Alfred Schnittke is, in many ways, like a Russian Charles Ives, incorporating ‘samples’ from across, and beyond, the canon into his works, creating heterogeneous compositions rich with wit, allusion and humour, They’re also frequently filled with sadness and dread, as in his harrowing Piano Quintet written after the death of his mother.
Aspects of that work, as led by the piano and lead violin, feed into his violin sonatas, all of which, including the unpublished-in-Schnittke’s-lifetime Violin Sonata of 1954-5, are presented here. Echoes of this early work, defined by a mournful opening and subsequent economical dialogue between the instruments, returns in his final sonata. Written in his 60s after a number of strokes, Schnittke here is spare in his language, suggesting more than revealing, yet packing great emotion into such subtle gestures. Sonatas 1 and 2, from 1964 and 1968 respectively, are more active and dynamic, dipping occasionally into tonality only to disrupt it with jagged serial outbursts. This wonderful collection is an excellent entry point into Schnittke’s endlessly fascinating musical world.
Joshua Meggitt
