Helene Grimaud – Konstantin Krimmel – Silent Songs – CD

Hélène Grimaud and Konstantin Krimmel pay homage to Ukraine’s greatest living composer with an album of songs by Valentin Silvestrov. Silent Songs blends the voices of classic Russian, Ukrainian and English poets to create a “harmony of mysterious power” (Yevgeni Baratynsky) The gentle music and quiet nostalgia of some of the most exquisitely beautiful poetry ever written flows through Hélène Grimaud’s latest album. Valentin Silvestrov’s Silent Songs includes contemplative settings of verse by Golden and Silver Age Russian poets Pushkin, Lermontov, Tyutchev, Baratynsky, Zhukovsky, Yesenin and Mandelstam, Ukrainian lyrics by Taras Shevchenko, and Russian translations of poetry by Keats and Shelley. Grimaud presents a dozen pieces from this haunting tribute to the innate music of poetic words. She is joined by the young baritone Konstantin Krimmel, winner of the 2018 International Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition.

1. Song Can Heal the Ailing Spirit
2. There Were Storms and Tempests
3. La Belle Dame Sans Merci
4. O Melancholy Time! Delight For Eyes!
5. Farewell, O World, Farewell, O Earth
6. I Will Tell You With Complete Directness
7. Here’s a Health To Thee, Mary
8. Winter Journey
9. The Isle
10. Autumn Song
11. Swamps and Marshes
12. Winter Evening