Performed by Stephen De Pledge, Stephen Small and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at their Premier Series concert, 'Messages to Mozart', Auckland Town Hall, 24 September 2020 - a concert without a live audience.
Photo: screenshot ex APO video
Ukrainian composer, Valentin Silvestrov, wrote The Messenger in 1996 after the sudden death of his wife Larysa Bondarenko, who was a musicologist.
The title of the piece is taken from the writings of the existential philosopher Yakov Druskin, a scholar from St Petersburg. Druskin’s ‘messenger’ is a fictional character who represents a link between this world and the world beyond. This figure is shown in the score by a series of smooth, remote-sounding, Mozartian phrases, marked "as if enveloped in mist".
Silvestrov said: "It is as if a visitor from some other dimension in time came to us with a message...perhaps Larysa herself, perhaps some distant muse speaking in the language of the late eighteenth century. This archaic and yet vitally contemporary language is filtered through a profoundly postmodern sensibility."
The Messenger is scored for piano, string orchestra and a synthesizer. This last instrument is used to represent the gentle sighing of the wind that marks both the arrival and the departure of the messenger.
Recorded by RNZ Concert
Producer: Tim Dodd; Engineer: Adrian Hollay
Photo: screenshot ex APO video
