Kamermūzikas vakars. Franks, Prokofjevs, Silvestrovs

FRANCK. PROKOFIEV. SILVESTROV. Three Visions of Eternal Music

 

This concert is more than a carefully chosen set of works — it is a musical narrative of emotional depth, poetic resonance, and stylistic contrast. Two violin sonatas that have become pillars of the chamber repertoire are paired with a contemporary piece shaped by memory, silence, and tender simplicity. It is an evening where music becomes a voice of the times — and of timelessness.

 

César Franck’s sonata is the epitome of Romantic beauty: a four-part cycle woven together by recurring motifs, unfolding like a lyrical declaration of love — passionate, noble, and tender. Its melodies are unforgettable, drawing the listener into a world of warmth and poetic clarity, culminating in a radiant, triumphant close.

 

Prokofiev’s sonata, by contrast, is a cry from the shadows of the post-war years. This is music stripped of illusion — embracing the “aesthetics of the un-beautiful,” full of grotesque contrasts, rough textures, and restless tension. And yet, beneath this harsh exterior lies a wounded lyricism, a humanity that refuses to be silenced.

 

The concert concludes with Dedication to Tchaikovsky by Valentin Silvestrov — not a pastiche, but a quiet conversation across centuries. Silvestrov transforms old Romantic gestures into a whisper of remembrance. His music is disarmingly simple, childlike in its sincerity, and luminous in its gentle stillness.

 

This evening forms an arc — from the glowing lyricism of Franck, through Prokofiev’s raw expressiveness, to Silvestrov’s intimate twilight. Each work reveals a different face of chamber music: confession, confrontation, and consolation. This is not a concert to merely hear — it is music to be experienced.

 

Performers:
Anna Salnit (violin, Latvia)
Pavels Račiks (piano, Latvia)