REVIEW:

On the face of it, it makes good sense to group these three relatively early works by Schnittke together on one disc, and the documentary interest of the issue is enhanced by the fact that both sonatas are dedicated to Mark Lubotsky. The downside is that Schnittke is rarely at his best in these pieces, and the recording allows the piano too great a degree of rather harsh prominence.

The First Sonata (1963), which documents Schnittke's emergence from the cocoon of conformity to a style that owes much to Shostakovich, and its wide range of reference, from serialism to Latin American rhythms, is now less striking than the skill with which Schnittke shapes the third movement's gradually intensifying melodic line. In the Second Sonata (1968), again, it is the growth of continuity out of fragmentation that impresses, giving the single-movement structure a substance it would otherwise lack. Even so, the sonata is more a manifesto of defiance than a fully realized proposal for a new musical order. It is to the credit of both performers that they don't try to oversell the music's aura of iconoclasm, though a recording more favorable to the violin would have done these well-considered accounts greater justice.

Schnittke concocted his Suite in the old style (1972) from various film scores. It would be unduly censorious to complain of the composer's self-indulgence in music as charming as this, and in any case a more sinister note enters the final ''Pantomime''. Here, at least, the authentically alarming later Schnittke briefly stands revealed.

-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone [4/1994]

Cello Sonatas, Klingende Buchs

SCHNITTKE: VIOLIN SONATA NO 1,

SCHNITTKE: QUASI UNA SONATA, P

What a wonderful title. The absurdist libretto of Schnittke's opera by the former 'dissident' writer Victor Erofeyev is based on his own short story and is partly a satire on Soviet life under Communism ('Vova' was Lenin's nickname, and Howard Haskin — the creator of the role — was made up to look like the former leader). Clearly, for Schnittke and other post-Soviet artists, there are still scores to setde with the past. Whether that will tell against the opera's long-term success remains to be seen.

At its worst it recalls a superior cabaret act, Schnittke's frequent recourse to parody as part of his 'polystylistic' approach sounding a touch glib. But other moments suggest wider resonances. The opera was premiered in Amsterdam last April, when this recording was made. Rostropovich, who was instrumental in the project from an early stage, conducts a brash but vital performance (he also plays the cello and piano) and the cast enters fully into the spirit of the piece. The sound has a curiously hollow quality.

-- George Hall, BBC Music Magazine

Schnittke: Cello Concerto No. 2 & In memoriam

The tradition of composing a funeral mass dates back to the times of the late Middle Ages, but it was brought to artistic perfection by later composers. Alfred Schnittke initially wore the intention of writing a small instrumental Requiem, which was to be one of the parts of the Piano Quintet. Eventually, however, he rejected this idea and created a fourteen-part Requiem. The work is expressive and full of dramatic contrasts. The instrumental parts of electric guitars of a set of drums surprisingly refer to the composer’s polistylist interests. Composed in the same stream, the three religious songs refer to Orthodox church music, introducing a mood of contemplative reflection and prayer reverie.

SCHNITTKE: Cello Concerto / Stille Musik / Cello Sonata

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Torleif Thedéen and Roland Pöntinen, who with this disc give us the larger part of Schnittke's chamber music for the cello, are long-time partners whose first joint recording for BIS was made in 1986 - entitled 'The Russian Cello', it incidentally included a performance of the first of Schnittke's cello sonatas. Since then the two have appeared on a number of discs together, performing works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Hindemith and Anton Webern among others. Their recording of the Chopin Sonata, coupled with works by Robert Schumann, was highly acclaimed in The Gramophone, whose critic found that the team gave 'this wonderful music a sweep and gradeur that's immensely satisfying'.

SCHNITTKE: Piano Quintet / String Trio / Stille Musik

Import Hybrid-SACD pressing.

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111 musicians celebrating a large-scale symphony sounds like a performance of a work by Mahler, Strauss or early Schönberg. In fact, the composer of this symphony, Alfred Schnittke, had precisely these (and other) composers in mind back in 1981. Whereas he initially mirrored styles from these and otrher composers, he soon was borrowing concepts from “trivial music” folklore, jazz, tango, etc… was He himself described his compositional technique as “polystylistic; which was more than just a technique but an aesthetic program: a serious effort to break through the vicious circle of self-satisfied and self-sufficient avant-garde music. His Third Symphony testifies to all this searching, this “inbetweenness”. The four-movement work, written on commission to inaugurate the new Leipzig Gewandhaus, confronted not only a multi-layered historical past but a weakened current state of affairs while remaining highly respectful of the achievements of the past and present. Vladimir Jurowski leads the Berlin Radio-Symphony Orchestra in this recording of a great and intricate work.

SCHNITTKE Violin Sonatas: Nos. 1–3. Violin Sonata (1955) • Carolyn Huebl (vn); Mark Wait (pn) • NAXOS 8.570978 (69:20)


The four violin sonatas by Alfred Schnittke (1934–98) could be seen as representing four distinct periods in his life and career. The newly discovered Violin Sonata (1955) was a student work, so it did not receive a place in his official catalog. It anticipates none of Schnittke’s later experimental or dramatically extravagant devices, consisting of a largely romantic first movement featuring an adept and impulsive, if generic, development of his material, and a folk-like second-movement theme subjected to three distinct variations. The so-called First Sonata (1963) is a large leap forward in risk-taking and character, the first movement beginning with a 12-tone theme presented in concisely lyrical and eloquent fashion, followed by a gnomish dance; a reserved, hymnlike movement with Messiaenic piano accompaniment; and a lilting, quasi-fugal finale. The Sonata No. 2 (1968), subtitled “Quasi una Sonata,” was one of his breakthrough works—a single, extended, intuitively designed movement that plays with the conventional relationship between the two instruments, breaks apart and juxtaposes material of varying stylistic demeanor and mood, and employs advanced techniques, especially in the violin. By the time of his Sonata No. 3 (1994), Schnittke had suffered several near-death illnesses and many of his works of this period, such as this one, display a deeply contemplative melancholy and passionate outbursts suggesting a metaphysical struggle. There are moments here, especially in the stark, sparse passages of the final two movements, reminiscent of Shostakovich’s late-in-life violin and viola sonatas.


This being the only currently available collection of all four sonatas on a single disc, it is fortunate that violinist Carolyn Huebl and pianist Mark Wait make such a convincing argument for each of these distinctive works. They handle the variety and contrasts of Schnittke’s polystylistic perspective with sensitivity and security, and adapt their impressive tonal resources to every demand the composer makes. It’s a shame that Gidon Kremer, such a strong advocate for Schnittke’s violin concertos, has not (yet?) turned his attention to the sonatas, although he has recorded the orchestral version of the Sonata No. 2 that Schnittke made in 1987. (There is also an orchestral version of the Sonata No. 1, dating from 1968.) For the historically minded, Mark Lubotsky, who premiered the three numbered sonatas, recorded the First and Second for Ondine with pianist Ralf Gothóni, and, on another Ondine disc, documented the Third with the added bonus of the composer’s wife, Irina Schnittke, on piano. The Joanna Kurkowicz/Sergey Schepkin duo has received praise in these pages for their Bridge recording of the first two as well. But if you’re in the market for an engaging and inexpensive introduction to this music, you need look no further.


FANFARE: Art Lange

Cello Recital: Gustafsson, Jan-Erik - SZYMANOWSKI, K. / KODA

This selection is also included in Bis Twins 3.

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SCHNITTKE: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 / Epilogue / Musica no

Includes work(s) by Alfred Schnittke. Ensemble: Tapiola Sinfonietta. Conductor: Ralf Gothóni. Soloists: Ralf Gothóni, Tero Latvala, Ulf Wallin.

The seductive, addictive potential of this music can be heard and felt straight away. His film music, an important pillar of his livelihood, embodies almost everything that characterizes Schnittke's music as a whole. It heralds a musical personality which, precisely because of its conscious use of tradition in the twentieth century, represents a solitary exception. Curious – not greedy for the old – he collected discarded or worn-out remains of music history, cleaned and polished them, and placed them in strikingly new contexts. The principle of drawing from and making use of the past was not well received in the strongholds of the avant-garde, but was all the more enthusiastically embraced by film viewers and concertgoers. 25 years ago Schnittke had encouraged the young conductor, arranger, and film music expert Frank Strobel to condense the music of his film scores into suites and to republish them for concert use. Since then, Strobel has arranged around a third of Schnittke’s over 60 pieces of film music and successively recorded them with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.

SCHNITTKE Piano Concerto. 1 Improvisation and Fugue. Variations on a Chord • Victoria Lyubitskaya (pn); Mark Gorenstein, cond; 1 Russian St Academy O 1 • FUGA LIBERA 532 (44:11)


Alfred Schnittke (1943–1998) remains one of the seminal composers of the late 20th century, and any new recording of his music is welcome. His Piano Concerto was completed in 1979 and exemplifies his polystylism, bringing in echoes of Baroque and Classical music while undermining them with kaleidoscopic shifts of emphasis and cluster-filled interruptions. The composer himself described the result as musical “sleepwalking,” although the Concerto lacks the rambling quality of his austere late works.


Lyubitskaya’s playing is exceptionally clear, and she is ably supported by Gorenstein and the Russian State Academy Orchestra. The orchestra has a distinguished recording history, while Gorenstein was responsible for excellent Schnittke performances on the short-lived Popemusic label (albeit with a different band). As recorded here, the orchestral strings have that “glassy” sound we used to hear in early digital releases, despite this being a 2005 recording. The piano sound and balance are fine.


Lyubitskaya shines in the solo piano works, both written as student test pieces earlier in the composer’s career. She is more incisive than is Boris Berman on Chandos, underlining a stylistic link between early Schnittke and Shostakovich.


So this disc is recommended, but with the proviso that 44 minutes is unacceptably short timing for a full-priced CD, especially when other versions of the Piano Concerto are available. On the cheap Apex label you will find one by Viktoria Postnikova, conducted by her husband Gennady Rozhdestvensky (both close friends of the composer), which is the favorite in several online reviews. I find Postnikova heavy-handed and her approach unvaryingly monumental, preferring a more rounded performance by Ralf Gothoni on Ondine, if you can find it. The latter’s strings are better recorded, Gothoni’s pianism is subtler and at times genuinely dreamlike (cf. sleepwalking), while the couplings are substantial: the Third Violin Concerto and Third Violin Sonata with Mark Lubotsky.


However, if you don’t want much more than the concerto, Lyubitskaya will do you proud.


FANFARE: Phillip Scott

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Capriccio's Encore series features re-releases of the most famous recordings from the Capriccio back catalogue. These legendary recordings are of artists like Sandor Vegh, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and the Vienna Boys' Choir. The series spans highlights from the baroque era to the contemporary era. This album showcases the Moscow Virtuosi, led by Vladimir Spivakov in a famous recording of Schnittke's Hieronymus Bosch Fragments.

Pianist Nicolas Stavy, who has already made recordings devoted to works by Boris Tishchenko (BIS-2189) and Dmitri Shostakovich (BIS-2550), now presents the first instalment of a complete survey of Alfred Schnittke's compositions for solo piano. This recording presents works from various periods of the Russian-German composer's career - from the 1950s, which the composer described as the 'years of obscurity', to the 1990s, a time shaped both by world fame and serious illness. While Schnittke wrote relatively little music for the piano, each work reflects - or sometimes anticipates - the phases of the composer's creative development. The Five Preludes and Fugue and the Prelude and Fugue belong to Schnittke's first creative phase, when he was still under the influence of Shostakovich. The Little Piano Pieces, composed for the composer's six-year-old son, are an example of his 'polystylism', juxtaposing and combining music of various styles from the past and present. The Sonata No. 2 and the Five Aphorisms, both from 1990, return to a more ascetic and abstract language, with a bleaker tone, no doubt echoing his serious health problems.

Cappella Amsterdam and its artistic leader Daniel Reuss present their third Pentatone album with a recording of Alfred Schnittke’s Psalms of Repentance. Schnittke composed the piece in 1988 to commemorate the Christianisation of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus in 988, and based it on anonymous Russian texts from the 16th century about guilt and repentance. It is one of the most impressive large-scale works for a cappella choir written in the twentieth century, setting intensely emotional texts to equally expressive music, and approaching centuries-old Orthodox musical traditions through the lens of late twentieth-century music. This recording uses the original manuscript, which differs in multiple ways from the published score, resulting in an interpretation that aims to be closer to the composer’s intentions. Since its foundation in 1970, Cappella Amsterdam has shown an exceptional mastery of contemporary and early vocal music, with acclaimed excurses to Romantic repertoire as well. Daniel Reuss has been Artistic Leader of Cappella Amsterdam for over three decades now, and has worked with several renowned choirs and ensembles. Their PENTATONE debut album In Umbra Mortis (2021) won an Edison Klassiek Award, and was followed by David Lang: the writings in 2022.

Alfred Schnittke's film music encapsulates almost everything that characterises the Russian composer's compositional style. A self-described polystylist, he began writing for film in the 1960s, penning 66 film scores between 1962 and 1984 for Soviet film companies. His method of drawing on the past was rejected by the avant-garde but embraced by filmgoers and concertgoers too. Volume six in this CD Edition of Schnittke's film music presents music from the film series "Little Tragedies" (1979) based on popular novels by Alexander Pushkin. After longtime research conductor Vladimir Jurowski also recorded all parts of the score which have been cancelled at the end for the final Film Version.