ECM marks Valentin Silvestrov’s 70th birthday with a disc very different from that of the powerful Sixth Symphony (7/07): one that assembles smaller pieces and collections written over the past decade. A disc, moreover, of two distinct halves – the first of which features the composer in his Bagatelles: 13 miniatures that do not so much succeed as “bleed” into each other in a half-hour sequence whose spectral allusions to Romantic pianism and consistently attenuated dynamics (the damper pedal sustained throughout) go some way to defining the essence of Silvestrov’s music. Even then, the dissonance on which the final piece evanesces hints at those darker ambiguities which are present in even his seemingly most unequivocal statements.

The second half focuses on music for strings, sensitively rendered by the Munich Chamber Orchestra and Christoph Poppen. If the trio of ethereal dances comprising Stille Musik and distanced elegance of the two-part Abschiedsserenade are all of a piece with what came before, Elegie evinces a more anguished expression. Pianist Alexei Lubimov makes a fastidious contribution to Der Bote – a Mozartian rondo of deceptive tranquillity – and the oblique recollections of Wagner and Schubert that inform the serene Zwei Dialoge mit Nachtwort (both pieces feature in solo piano versions on Jenny Lin’s recital – Hännsler Classic, A/07 – which forms a valuable complement to this disc). Recording and annotations reflect ECM’s customary high standards, and the release can be recommended as an ideal résumé of one aspect – though not necessarily the lighter one – of Silvestrov’s creativity.