VALENTIN SILVESTROV (b.1937): Naive Musik, Der Bote, 2 Waltzes, Op. 153, 4 Pieces, Op. 2, 2 Bagatelles, Op. 173, Kitschmusik.

Description: Naive Musik is a 1993 selection from a large number of early pieces written around 1955 and based on the composer's favorite models: Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Liadov, Grieg and Chopin. 1977's Kitschmusik revisits these models and, like everything else here (which on the surface seems to be a soft kind of neo-Romanticism), transfigures the material with minutely determined (and written out) details of agogic, tempo and dynamic shadings. Much of this music resides in the quiet area of pppp to mf and there is an equally exacting role for the pedal (in Der Bote, with its Mozartian theme, the pianist is instructed to use the pedal from the very beginning so that previously played notes can resonate, to play with the lightest touch possible and to play with the lid down). This music may seem soft in character but it is strikingly expressive in its withdrawn way - a different reaction from many other composers forced to live under the brutal Soviet artistic regime. Elisaveta Blumina (piano).