The final concert in the Spotlight Chamber Music Series 2022 brings together six of Ireland’s most distinguished and dynamic string players for a recital of Baroque and Romantic works.

Their programme opens with the last two movements of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Five Serenades for Two Violoncelli, written in 2002 and revised in 2011. The composer stipulates that “In this cycle, the two cellos should still sound like a solo cello (quasi Violoncello solo), as it were, a cello for four hands.” The two movements presented in today’s programme, the fourth – Abendserenade/Evening Serenade – and fifth – Augenblicke einer Serenade/Moments of a Serenade – are both dedicated to Anatoly Syrykh, a Russian director who made a short documentary film about Valentin Silvestrov in 1993 entitled Quiet Songs. The gentle, poetic writing typical of the composer characterises these two movements. Indeed, cellist Anja Lechner, long-time collaborator of Silvestrov, writes that “the delicate, breathing sounds and melodic fragments” of his work, “interwoven with contrasting textures, finally dissolving into the air…” enabled her to discover “a new universe of quiet tones”. Valentin Silvestrov now lives in Berlin, having fled Kiev in 2022 following the Russian occupation of Ukraine. These short serenades will be followed by Johannes Brahms’ second string sextet, a lyrical, expansive and romantic work, which Sir Donald Tovey described as “the most ethereal of Brahms’ larger works”.

Musicians:

Paul Ezergailis – Violin
Siobhán Doyle – Violin
Ruth Gibson – Viola
Cian Ó Dúill – Viola
Brian O’Kane – Cello
Aoife Burke – Cello

Programme:

Silvestrov: From Five Serenades for Two Violoncelli – IV. Evening Serenade and V. Moments of a Serenade
Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 44