Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)

Started by Maciek, April 29, 2007, 01:00:45 PM

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Mandryka

Quote from: snyprrr on September 14, 2015, 08:38:43 AM
String Quartet No.4

One can surely not deny that the Alban Berg Quartet bring refinement and sophistication, and their 'live' performance of Schnittke's last SQ brings out any and all "Old World" feelings that this most inward of Schnittke scores presents. I hadn't really payed attention much to the opening movement, apparently, because this time I heard all the micro-tonal ennui that caught my ear. It seems Schnittke was trying to perfect the effect of "nausea", and here one can feel the shifting moods of angst and despair very well.

This is a long piece, and meaty and weighty, and seems to me to be DSCH's 18th SQ,... I believe Schnittke set out to make a DSCH SQ, and that this is what we got. I certainly will continue with this piece as an appendage of DSCH's legacy.

I'm going to call it a Masterpiece of 'Gotterdammerung' Music, the last gasp of 'Ultra-Late Romanticism' before the final flickering out (snuffing out?) of the light by the forces of darkness. How much more "towards the graveyard" can one go in music of such profound blackness? Sure, we could have special-effects of graveyard sounds, but here Schnittke sticks strictly to emotional states,- "human" feelings as opposed to "macabre".

I profer that there is no piece of Schnittke more representative of his deepest personal statement than this piece, and it is not the most easygoing endeavor to get to the end- but it stands as a huge monument, a gravestone, to what will never be again.


I just popped for the Bashmet/TCA Viola Concerto. I may actually not ever have heard this, being I'm totally getting it confused with Penderecki's of the same era. But, everyone says it's their favorite piece, so, I look forward with expectation.

The only items left of Schnittke's that I'm interested in would be the Symphonies 3-4, which recordings should I go for?

Anyone else got anything to say about the 4th quartet?
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bhodges

Quote from: Mandryka on December 08, 2021, 11:31:00 AM
Anyone else got anything to say about the 4th quartet?

Until just now, I had never heard it, and am listening to Quatuor Molinari's version. So far, gorgeous. Also very much reflects the somber tone of his final years. These comments by Mark Sealey seem pretty apt: 

"The Molinari players have a majestic command of Schnittke's use of strings, his tortured melodic structure and sense of imminent doom. Without overplaying the place of the fourth quartet as a summation of what he had previously written, they nevertheless make a very compelling case for this work, full of pity and loss, as typifying the best of Schnittke."

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/a/atm22634a.php

--Bruce

vers la flamme

Schnittke's music seems to make more sense when it gets cold out and the days get shorter. Currently listening with rapt attention to the 4th symphony.

bhodges

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 09, 2021, 02:43:04 PM
Schnittke's music seems to make more sense when it gets cold out and the days get shorter. Currently listening with rapt attention to the 4th symphony.

Love that comment.

So PS, which version of the 4th is enthralling you? I don't know the piece, and would like to.

--Bruce

Mirror Image

Quote from: Brewski on December 09, 2021, 02:47:28 PM
Love that comment.

So PS, which version of the 4th is enthralling you? I don't know the piece, and would like to.

--Bruce

Whoah...??? Really? I'd give a listen to the Polyansky performance on Chandos, Bruce. It's magnificent.

vers la flamme

Quote from: Brewski on December 09, 2021, 02:47:28 PM
Love that comment.

So PS, which version of the 4th is enthralling you? I don't know the piece, and would like to.

--Bruce

Okko Kamu and the Stockholm Sinfonietta on BIS. It's the only one I know, but it's a good one.

bhodges

Quote from: Mirror Image on December 09, 2021, 03:51:09 PM
Whoah...??? Really? I'd give a listen to the Polyansky performance on Chandos, Bruce. It's magnificent.

Thanks, I will check that out. I'm more familiar with Schnittke's chamber music and the concertos -- the symphonies, not as much. Though I treasure a live performance of his bleak Eighth a few years back, with the Juilliard Orchestra.

Wow, just found a photo from the performance, from 2014, with conductor Anne Manson.

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-juilliard-orchestra-performing-alfred-schnittkes-news-photo/467762105

--Bruce

bhodges

Quote from: vers la flamme on December 09, 2021, 05:17:37 PM
Okko Kamu and the Stockholm Sinfonietta on BIS. It's the only one I know, but it's a good one.

Oh cool, thank you! I know some of the BIS series, but not all. That cycle was probably the first full plunge into Schnittke for many of us -- certainly part of my introduction to his work.

Appreciate your weighing in, and will try to report back with impressions.

--Bruce

Mirror Image

Quote from: Brewski on December 09, 2021, 05:19:26 PM
Thanks, I will check that out. I'm more familiar with Schnittke's chamber music and the concertos -- the symphonies, not as much. Though I treasure a live performance of his bleak Eighth a few years back, with the Juilliard Orchestra.

Wow, just found a photo from the performance, from 2014, with conductor Anne Manson.

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-juilliard-orchestra-performing-alfred-schnittkes-news-photo/467762105

--Bruce

You're welcome. The 3rd, 4th, 5th and 8th are my favorites of his symphonies.

Mandryka

Quote from: Brewski on December 09, 2021, 08:41:54 AM
Until just now, I had never heard it, and am listening to Quatuor Molinari's version. So far, gorgeous. Also very much reflects the somber tone of his final years. These comments by Mark Sealey seem pretty apt: 

"The Molinari players have a majestic command of Schnittke's use of strings, his tortured melodic structure and sense of imminent doom. Without overplaying the place of the fourth quartet as a summation of what he had previously written, they nevertheless make a very compelling case for this work, full of pity and loss, as typifying the best of Schnittke."

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/a/atm22634a.php

--Bruce

I've decided it's not for me at the moment, this music! Though I would say that I thought Snyprr was right to praise the ABQ in the 4th quartet.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bhodges

Quote from: Mandryka on December 10, 2021, 12:19:08 PM
I've decided it's not for me at the moment, this music! Though I would say that I thought Snyprr was right to praise the ABQ in the 4th quartet.

At least after one hearing, I think it's slightly grueling, and shows signs of the composer's grimmest thoughts. So no, likely not for Sunday morning coffee with birds outside. Will likely give the Alban Berg ensemble a try at some point.

PS, Kronos were my introduction to the first three quartets, which they performed in a cycle of three concerts with one on each (i.e., before the 4th was written). Came away in awe, and then down the Schnittke rabbit hole we went.  0:)

--Bruce

Maestro267

Listened to Quartet No. 4 yesterday. Definitely hear the bleakness of late Schnittke in it.

bhodges

Fans of Schnittke, Daniil Trifonov will be the pianist in the Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, performed live in April and available for a few weeks in May as a stream.

Streaming May 10–31 (from live concert in April 2022)

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director Designate

Dukas: La Péri
Schnittke: Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (with Daniil Trifonov, piano)
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Daniil Trifonov, piano)
Debussy: La mer

--Bruce

Karl Henning

Quote from: Brewski on February 10, 2022, 09:52:42 AM
Fans of Schnittke, Daniil Trifonov will be the pianist in the Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, performed live in April and available for a few weeks in May as a stream.

Streaming May 10–31 (from live concert in April 2022)

Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Rafael Payare, OSM Music Director Designate

Dukas: La Péri
Schnittke: Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (with Daniil Trifonov, piano)
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 (with Daniil Trifonov, piano)
Debussy: La mer

--Bruce

Nice!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Symphonic Addict



Is there anything more freakingly bizarre and insane than Quasi una Sonata? I don't have recollections of having listened to this piece before. Simply astonishing in its disruptive nature, what a piece. There are elements that bring Lutoslawski and Pettersson to mind.

Part of the tragedy of the Palestinians is that they have essentially no international support for a good reason: they've no wealth, they've no power, so they've no rights.

Noam Chomsky

Mirror Image

Quote from: Symphonic Addict on June 24, 2022, 09:17:20 PM


Is there anything more freakingly bizarre and insane than Quasi una Sonata? I don't have recollections of having listened to this piece before. Simply astonishing in its disruptive nature, what a piece. There are elements that bring Lutoslawski and Pettersson to mind.

Yes, Schnittke's Peer Gynt, Faust Cantata and (K)ein Sommernachtstraum come pretty close. :)

Lisztianwagner

#1216
Agreed about Quasi una sonata, it's a marvelous work; it shows thrilling contrasts between quiet, yet tense passages and other ones so strident, dissonant and fidgety, especially for the use of whirling, haunting glissando of the strings, that create an absolutely mesmerizing atmosphere. The version for solo violin and piano is very beautiful too, the piano and its expressive possibilities greatly replace the chamber orchestra.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." - Gustav Mahler

Mandryka



Very impressed by the 4th quartet here, Kapralova. Live by the looks at it, lean sound.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

bhodges

Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2022, 01:30:05 PM


Very impressed by the 4th quartet here, Kapralova. Live by the looks at it, lean sound.

Wow, this looks very tasty. And I don't know this group. Always eager to learn of new, excellent string quartets, since there are so many these days.

-Bruce

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Mandryka on October 24, 2022, 01:30:05 PM


Very impressed by the 4th quartet here, Kapralova. Live by the looks at it, lean sound.

Wow! What a blast from the past. I was at that concert where they played quartets 2 and 4 - Prague Spring Festival, 2002. It took place in a big church, if I recall correctly.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach