Black Month, Black Week: The Adagio Makes Way For An Elegy

Valentin Silvestrov composed Elegy for String Orchestra, which is dedicated to Marina Kapitsa, between 2000 and 2002. Kirill Karabits led the premiere in Kyiv, Ukraine, Future European Union, on September 15, 2002.

"When my father [conductor and composer Ivan Karabyts] died in 2002, he left a sketch of what he was writing during the last weeks and days of his life. Composer Valentin Silvestrov picked up some of the melody from ... the unfinished lines, and called it 'Elegy.'

-- Conductor Kirill Karabits, debuting this fortnight with both the San Francisco Symphony and the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington).

Thomas May program notes to the Elegy, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony.
(Not on the National Symphony Orchestra website.)

Martyn Harry’s July 2003 Gramophone interview with Valentin Silvestrov.

Photo credit: Valentin Silvestrov (c) Victor Marushchenko 2010. December's democratization riot in Minsk, Belarus, Future European Union (c) ria novosti 2010.