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Stories   >   Daniel Hope, Alexey Botvinov - Silvestrov makes Violinist.com's 'For the Record'

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Daniel Hope, Alexey Botvinov - Silvestrov makes Violinist.com's 'For the Record'

Posted: October 6, 2022

Valentin Silvestrov’s exquisite music has attracted global attention in recent months. The sights and sounds of war were part of the Ukrainian composer’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Kyiv. They returned to haunt him eighty years later as Russian missiles announced the shocking start of a new invasion, one directed against an independent Ukraine by its hostile neighbour. Earlier this year violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Alexey Botvinov, himself an enforced exile from Odessa, greeted the composer in Berlin, his place of refuge. The duo’s high-profile performance and fundraising EP of his music prepared the ground for their latest album for Deutsche Grammophon – set for release today – an all-Silvestrov programme complete with the world premiere recording of Pastorales 2020 and a selection of ineffably beautiful companion pieces. 

They share some of their reflections on the composer and why his music matters now more than ever.

You planned to record this album of Silvestrov’s music long before Russia invaded Ukraine. Can you sketch its origins and describe the circumstances in which it was made?

Daniel Hope: I’ve visited and performed in Odessa for the past eight years thanks to Alexey Botvinov and his Odessa Classics Festival. I fell in love with the place and felt an instant connection to it. My teachers and violinistic heroes are all connected to Odessa, like so many great musicians. Alexey and I thought it would be wonderful to commission a piece by a Ukrainian composer to perform at the 2020 Festival. Without hesitation, he said, “What about Silvestrov?” It never even occurred to me to ask him, as he’s so famous and so busy. I didn’t believe we’d be able to get him to do it. But Alexey did ask him and he came straight back and said, “Yes, I want to do something.” It was incredible.

Wearing my other hat as President of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, I spoke to my colleagues there about the idea of officially commissioning Silvestrov to compose a work for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020. We took the liberty of suggesting it might have a connection to Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, which was the focus for several important Beethoven Year projects. Silvestrov’s new work, Pastorales 2020, reflects certain elements of Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony and yet expresses them in an entirely original way.

Because of the pandemic, we never had the chance to perform the whole composition in public. But Alexey and I were already thinking about the follow-up to our album of music by Alfred Schnittke and wanted to record music by another strong, uncompromising character with whom we had a connection. My personal connection was to Schnittke; Alexey’s is to Silvestrov. So we decided it had to be Silvestrov. As well as the world premiere of Pastorales 2020, the album also includes such extraordinarily beautiful pieces as the “Chopin-Augenblicke” from his Zwei Stücke (2003), the three exquisite miniatures of 25.X.1893…zum Andenken an P.I. Tschaikowskij, and the Hommage à J.S.B.

We’d planned to meet and work with Silvestrov and record the album in Ukraine. We were scheduled to study with him in February and March this year, but the war came. With the help of friends and some journalists from the Deutsche Welle, Silvestrov was lucky to escape from Ukraine by foot, crossing the border into Poland and making his way to Berlin. Alexey and I had organised a performance on 11 March 2022 in aid of Ukraine at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, one of the most symbolic places in Germany. We heard Silvestrov had just arrived in the city and reached out to him. He came to the concert and we played that night for him. Performing his music for this cause, with him sitting in the front row, was a deeply moving experience. It made us even more determined to record this album.
 

Violinist.com's Laurie niles writes…..Welcome to "For the Record," Violinist.com's weekly roundup of new releases of recordings by violinists, violists, cellists and other classical musicians. We hope it helps you keep track of your favorite artists, as well as find some new ones to add to your listening!

Violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Alexey Botvinov present an album of works by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. The album was made in collaboration with the 84-year-old composer himself, and includes the world premiere of his Pastorales 2020 (related to the 'Pastoral' Symphony, commissioned for Beethoven's 250th anniversary year in 2020). The pandemic, then the Russian attack intervened. Botvinov was forced to leave the country with his family, and they quickly pivoted to presenting benefit concerts in Germany and recording the Music for Ukraine EP. Silvestrov himself was able to escape the country after Kyiv was bombed, taking refuge in Berlin and finally allowing Hope and Botvinov’s album of his music to come to fruition. BELOW: Hope and Botvinov play Silvestrov's "Melodies of the Moments," Cycle III: I. Lullaby.
 

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