Toccata Records (a rather interesting label with a rather interesting agenda) has a new Schnittke record out called Discoveries. If you are a fan of all things awesome (or you would like to pretend to be to impress that special someone), give this a listen. You can hear some samples on Toccata website.
The output of Alfred Schnittke (1934–98) has been documented in recordings more thoroughly than that of any other Russian composer since Shostakovich. But there are a number of works which have not yet been released on CD, and four of the five here are not only first recordings; they also document Schnittke’s stylistic evolution over more than four decades of creative activity, moving from the relatively traditional Preludes, via the serialDialogue and the experimental Yellow Sound to the elliptical Variations, one of his last works, written in the teeth of enormous physical difficulty.
If I can’t find this at the store, should I throw a Schnittke fit?
That’s the least I would expect, Carl – how else do you let those uncultured bastards know they are to go out of business immediately?
Still digesting the recently released 9th, but one can’t have too much Schnittke. “Written in the teeth of enormous physical difficulty” – sounds promising.
Did you catch that BBC Composer of the Week some weeks ago? They had Ivashkin on and they talked about 9th (in addition to playing it, of course). And Nagasaki, they did Nagasaki!
I did yes. Ivashkin’s a nice guy, he runs an excellent department at Goldsmith’s on Russian music, where there’s Schnittke archive. If you’re ever in London, well worth checking out: http://www.gold.ac.uk/crm/newsandevents/
Looks nice – I see some music by Ustvolskaya there as well, although I don’t have much of her stuff, what I do have is amazing, I have a record with her and Gubaidulina.