Silvestrov: Maidan

With the album Maidan, Valentin Silvestrov continues his established relationship with ECM, presenting a choral music program that is both timely and deeply meaningful for the Ukrainian composer. Like the albums "Sacred Songs" and "Sacred Works," Maidan captures Silvestrov's compositions for vocal ensembles and features the Kyiv Chamber Choir under the direction of Mykola Hobdych in a moving performance at St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv in 2016. The composer, who was forced to leave his home in Kyiv of over fifty years in the spring of 2022, created "Maidan 2014," a "cycle of cycles," following the events of the "Euromaidan"—the wave of demonstrations that swept across Ukraine in 2014. Rich in liturgical sections and verses by the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchencko, the work offers a diverse melodic range with both hymnal and cantabile structures. In the accompanying text of the CD, Silvestrov points out that "it is no coincidence that the symbolic coronation and conclusion of the 'Maidan 2014' cycle is a quiet lullaby."