Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov celebrates his 70th year with this wonderful new recording of pieces for piano and string orchestra. Thirteen Bagatelles for solo piano, lovely miniatures that mix neoromanticism with the modal flavor of Eastern European folk music, are given expressive performances by the composer. The second Bagatelle is particularly attractive, and one is glad to hear it repeated, in a slightly varied form, at the end of the set.

Silvestrov's recent works for string orchestra retain the romantic sentiments of his latter day practice, but present it through alongside the modernist gestures favored in his earlier work. Elegie features Webernian pointillism, while the waltz movement in Stille Musik evokes Expressionist-tinged melancholia. Abschiedsserenade presents a dolefully chromatic landscape, while Die Bote haloes a Mozartean piano sonata with slowly moving strings.

Zwei Dialoge mit Nachwort, a concerto for piano and string orchestra, is a delicate, wistful composition. The first movement is another melancholy waltz, while the middle movement, enigmatically titled "Postludium," is a brief Wagnerian essay. The finale, Morgenserenade, contains a glorious, unabashedly Romantic tune, which is gracefully passed between the string sections and finally on to a luminous presentation by the piano. Soloist Alexei Lubimov and the Münchener Kammerorchester, conducted by Christoph Poppen, acquit themselves well in this enigmatic yet touching work. - Christian Carey (2007, The Daily Copper