches over silence . . . Two soloists (bass flute and cello) stare at...

The work was composed in 1999 at a time when a close member of the composer's family was seriously ill. The ode of lamentation, which is about seven minutes in length, is assigned to the two instrumen...

Silvestrov thinks that a coda is more than something which brings a work to an end. It is one of the most important parts of a composition, or at least just as important as the other sections. His can...

There are two actors in the Partita: Mozart's piano, which is heard out in the open, and a harp, which acts as its backlight. A poetic idea emanates from these water-colour acoustics. It traverses thr...

In this, as in some of his other works, Raskatov strives to attain to a kind of timelessness. The music of 'Kaddish' (Prayer), which owes a great deal to its Hebrew origins, has certain archaic traits...

The Trio is the last work composed on the basis of dodecaphonic techniques, which at the time I considered to be a way of composing lyrical music. The work has two movements (I Sonatina, II Variations...

Though Silvestrov's 'Elegy' for cello and two tam-tams continues the series of his earlier elegy compositions in some ways, it is here given a whole new shape, with the cello being accompanied by two...

This composition is both a milestone and an interface in Silvestrov's work: it is the end of his 'avant-garde period' and the beginning of what he later calls 'metamusic'. The structure of the work is...