Prokofiev: Symphony No. 6 & Silvestrov: Silent Music

Raw, powerful and affecting, it is in many ways an elusive work, a balance of austerity and occasional musical echoes of Prokofiev’s pre-war successes. Dmitry Matvienko and the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra give it a finely-judged bite, never recoiling from the implied horror and finely expressive. The first movement is stark and unsettled.

BBC Music Magazine, Sarah Urwin Jones, July Issue

This new account is the first I’ve heard with a bite and punch to match Järvi’s, Dmitry Matvienko getting his Aarhus Symphony Orchestra to play out of their skins. Sample the symphony’s stark opening, the brass notes stinging, the strings delivering a lacerating response 45 seconds in. Matvienko sensibly keeps things moving, the transitions between the three thematic groups deftly managed, as with the mechanistic third theme’s sudden shift into the 6/8 development section. It’s both exciting and terrifying, the music’s tragic collapse devastating. Few passages in the orchestral repertoire are quite so bleak, the horns seemingly gasping for breath before the second subject returns. 

The Arts Desk (UK)

Now into his second season as Chief Conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, this looks to be Minsk-born Dmitry Matvienko’s first high-profile album and it proves an auspicious one. 

Gramophone (UK)

As chief conductor, Dimitrij Matvienko brings energy to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, unites the musicians, and inspires the audience.

Politiken (DK)