Valentin Silvestrov, Kyiv Chamber Choir, Mykola Hobdych

Maidan gathers the choral music Valentin Silvestrov wrote in response to the Euromaidan, the wave of protests that swept Ukraine in 2014. Sung a cappella by the Kyiv Chamber Choir under Mykola Hobdych, it sets the national anthem, liturgical texts and verses by Taras Shevchenko. ECM released it in 2022, the year Silvestrov turned 85 and had to leave his Kyiv home of more than half a century.

The recording was made in 2016 in St. Michael's Cathedral in Kyiv, with Andrew Mokrytsky as engineer, and produced by Kyiv Choir Productions. It joins Sacred Songs and Sacred Works in Silvestrov's long association with ECM, and the same choir sang on those earlier records. The composer wrote the liner text, and Tatjana Frumkis contributed the German notes. The programme has four works: Maidan 2014, which Silvestrov calls a "cycle of cycles", followed by Four Songs (2014), Diptych (2016) and Triptych (2015), all on Shevchenko poems.

In Maidan 2014 a setting of the national anthem returns five times. Each return is followed by sacred or poetic texts such as Lacrimosa, Holy God, The Lord's Prayer, Agnus Dei, a Prayer for Ukraine. The melodies are hymnal and chant-like, with recurring figures that imitate bells. The cycle ends with a quiet Lullaby based on a Belarusian folk song. "I'm neither able nor willing to duplicate the noise of this terrible war," Silvestrov writes in the booklet. "Instead, I want to show how fragile our civilisation is." The Shevchenko settings that follow include A Cherry Orchard by the House and Oh Shining World, and the disc closes with an Alleluia.

German critics singled out the restraint of the writing. In Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Stefan Drees noted that every piece aims to move the listener with a simplicity entirely free of pathos, and praised the handling of a large vocal body. Corina Kolbe in Rondo traced the Lacrimosa from a hesitant opening to the highest intensity. Burkhard Schäfer's verdict in Fono Forum was short: "Der Kyiv Chamber Choir singt gnadenlos gut", the choir sings mercilessly well.

CD, ECM New Series 2359, first released on 30 September 2022.