Silvestrov: Piano Sonatas Simon Smith

• Valentyn Sylvestrov (1937): Piano Sonata No. 1:
• 1I. Moderato, con molta attenzione10:02
• 2II. Andantino05:02
• Classical Sonata:
• 3I. Allegro03:56
• 4II. Moderato03:58
• 5III. Allegretto02:39
• 6Piano Sonata No. 216:56
• Children's Music No. 1:
• 7I. Lullaby01:56
• 8II. Modern Dance01:43
• 9III. Gratitude02:18
• 10IV. Astonishment01:15
• 11V. Old Melody01:44
• 12VI. Fantastic Sonatina: The Dragon and the Bird03:51
• 13VII. Morning Ditty02:16
• Piano Sonata No. 3:
• 14I. Preludio03:06
• 15II. Fuga07:13
• 16III. Postludio04:59
• 17Nostalghia05:07
• Total Runtime01:18:01

Info for Silvestrov: Piano Sonatas

Following his acclaimed recording of Alfred Schnittke’s complete piano music, Simon Smith urns his attention to Schnittke’s near-contemporary, the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. Smith’s precision and technical agility make him the ideal choice for this first survey to focus on the 1970s – an important period in the formation of Silvestrov’s later style. The Classical Sonata is an ostensibly Mozartian work in which nothing is quite as it seems, while its three numbered successors provide further glimpses into Silvestrov’s unique relationship with memory and the past – this is deliberately hazy music, whose precisely notated pedal effects and nuanced half-lights leave the listener suspended, as Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s poetic and informative booklet essay puts it, ‘among glitter and the clouds’. Concluding the disc, the short Nostalghia represents the mature Silvestrov, with its yearning melodic fragments and complex emotional undertow.

“Simon Smith's engagingly performed and atmospherically recorded recital offers a fascinating insight into the composer's development from the 1960s through to the 1980s.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“In Smith’s hands, this work captivates in both moment and span” (Sunday Times)

Simon Smith, piano

Simon Smith
has performed as a soloist with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Philharmonia, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. John’s Smith Square. Recitals throughout the UK have included the Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room in London. In 2014 he completed an extensive tour of recitals and concertos in Russia, including his Moscow debut. This year performances include concerto performances in Beijing and Hong Kong, and another complete Bach unaccompanied Sonata and Partita series. Recording projects include the Bartok Solo Sonata and works by Kurtag, for Resonus in July 2015.

A committed chamber musician, Simon was a member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Octet, performing in concert halls and broadcasts worldwide. A CD of duos and trios by Kodaly and Dohnanyi, with Katherine Jenkinson, Paul Silverthorne and Clare Hayes will be released in 2015. In August 2015 he will be returning to Russia for a TV broadcast of violin and viola duos with Paul Silverthorne, in Chita, Siberia, where he has been invited to be Artistic Director of a Chamber music festival.

Simon has been a professor at the Birmingham Conservatoire for 11 years. He has given masterclasses throughout the UK and internationally. Future plans include further teaching in Russia and Kazakhstan, and at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London.

Simon is Artistic Director of Chamber Orchestra Anglia.

Simon studied with David Martin and Frederick Grinke, and then with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music, where he was awarded the Gold Medal. He received a DAAD scholarship to continue his studies in Germany with Wanda Wilkomirska.

He plays on a Rogeri violin, made in 1708, and uses bows by Malines and Voirin as well as a modern bow by Louis Simon à Paris.

This album contains no booklet.