Alfred Schnittke
Alfred Schnittke was born on 24 November 1934 in Engels, on the Volga River, in the
Soviet Union. His father was born in Frankfurt to a Jewish family of Russian origin
who had moved to the USSR in 1926, and his mother was a Volga-German born in Russia.
Schnittke began his musical education in 1946 in Vienna where his father, a journalist
and translator, had been posted. In 1948 the family moved to Moscow, where Schnittke
studied piano and received a diploma in choral conducting.
From 1953 to 1958 he studied counterpoint and composition with Yevgeny Golubev and
instrumentation with Nikolai Rakov at the Moscow Conservatory. Schnittke completed
the postgraduate course in composition there in 1961 and joined the Union of Composers
the same year. He was particularly encouraged by Phillip Herschkowitz, a Webern disciple,
who resided in the Soviet capital.
In 1962, Schnittke was appointed instructor in instrumentation at the Moscow Conservatory,
a post which he held until 1972. Thereafter he supported himself chiefly as a composer
of film scores; by 1984 he had scored more than 60 films.
Noted, above all, for his hallmark "polystylistic" idiom, Schnittke has
written in a wide range of genres and styles. His Concerto Grosso No. 1 (1977)
was one of the first works to bring his name to prominence. It was popularized by
Gidon Kremer, a tireless proponent of his music. Many of Schnittke's works have been
inspired by Kremer and other prominent performers, including Yury Bashmet, Natalia
Gutman, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Mstislav Rostropovich. Schnittke first came to
America in 1988 for the "Making Music Together" Festival in Boston and
the American premiere of Symphony No. 1 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
He came again in 1991 when Carnegie Hall commissioned Concerto Grosso No. 5
for the Cleveland Orchestra as part of its Centennial Festival, and again in 1994
for the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 by the New York Philharmonic
and the American premiere of his Symphony No. 6 by the National Symphony.
Schnittke composed 9 symphonies, 6 concerti grossi, 4 violin concertos, 2 cello concertos,
concertos for piano and a triple concerto for violin, viola and cello, as well as
4 string quartets and much other chamber music, ballet scores, choral and vocal works.
His first opera, Life with an Idiot, was premiered in Amsterdam (April 1992).
His two new operas, Gesualdo and Historia
von D. Johann Fausten were unveiled in Vienna (May 1995) and Hamburg (June
1995) respectively.
From the 1980s, Schnittke's music gained increasing exposure and international acclaim.
Schnittke has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Austrian
State Prize in 1991, Japan's Imperial Prize in 1992, and, most recently the Slava-Gloria-Prize
in Moscow in June 1998; his music has been celebrated with retrospectives and major
festivals worldwide. More than 50 compact discs devoted exclusively to his music
have been released in the last ten years.
In 1985, Schnittke suffered the first of a series of serious strokes. Despite his
physical frailty, however, Schnittke suffered no loss of creative imagination, individuality
or productivity. Beginning in 1990, Schnittke resided in Hamburg, maintaining dual
German-Russian citizenship. He died, after suffering another stroke, on 3 August
1998 in Hamburg.
August 1998 Bio provided by G. Schirmer
Schnittke completed his Concerto Grosso No. 1 in 1977. the work received its premiere
performance that same year on March 21, with the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra under
Eri Klas; the soloists for the occasion were violinists Gidon Kremer and Tatiana
Gridenko, and Yuri Smirnov on the two keyboard instruments. The style of this composition
seems to be one of pastiche. The composer has described the work as "a play
of three spheres, the Baroque, the Modern and the banal" (the German word meaning
the overly popular, with a tinge of the trite). These seemingly disparate elements
and styles emcompassing over two centuries are fused into one cohesive structure
of marvelously unified vision; this is all acheived with "extraordinary virtuaosity,
wit and flair" (New York Times). This unity is achieved mostly by the recurrence
of thematic motifs, and especially by the melodic and harmonic use of minor and major
seconds, along with those intervals' inversions and their expansion by octaves to
create minor and major ninths.
The preludio, marked Andante, begins as the piano - prepared in its upper register
by the insertion of pieces of wood between the strings - presents a curious theme
that might remind one of a very old jack-in-the-box whose crank will only turn slowly;
heard against a tolling C in the piano's lower - and "unprepared" - register,
this material will be heard once again towards the end of the composition. The main
theme, and indeed the main germinating cell of the entire work, is then introduced
by two solo violins, calling to each other with intervals of minor seconds, and usually
staying close to each other by the same intervallic distance. Finally, low strings
enter playing long heldharmonics, providing minimal support for the soloists. The
proceedings approach a tense climax, as the harpsichord recalls the initial theme
played by the prepared piano, with the soloists becoming increasingly agitated over
a long held chords of violas, cellos, and basses. At the height of tension, the full
orchestral strings take over momentarily; as the tension decreases, the two soloists
recall their "calling" theme, this time with the first violin playing minor
ninths against the second violin's major sevenths.
The Toccata, marked Allegro, follows without pause. The soloists plunge into a diatonic Baroque theme, played in strict canon. Soon the orchestral violins, divided into 12 parts, join the canon. When this soon reaches a state of frenzy, the lower strings interrupt to introduce a new section wherein the soloists alternate with the orchestra in short frenetic gestures. The basses, which until this point in this movement have been silent, interrupt with a measure of punctuated sevenths, whereupon the soloists introduce a new Vivaldian theme of repeated notes over a steady pedal-point harpsichord accompaniment, soon supported by canonic orchestral gestures. an atonal theme which retains the previous Baroque mood leads into an extended section in which the carefree soloists keep being interrupted by short, furious interjections from the orchesta until the end of the movement.
After only a miniscule rest for a breath, the orchestra begins the third movement, a funeral Recitativo marked Lento. the intervals of minor and major seconds dominate the discourse, recalling the prelude. Everything is tightly controlled until the soloists begin to produce larger intervals and wild glissandi runs; an uncontrollable climazx is reached, and with feverish pitch the 21 part orchestra slowly creeps to their highest register until reaching a piercing shriek.
After a short pause, the two soloists embark on a passionate Cadenza. Beginning with furious minor seconds, the two soon work up to a point of frenzy. The sudden appearance of a Purcellian motif leads directly into the next movement.
The Rondo, bearing an Agitato marking, begins with an arpeggiated figure in the harpsichord, over which the soloists introduce the main theme, a declamatory one of Vivaldian character, exchanged between the two in quasi-canonic fashion; the orchestra adds agitated accompaniment figures to create the first, extended episode of the Rondo. In the second episode, the harpsichord establishes a new theme in the form of a tango, against which the soloists play the main theme, imparting it with a more romantic flavor. A curious episodes ensues next, where as if in slow motion, the orchestra clumsily takes over the tango and the soloists correct them by playing it pizzicato, with the aid of the harpsichord. The orchestra, however, will not be quieted, and snatches the tango theme back, playing it with Mahlerian ardor. The next episode begins with repeated Stravinskian fortissimo chords over which the soloists struggle in vain to establish the theme again. Soon chaos erupts until the proceedings culminate with a short passage of pathos recalling the music of Richard Strauss. The soloists' final trill in the Straussian melody brings on a change of tempo to Andante, as the piano plays the broken toy motif heard at the beginning of the work, played now over a dense 21 part chord or minor seconds, which keeps modulating slowly upward. This is all punctuated by the insistent death knell low C of the piano.
Without any pause, the postludio is reached, completing a full cycle as the soloists play their minor seconds calling theme from the first movement, here performed in high harmonics over a sustained chord in the highest register of all the orchestral strings except for the basses; the deth knell is still being heard, alon gwith sporadic chords from the prepared octave of the piano, giving the impression of a machine that is finally breaking down. The orchestral first violins try to infuse life into the proceedings once again by recalling the canonic Baroque theme momentarily, but the death knell reasserts itself. The long sustained chord keeps decreasing in volume until the last breath is spent and the Concerto dies away.
If a person was not aware oif the fact that Mr. Schnittke often views the old forms with fond humor, s/he might think that the composer's implication is that the form and style of the Baroque Concerto Grosso is dead - and therefore an obsolte - one. This, however, is not really the case, as Schnittke has gone on to composer at least two other Concerto Grossos after this one.
-NOTES by Edgar Colon-Hernandez.
NOTES
on Piano Quartet
Schnittke's music is known for it powerful impact, attracting some, alienating others,
but rarely leaving the listener neutral. It is marked by intense expressiveness,
an unpredictable flow of ideas, an innate sense of drama, and a natural lyricism.
His abandonment of the reigning dogma of post-war Europe was an inspiration to a
whole generation that has sought freedom of action. Most of his music is characterized
by polystylistic construction: radically different compositional styles, drawn from
centuries of music history, coexist in the same composition. (It can be argued that
the extraordinary dramatic power of his music, and its appeal to audiences, made
polystylistic music something of a world-wide fad.) Schnittke based his Piano
Quartet upon a scherzo fragment from an incomplete quartet (1876) by Gustav Mahler.
Schnittke's piece is not, however, imitation Mahler, but an embodiment of the great
Austrian's aesthetic, using his thematic material. (The original finally appears
intact at the end of the Schnittke's piece.)
Philadelphia Inquirer article on his death
A good overview of the composer
Korea Times Article on the Composer
Remembering Schnittke
at Schirmer
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