Valentin Silvestrov: Drama - World Premiere Recording

For the most part, I am impressed with this album. The musicians perform enthuastically and intuitively, and though a couple of the movements of Drama were more "theater" than music, the album as a whole was enjoyable and interesting.

On this album are three works: Post scriptum - Sonata for violin and piano (1990), Epitaph (L.B.) - for cello and piano (1990), and Drama - for violin, cello, and piano (1971/2002). All three instruments are among my favorite, so that alone caught my attention. After listening to the album, I found the music to be more "background" music than "foreground" - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. With only a couple of instruments performing at a time, its inherent soft nature can easily fade away if you're not paying close attention. And unlike a good portion of 20th Century music, Silvestrov's works were hardly uninviting. They were, in fact, lyrical and sublime. There were only a few movements in the album's title work Drama which I didn't much care for, but after reading through the albums notes the second time round, I was able to understand his intentions. Drama plays out like a drama, as it says in the album notes, "It is as much a theatrical work as it is a piece of music." The instruments speak to one another as dialogue between two actors. 20th Century music may be an acquired taste, but it won't require a spoonful of sugar to easily enjoy this album.