We are in two minds about the music of Valentyn Sylvestreff, a native of Kyïff.

PRO
- he has written six symphonies, several sonatas, and two string quartets
- he writes a lot of pleasant-sounding chords for brass instruments

CONTRA
- his music is always too slow
- it is almost always too monotonous too
- he is the author of "Postludium DSCH"
- he is said to have a love of percussion (but perhaps that was only in his early years)

We know only a few works of his. The Fifth Symphony sounds like a pastiche or after-glow of the famous slow movement in Mahler's Fifth.

The Sixth Symphony is much the same! except that for Mahler is substituted Wagner.

His Meta-music is in very much the same style yet again, except that the piano here takes mainly the place of the strings.

Meta-waltz too sounds very similar to our ears! It is so slow all the way through.

In general Sylvestreff's style consists of a slow succession (and sometimes progression) of traditional harmonies (and snatches of melodies) on the brass and strings, and each slow step is followed or decorated by either a surely quite random flourish on the wood-wind, or an arpeggio (usually rising) on the harp. (He can't be using up the rest of the twelve notes each time, can he?) And that is just about it over the course of the entire work. His music is much more self-similar than Messiaen's, even!

What do the other Members think?

The only work i know is the fifth symphony (out on Sony Classics)
Very static work with very little development - seems to be one droning pulse throughtout the whole work with a slightly nostalgic and serene theme - on the programme notes he says his idea was to freeze time and can see what he means - personally its the sort of work to listen to at the end of a long day and just let it drift over you - would be interested to hear more