Nearly twenty years have passed since Hélène Grimaud first encountered Valentin Silvestrov's 'Silent Songs', and finally she has found a partner to perform these songs with in the sensational young baritone Konstantin Krimmel. The present selection was recorded at a concert in the Turbine Hall on the Stienitzsee just outside Berlin in the summer of 2022, and it was on this occasion that pianist and composer met for the first time. The list of Russian classics, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tyutchev, Baratynsky, Zhukovsky, Yesenin and Mandelstam, is complemented by the Ukrainian poet Shevchenko (in Ukrainian) as well as Silvestrov's beloved English Romantics Keats and Shelley (in Russian translation). The voices of these very different poets here blend together into a new unity, a 'harmony of mysterious power' as a line from the Baratynsky poem by that opens Silent Songs has it.
Track Listing:
1. Silent songs, Song Can Heal the Ailing Spirit (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
2. Silent songs, There Were Storms and Tempests (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
3. Silent songs, La Belle Dame Sans Merci (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
4. Silent songs, O Melancholy Time! Delight for Eyes! (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
5. Silent songs, Farewell, O World, Farewell, O Earth (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
6. Silent songs, I Will Tell You With Complete Directness (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
7. Silent songs, Here's a Health to Thee, Mary (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
8. Silent songs, Winter Journey (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
9. Silent songs, The Isle (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
1. Silent songs, Autumn Song (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
2. Silent songs, Swamps and Marshes (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
3. Silent songs, Winter Evening (Valentin Silvestrov) - Konstantin Krimmel/Hélène Grimaud
