Review of last Sunday's Music Box concert at Zipper Hall

https://seenandheard-international.com/2022/09/music-box-2022-magnificent-chamber-music-in-los-angeles/

Jacaranda Music: Steven Vanhauwaert (piano).

Silvestrov – The Messenger

Pianist Steven Vanhauwaert performed one of the most haunting interpretations I have heard, a beauty borne in memory and loss, and steeped in deep and severe despair. The Messengerwas composed by Valentin Silvestrov after the sudden death of his wife, herself a musicologist. Whatever descriptive language I might write at this point cannot and does not do the piece justice.

Single three-note triads, found mostly in major keys, begin the piece, and were there to accompany the melody, still in a major key. At a certain point, modulation followed. Was that perhaps memory? Gradually the music itself became filled with loss, and the memory thereof. The Messenger was like nothing else I have heard. It is unforgettable.