Alfred Schnittke: Discoveries

Catalogue Number: TOCC0091
EAN: 5060113440914
Release Date: 8 March 2010
Duration: 78:15

Piano Preludes
Dialogue
Yellow Sound
Magdalina
Variations for string quartet

Drosostalitsa Moraiti, piano
Alexander Ivashkin, cello
Ensemble Pentaèdre de Montréal, ensemble
Jeremy Bell, conductor
Nelly Lee, soprano
Bolshoi Soloists’ Ensemble, ensemble
Alexander Lazarev, conductor
Liora Grodnikaite, mezzo soprano
Oleh Krysa, violin
Natalia Lomeiko, violin
Konstantin Boyarsky, viola

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 serial Dialogue and the experimental Yellow Sound to the elliptical Variations, one of his last works, written in the teeth of enormous physical difficulty.

Liner Notes (PDF)