Валентин Васильович Сильвестров | en

Валенти́н Васи́льович Сильве́стров {Valentin Silvestrov} (b. 1937) s a Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music.

Born on the 30th September 1937 in Kiev, Ukraine, Silvestrov began private music lessons at the age of fifteen. He studied piano at the Kiev Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958, then at the Kiev Conservatory from 1958 to 1964; composition under Borys Lyatoshynsky, harmony and counterpoint under Levko Revutsky.

Some, if not most, of his works could be considered neoclassical and modernist. In 1974, under pressure to conform to both official precepts of socialist realism and fashionable modernism, Silvestrov chose to withdraw from the spotlight. In this period he began to reject his previously modernist style. Instead, he composed “Silent Songs” ("Tихие Песни" (1977)) a cycle intended to be played in private.

Silvestrov's principal and published works include seven symphonies, poems for piano and orchestra, miscellaneous pieces for (chamber) orchestra, two string quartets, a piano quintet, three piano sonatas, piano pieces, chamber music, and vocal music (cantatas, songs, etc.). .