Alfred Schnittke Heinrich Schiff Gidon Kremer - Kremer Plays Schnittke (9 tracks) +Album Reviews

I REQUIRE YOU TO LOVE THE MUSIC OF SCHNITTKE AS MUCH AS I DO

Daniel Johnson | 07/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're acquainted with Schnittke's string quartets or viola concerto, you might know what to expect from a disc like this one. When he was at his best - as he was, I feel, with the quartets and that concerto - he was darned close. And so he is, here - darned near perfect, for all of 75 minutes' worth of music. The Concerto Grosso No. 1 is performed persuasively and enjoyably, which must be quite difficult with a piece of music this eclectic both in style and emotional tenor. It veers - sometimes comically, sometimes almost frighteningly - between 18th-century decorousness, bawdy cabaret and abject expressionism. (Listening to it right now, I just spotted a quotation from Tchaikovsky hidden amidst a swarm of angry, screeching violins.) The switches that performer Yuri Smirnov is here required to make between the harpsichord and prepared piano are especially powerful - chilling, even. "Quasi una Sonata," an earlier work - appearing here in the composer's arrangement for violinist with chamber orchestra - is a little less shocking, but no less passionate and rigorous, and thoroughly compelling in its own right. The contrasts between thorny expressionism and tonal melody/harmony are perfectly calculated, very exciting. "Moz-Art a la Haydn," a "game with music," is a hoot. As the name might imply, basically tosses Mozart into the blender and uses the musical fragments for a series of wonderfully silly musical "games" for conductor and performers. It's been said that few of the great composers are ever genuinely funny; Schnittke demonstrates here that he can make you think and laugh at once. (Mozart, of course, is the most notable exception to that rule, and one imagines he would only enjoy the perverse liberties Schnittke has taken with his music.) I admit that the last piece on this disc, "A Paganini," is the least rewarding for me; it certainly loses something not to be able to actually see the performer wrestling with the, yes, Paganini-esque virtuosity the piece requires. However, it's still a very interesting listen, and the fact that the composer was able to wring 13 genuinely exciting minutes out of what is basically a series of cadenzas for solo violin is certainly a feat in itself. So, yeah. Buy this CD, all lovers of new music. Great pieces, great performances. If you don't already know Schnittke, and you're up for something new, definitely give this stuff a listen."

Great Introduction to Schnittke Courtesy of Kremer

John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 11/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a splendid introduction to those like myself who are unfamiliar with Schnittke's oeuvre. It's a fine mixture of chamber music and small orchestral pieces, highlighting the splendid playing of violinist Gidon Kremer and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Judging from this CD, Kremer surely must be regarded as one of Schnittke's most passionate advocates, judging from his electrifying, technically brilliant playing which has ample doses of lyricism. Without question, the most emotionally gripping work is the Concerto Grosso, which sounds like a post-modern take on Bach's or Vivaldi's music. The sound quality is splendid for an early Deutsche Grammophon recording."

Near-definitive performances of classic Schnittke, but this

Christopher Culver | 04/04/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The violinist Gidon Kremer was a close friend of the late Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, and we are fortunate that Deutsche Grammophon recorded his classic performances of some of Schnittke's popular early pieces. Although this particular disc is increasingly difficult, two of the pieces on it appeared on a reissue in the label's "Echo 20/21" series.

Alfred Schnittke achieved such fame for combining a modernist aesthetic with frequent references back to the Classical and Romantic repertoire. An early piece of this "polystylism" innovation was "Quasi una sonata" for violin and chamber orchestra (1968, chamber orchestra version 1987). Like other Soviet composers, in the '60s Schnittke dabbled with twelve-tone serialism. And like other Soviet composers, by the end of the decade he had tired of it. However, he was still uncomfortable composing without the guidelines of that technique, so he wrote a work that combines serialism with traditional tonalism. Just as a sonata puts two themes in oppositions, Schnittke decided to pit serialist elements against tonal ones. While the beginning of the 20-minute piece is vague and tentative, it quickly finds its footing and gives the listeners a moving musical drama.

The "Concerto grosso no. 1" for two violins, harpsichord, prepared piano, and string orchestra (1977) is performed here by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Heinrich Schiff with Kremer and Tatyana Gridenko on violin and Yuri Smirnov on both harpischord and prepared piano. By this time, Schnittke had developed his "polystylism" further, where the most modern techniques are combined with throwbacks to baroque and classical sounds in a way that, strangely, isn't incongruous. Among composers whose work Schnittke has absorbed here in parody or direct quotation are Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Webern, and Tchaikovsky. The work is even rounded out by a tango on the harpischord. A fun work, though I prefer the Soviet-era performance--also with Gridenko and Kremer--that is available both on a disc in the Moscow Studio Archives series and on a Collegno collection of Schnittke pieces.

"Moz-Art a la Haydn" (1977) is an installment in a series of "Moz-Art" works which all make use of thematic materials from various Mozart pieces. An eery beginning on tremolo strings gives way to a shifting and multi-layered stream of quotations. The Haydn part of the title comes in the "Farewell" symphony-like departure of some of the musicians, who walk off playing with a couple of others stay behind and play a rhythmic pattern. If you like Luciano Berio's "Sinfonia", you'll probably find this piece highly entertaining.

Having listened to Schnittke's music for several years now, I find that "Quasi una Sonata" is not the most immediately accessible of Schnittke's works, but ultimately one of the most substantial impressive. If you are a fan of the composer, you owe it to yourself to get this disc with it and some other fine early pieces where Kremer performs."

A DEFINITE MAYBE

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 11/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After a period as a composer of 12-note serial music Schnittke came to think that this musical technique was unable `to suggest anything comparable to the perspectives of tonal music', to quote the liner note accompanying this disc. I could probably have told him that myself, but I thought I ought to gain some idea of how Schnittke's new scheme worked out. He was deeply impressed, apparently, by Webern's perception of `the basic principle of sonata form as a contrast between Strict and Free', and consequently he tried to replicate this duality by alternating tonal with atonal in his own music. Without any preconceptions of what I was going to find, I thought it a safe bet that there would not be any better exponent of it than Gidon Kremer, one of the greatest and boldest violinists of his generation.

This expectation has certainly been fulfilled. Helped by good clear 1986 and 1990 recordings, Kremer puts his prodigious technique and enormous commitment at the service of the music, in the roles of soloist and conductor. The first piece here is a `concerto grosso', and the liner note tells us about its `polystylisticism', [I kid you not], but does not mention the essential feature of any concerto grosso, namely its opposition of a small `concertino' group of solo instruments against the full or `ripieno' band. Here Kremer is partnered by Tatiana Grindenko in another violin part, and there are also roles for a harpsichord and a `prepared' (sc messed-around) piano, although I would myself think of these instruments as `continuo' or background harmony. There is a wide range of effects among the six movements of this piece, I was pretty impressed with the way they were handled by everyone concerned, and I like to think that those more familiar than I am with the music might share this view.

The next item is a work for solo violin and orchestra called `Quasi una sonata'. Kremer conducts as well as doing the solo, and again there is a minor piano part. If you work at it, as the liner note does, you can apparently find Schnittke's replication of Webern's idea of sonata form here, but in honesty I think this is all hot air. Alternation of any two stylistic features is much like alternation of any other two features, if we want to be as theoretical as this. I would seriously question the credentials of any listener who would claim to hear any such abstraction in performance. More significant to me is the alternation between piano and violin at the start. This is splendidly dramatic and declamatory, and I would say that the players' sense of belief is likely to hold most listeners' attention throughout the 20-plus minutes that the piece lasts.

The other two items are rather lighter. One is archly entitled Moz-Art a la Haydn, and consists of some jocularity in playing around with themes by Mozart, starting in darkness if we were present at a live concert performance. The hilarity is consummated by having the players leave the platform one by one, in the manner of Haydn's `Farewell' symphony. The conductor in such a performance is further instructed to keep beating time in silence at the end, and for what it's worth the following interval between tracks on the disc faithfully reflects this. I confess that all this is not my own idea of an interesting musical or other kind of event, but whether intentionally or not the first few notes of Mozart's G minor symphony, in such a context, made me realise more than ever how marvellous that composition is. Lastly there is `A Paganini', a kind of capriccio for solo violin similar to Paganini's own efforts, consisting of an introduction and two cadenzas and played with stupendous despatch and virtuosity by Kremer.

5 stars is my measure of how well this music is performed here. The caption to this review reflects my opinion of the music, which is basically agnostic - I like it well enough, but whether it all amounts to much I'm not sure. For many years the devotees of the avant-garde controlled the conversation when it came to discussing classical music, but a reaction seems to have set in. It's the way of such reactions that they over-react, and the interesting thing about Schnittke is that he backtracked partly down the same route much earlier, although only partly. Whatever any of us think of the music, it is at least interesting from a historical standpoint, or even from a seat on the fence."

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