We’re delighted to see that LORELT have released a 2-CD set of the entire cycle of works forming Silvina Milstein’s of gold and shadows which includes the 2018 RPS Award-shortlisted Shan Shui for nonet.
Performed by Lontano, conducted by Odaline de la Martinez it includes performances by the Tarli-Varbanov Piano Duo, Helen Tunstall, Dominic Saunders, and mezzo-soprano Angelica Cathariou.
As well as each being an independent work, the eight compositions that form of gold and shadows share a concern with the exploration of states of heightened awareness and the creation of evocative modes of musical continuity arising from the use of ‘shards’ of familiar materials as starting points for free association.
A striking feature of Silvina Milstein’s music is its sense of mystery – a feeling it arouses of touching something extremely intimate, yet at the same time remote, as if originating among the stars. Her work has a meditative quality deeply influenced by her Buddhism.
Francesca Fremantle
Each work is informed by a different inspiration ranging from the art of Vermeer to contemplative Chinese landscape painting. a thousand golden bells in the breeze (here featuring performances by harpist Helen Tunstall and double basses Adam Wynter & Ben Daniel-Greep) finds inspiration in ancient spiritual texts and legends. Elsewhere, it is a dreamlike Buddhist-Taoist vision of the world that underlies shan shui. The trio for two trumpets and harp while your sound lingered on in lions and rocks is inspired by Rodin’s sculpture Orpheus and the Furies and draws its title from Rilke’s telling of the death of Orpheus at the hands of the raging maenads:
They tore you to pieces at last, in a frenzy,
while your sound lingered on in lions and rocks,
and in trees and birds. You still sing there.
Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. David Young), Sonnets to Orpheus, I, 26
de oro y sombra was commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and fretted sounding-boards, setting John Fuller’s prose-poem entitled ‘a brief history of the piano’, features mezzo-soprano Angelica Cathariou.
Composers Edition is proud to present a special limited two-volume edition of gold and shadows available purchase through our website, as well as individual compositions from the set and other works by Silvina Milstein.
of gold and shadows: volume one
ochre, umber and burnt sienna
Piano Phantasy
a thousand golden bells in the breeze
de oro y sombra
Lontano
Odaline de la Martinez conductor
Dominic Saunders piano
Helen Tunstall harp
of gold and shadows: volume two
in a bowl of grey-blue leaves
fretted sounding-boards
while your sound lingered on in lions and rocks
shan shui (mountain – water)
Lontano
Odaline de la Martinez conductor
Angelica Cathariou mezzo-soprano
Tarli-Varbanov Piano Duo
Silvina Milstein
We have a limited number of 2 Volume editions comprising all eight works:
All works are also available individually;
Tags: Adam Wynter, Angelica Cathariou, Ben Daniel-Greep, Dominic Saunders, Helen Tunstall, Lontano, Lorelt, Odaline de la Martinez, Silvina Milstein, Tarli-Varbanov Duo