The grand old man of Ukrainian music is 85 today. Born in Kyiv in 1937, Valentin Silvestrov attended the conservatory there from 1958 to 1964. In fact, he lived most of his life in Kyiv. He was there when the shelling started in March. One of nearly seven-and-a-half million refugees who have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, he made a harrowing escape to Germany, by way of Poland. He now lives in Berlin. Whether he will ever see his home again is anyone’s guess. It will not be the Kyiv he remembers.

“Diptych: Testament” (1995), on poetry by Taras Shevchenko

Taras Shevchenko, MY TESTAMENT

(“Zapovit” / “Iak umru, to pokhovaite”
“Заповіт” / “Як умру, то поховайте”)

Translated by John Weir

When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper’s plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.

When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes… then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields —
I’ll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I’ll pray…. But till that day
I nothing know of God.

Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants’ blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.

“Prayer for Ukraine” (2014)

Symphony No. 5 (1980-82)

Silvestrov at the piano, remembering the victims of the Charlie Hebdo and related attacks in France, January 7-9, 2015

Trailer for documentary “V. Silvestrov” (2020)