A dream dissolving into silence
Silvestrov’s First String Quartet was another jewel on our CD (Russische Strijkkwartetten) and what a contrast it was to the intense clarity of Gubaidulina and the sharp character of Shostakovich.
The piece begins almost deceptively: so tonal, so lyrical, as if stepping into a quiet, romantic reverie. But this sweetness doesn’t last. It slowly drifts into something more elusive, like a dream slipping away as you try to hold onto it. That fragile opening mood fades into shimmering dissonances and mysterious colours that feel almost medieval or oriental in spirit, modal, floating, ungraspable.
Playing this music felt like meditating together in sound. There are no real outbursts or climaxes, everything unfolds slowly, inwardly. The middle section, with its otherworldly harmonies, felt like walking through a timeless landscape, maybe a ancient ruin where only the wind speaks.
And then… the end. Like the distant calls of whales echoing under water, the music drifts off, sound becoming silence, like breath becoming stillness.
Frank de Groot, Laurens van Vliet, Karin Dolman, Hans Woudenberg