Alfred Schnittke

Donald Macleod explores the strange, brilliant and occasionally
nightmarish world of the Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke.


The music of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) is like being lost in a
hall of mirrors. Staring back at you is the whole of music
history - from Bach to modern pop via tangos, Soviet work songs,
Gregorian chant and Viennese waltzes - refracted and distorted,
and woven together to create a uniquely personal style.
Thrilling, grotesque, occasionally nightmarish - Schnittke
creates a world where everything has a hidden meaning.
Beethoven's Fifth suddenly springs terrifyingly out of the
darkness in the midst of an otherwise chaotic symphony. Or a
cheap Russian pop song appears inexplicably amidst a Baroque
chorale. Schnittke's world of suppressed meanings perfectly
captured life under the cosh of Soviet Communism. All this week,
Donald Macleod unpicks the strands of a musician often seen as
the heir to Shostakovich - and perhaps the last truly great
composer of the 20th century.


Donald begins by exploring the connections - musical,
psychological and spiritual - between Alfred Schnittke and the
great titan of Soviet music, Dmitri Shostakovich. He then
unravels the term "polystylism", which Schnittke himself coined
to describe his fusing of wildly eclectic styles - from Bach to
pop to hypermodernism to Tchaikovsky. We hear about Schnittke’s
intense fame in the 1970s, and how his turn to a deeply devout
musical style shocked the avant-garde and won him a whole new
spectrum of admirers. Donald takes us through Schnittke’s most
rollicking and significant year – 1985 – which saw the creation
of five acknowledged masterpieces and the first of several
crippling strokes. Seemingly, Schnittke’s mortality drove him to
create ever more shattering music in his final years - to compose
to the very bitter end, in the face of almost unimaginable
physical challenges.


Music featured:


Concerto Grosso No 1 (arr. for flute, oboe, harpsichord, prepared
piano and strings) (2nd mvt) Violin Concerto No 1 (2nd mvt) Piano
Quintet (2nd mvt - "In Tempo Di Valse") Violin Sonata No 1
Symphony No 1 (2nd mvt) The Cloak (Gogol Suite) Concerto Grosso
No 3 Voices Of Nature Schnittke, arr Boguslavsky Suite In The Old
Style Hymn No 3, for cello, bassoon, harp, harpsichord and
tubular bells Complete This Work Which I Began (Choir Concerto -
4th mvt) Gloria - Credo - Crucifixus (Symphony No 2 "St Florian")
O Master Of All Living (Choir Concerto - 1st mvt) When They
Beheld The Ship That Suddenly Came; If You Wish To Overcome
Unending Sorrow; I Entered This Life Of Tears A Naked Infant
(Psalms Of Repentance) Moz-Art A La Haydn Viola Concerto (1st
& 2nd mvts) Concerto Grosso No 4 / Symphony No 5 (2nd mvt)
Doctor Faustus lamented and wept...It came to pass (Faust
Cantata) Menuet, for violin, viola and 'cello Stille Nacht
Symphony No 6 (3rd & 4th mvts) Piano Sonata No 1


For full tracklistings, including artist and recording details,
and to listen to the pieces featured in full (for 30 days after
broadcast) head to the series page for Schnittke:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bcpr22 And you can delve into
the A-Z of all the composers we’ve featured on Composer of the
Week here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3cjHdZlXwL7W41XGB77X3S0/composers-a-to-z
Presenter: Donald Macleod Producer: Steven Rajam for BBC Wales