Valentin Silvestrov was forced to leave his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022. His music has a prescient quality that unerringly seems to express the fate of his homeland. The intimate Violin Concerto and the heartfelt, single-span Eighth Symphony are notable for their economy of expression and emphasis on beauty, depth and harmony. This is music that hovers on the edge of silence in an uplifting homage to love and humanity, hope and renewal.

This release follows on from a previous recording on Naxos 8574413 with violinist Janusz Wawrowski and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee. With the Symphony for Violin and Orchestra ‘Widmung’ as its main work, this release has received wide critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine commenting that ‘Wawrowski is an eloquent exponent of the many lyrical passages… It’s all strangely beautiful, and, at the same time, disconcertingly haunting.’

The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and Christopher Lyndon-Gee have also recorded Silvestrov’s Seventh Symphony (Naxos 8574123). This was considered ‘a demonstration-class recording’ and ‘a very appealing release’ in Gramophone, and a ‘highly commendable release’ by MusicWeb International.

Internationally renowned conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee is known worldwide for his catalogue of many dozens of recordings, almost all of these since 1994 with Naxos. These include the complete orchestral music of Igor Markevitch and of Edgard Varèse; most of the symphonies and orchestral works of George Rochberg (a project still in progress); and, since their first collaborations in Kyiv in 2016, the present series of music of Valentin Silvestrov. Other prize-winning recordings include the music of Hans Werner Henze, Ottorino Respighi, Dmitry Shostakovich, Larry Sitsky (his opera The Golem), Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Bliss and Richard Strauss.