Alfred Schnittke, the outstanding maverick of Soviet music in the late 20th c., was a man haunted by the ghosts of his predecessors – classical,...

Alfred Schnittke, the outstanding maverick of Soviet music in the late 20th c., was a man haunted by the ghosts of his predecessors – classical, twelve-tone, Russian mystical and otherwise. Trapped in an oppressive Soviet Union, he made his living writing film music and developing a unique ‘polystylistic’ technique which blended classicism, modernism, Russian tradition and his own personal mysticism. The brilliant young pianist Angelina Gadeliya, born in Soviet Georgia and brought up in the Ukraine, later emigrated to the United States where she became a leading advocate of Schnittke’s music and, at the same time, an expert in the influences which shaped his musical personality. This unique program includes music by Mozart, Webern, Shostakovich (based on Glinka) and Scriabin as well as two impressive works by Schnittke himself (his Variations on a Chord and Sonata No. 2).