Alfred Schnittke on Music Theory Print

A Step

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

Set in 1959, during a devastating polio epidemic in Japan that leaves thousands of children dead or disabled, the film follows the story of Keiko, a grieving mother determined to save her younger son after losing her eldest. With the Salk vaccine used in Japan proving only 60% effective and in short supply, Keiko embarks on a daring journey to the Soviet Union to obtain a new vaccine developed by Dr. Gusev. This Soviet vaccine is not only 100% effective but also completely safe. Keiko manages to secure a dose for her son and purchase an additional thousand doses for her compatriots, but upon her return to Japan, the vaccine is confiscated at customs. Japanese law requires all imported medicines to undergo a lengthy two-year approval process. As Japanese mothers stage protests demanding immediate use of the Soviet vaccine, bureaucratic obstacles on both sides threaten to delay its distribution. Through Keiko’s relentless efforts and the collaboration of Dr. Gusev, the vaccine is finally delivered to Japan, saving millions of children’s lives.

Adventures of a Dentist

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

Assigned to a small town after completing his studies, young dentist Sergey Chesnokov (played by Andrey Myagkov) discovers an extraordinary talent: the ability to extract teeth painlessly. This gift is met with mixed reactions from the community, leading to a series of emotional and life-changing events in Chesnokov’s life. Word of the talented young dentist spreads rapidly, and unlike his colleagues, Chesnokov is overwhelmed with patients. While his success earns him fame, it also provokes jealousy among his peers. Veteran dentist Rubakhin decides to leave town, while Dr. Lastochkina (Vera Vasilyeva) resorts to scheming against Chesnokov, ultimately bringing a special commission to investigate him. When Chesnokov hesitates to perform a tooth extraction on a patient, Masha, in front of the commission, he refers her to a regional clinic. Although the commission approves his decision, it inadvertently disrupts Masha’s wedding plans. The incident causes Chesnokov to lose his unique ability to perform painless extractions. Disheartened, he abandons dentistry and takes up a teaching position. Initially regarded as a strict and meticulous instructor, Chesnokov gradually earns a reputation as a skilled educator. However, Lastochkina remains determined to discredit him and leads another commission to inspect his work at the dental technical school. During their visit, a student suffers from a toothache, providing Chesnokov with an opportunity to prove his teaching abilities. He assigns one of his students to perform the extraction, but when the attempt fails, the commission pressures Chesnokov to intervene. Chesnokov, who no longer practices dentistry, refuses, prompting criticism about his qualifications as an instructor. Suddenly, Chesnokov feels his gift returning and successfully performs the extraction. News of his restored talent spreads instantly, drawing a crowd to his office. When he prepares to treat another patient, one of his students requests permission to perform the extraction herself. To everyone’s amazement, she successfully removes the tooth “Chesnokov-style,” demonstrating that his knowledge has been passed on.

Agony (1981 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The storyline follows the final months of 1916 up to the murder of Rasputin; some events have been telescoped into this time though they actually happened earlier, during World War I. Rasputin’s effect on people around him is shown as almost hypnotic, and the film avoids taking a moral stance towards him—breaking not only with Soviet history but also with how he was regarded by people near the court at the time, some of whom regarded him as a debilitating figure who disgraced the monarchy and hampered the war effort, leading to the mounting defeats of the Imperial Russian Army.

Air Crew

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The first part of the film concentrates on the personal lives of the air crew, including their problems and relationships. For family reasons, one of the pilots has had to give up a promising career for a much less ambitious one. Despite this, his wife senses that he is not happy, which makes her a conflicted and angry spouse. Although both of them love their son, it is not enough to prevent them from divorcing. Subsequently, the pilot resumes his career piloting the large passenger planes he had been hankering after. One of his pilot colleagues does not believe in family at all – his flat is full of impressive self-constructed light effects and son et lumière equipment that he uses to impress the parade of women he has one-night stands with. The action-filled second half of the film sees the Tu-154 Aeroflot airplane landing in the fictional foreign town of Bidri, which appears to be located somewhere in a mountain region of Asia. Soon after, an earthquake destroys the city, and the damaged runway is no longer suitable for normal take-offs (another plane – a Boeing – is shown crashing in the attempt). Still, there is no alternative to escaping by air, because the airport will soon be buried by an approaching mudflow. The experienced senior officer decides to take advantage of the fact that the airport was built on a mountain, so the plane will be able to descend rather than ascend as soon as it leaves the runway. Despite the “not ready for flight” warning lighting up on the dashboard, the plane successfully takes off at the last moment. The captain had first insisted on going through a speedy but complete take-off protocol, involving a check of the aircraft in accordance with the prescribed rules – perhaps in order to calm the crew by having them perform their normal tasks. During its take-off run next to the mudflow, the plane receives some serious damage when a runway light gets jammed in the elevators and a crack appears near the tail section. The two aforementioned pilots volunteer to repair the plane’s tail and rudder. They come back inside the plane with severe injuries, and are covered with frost. This causes panic on board, but once again the captain manages to calm the situation, even asking one of the stewardesses to serve coffee as normal. During their landing in Moscow, the crew discovers that the brakes are functioning too poorly to stop the plane in the heavy rain. The captain orders his crew to turn on the thrust reversal equipment, an action that rips off the tail and sends it up in flames. However, the rest of the plane stays intact, and all the people on board safely escape. When he is examined ahead of his next medical certification, the superannuated captain is refused permission to fly because of some heart problems. He is greatly upset at this, and does not demonstrate the same coolness and self-control that he had exhibited when in charge of the plane in which he crash-landed. All three of the main protagonists (the captain and the other two pilots) are depicted as being capable of behaving much more maturely under the pressure of an emergency than in everyday life.

Autumn (1974 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

In mid-October, Ilya and Sasha, who pretend to be husband and wife, arrive from Leningrad to spend a week in a remote northern village. Ilya, a doctor, is unhappily married and childless, his marriage teetering on collapse. Sasha, three years younger, is nearly thirty and recently divorced after her husband’s refusal to have children led her to an abortion. Childhood friends who once considered marriage, they reconnect years later, realizing their feelings for each other have quietly endured. They spend the week fishing, talking, and sharing stories with their hosts, Edik and Dusya, who reveal their own marital struggles. Ilya faces a deep inner conflict, knowing he should tell his wife he’s leaving her but unable to bring himself to do so. One day, he even calls her from a nearby village but says nothing. Sasha, sensing his hesitation, asks him not to leave her, yet doubts he will stay. When the week ends, they return to the city as the season’s first snow falls. Sasha, unable to bear her solitude, visits her friend Margot, whose marriage, though unconventional, is a source of comfort. Restless, she returns to her room late at night to find Ilya waiting for her, a silent sign that he may have finally chosen to be with her.

Belorussian Station

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

In the summer of 1945, a group of former comrades-in-arms parted ways at Belorussky Station after World War II, having last gathered in 1946 to celebrate the birthday of their former commander, Valentin Matveev. Now, over twenty years later in 1970, they reunite in Moscow to bid farewell to Matveev, who has passed away. The tense atmosphere of the funeral, complicated by the widow’s emotional distress, leaves them unable to properly honor their friend’s memory. The four men—now leading very different lives as a factory director, chief accountant, journalist, and municipal repairman—find themselves wandering Moscow in search of a quiet place to reminisce. While contending with everyday responsibilities and interruptions, they recall the solidarity and sacrifices of their wartime bond, revealing layers of their characters and unshaken loyalty to their friendships. Their late commander’s memory serves as a moral compass throughout, a constant reminder of their shared past. The film culminates at the home of Raya, a former battalion nurse who initially doesn’t recognize them. Upon hearing of Matveev’s death, she gathers her strength to sing their cherished song, honoring the memory of the “unbreakable” 10th Airborne Battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front. The narrative poignantly contrasts the outlooks and values of these veterans with the younger generation, depicting a post-war world where no battle scenes are shown, and shots are only heard in the form of the farewell salute at the cemetery. Without a single scene of wartime action, Andrei Smirnov’s film is widely regarded as one of the most profound works about World War II, capturing the emotional depth and enduring significance of their wartime experiences.

Commissar (film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

During the Russian Civil War (1918–1922), a female commissar of the Red Army cavalry Klavdia Vavilova finds herself pregnant. Until her child is born, she is forced to stay with the family of a poor Jewish blacksmith named Yefim Magazannik, his wife, mother-in-law, and six children. At first, both the Magazannik family and “Madame Vavilova”, as they call her, are not enthusiastic about living under one roof, but soon they share their rationed food, make her civilian clothes, and help her with the delivery of her newborn son. Vavilova seemingly embraces motherhood, civilian life, and new friends. Meanwhile, the frontline advances closer to the town and the Jews expect a pogrom by the White Army as the Red Army retreats. Vavilova attempts to console them with a Communist dream: “One day people will work in peace and harmony”, but the dream is interrupted with a vision of the fate of the Jews in the coming world war. She rushes to the front to rejoin her army regiment, leaving her newborn behind.

Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In 1979, the year of the Concerto’s creation, Schnittke developed interests in yoga, Kabbalah, the I Ching, and anthroposophy. According to , Schnittke also continued his use of Christian motifs throughout his works from the 1970s, including the Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra. Initially, he contemplated subtitling it “Variations Not On a Theme.” Schnittke described the concerto in conversation with Alexander Ivashkin: I found the desired somnambulistic security in the approach to triteness in form and dynamics—and in the immediate avoidance of the same, … where everything—unable to create the balance between “sunshine” and “storm clouds”—shatters finally into a thousand pieces. The Coda consists of dream-like soft recollections of all that came before. Only at the end does a new uncertainty arise—maybe not without hope? Elsewhere, he explained that his twin intentions in the Concerto were to “avoid” and “approach banality in form and dynamics.” In the context of this work, banality did not imply connections to pop music, but to “a certain flow of monotonous rhythms … , passive succession of repeated chords,” and an overall feeling of “excess,” particularly in dramatically vital moments. Schnittke also described various points of the Concerto as sounding like “shadowy webs of polyphonic canons,” “false burst of Prokofievian energy,” “surrealistic shreds of sunrise from Orthodox church music,” and a “blues nightmare”. Schnittke composed the concerto for the pianist Vladimir Krainev, who was also its dedicatee. Krainev premiered the work in Leningrad on 10 December 1979 in a concert by the Philharmonic Society, with members of the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted by Alexander Dmitriev. It was published in 1982 by and 2009 by Sikorski. Each edition is based on different manuscript scores, resulting in minor differences. Both texts are considered canonical and are up to the performer to choose.

Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

In May 1976, Gidon Kremer and Tatiana Grindenko asked Schnittke to compose a work for them and the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra under the conductor Saulius Sondeckis to be performed several times in 1977 and recorded. It was Kremer who came up with the idea of a concerto grosso. The score was ready by the end of 1976, and the piece was premiered on 21 March 1977 under the baton of Estonian conductor Eri Klas, a mutual friend of both Kremer and Schnittke, together with the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra. After the premiere, Schnittke made several cuts in the score, and subsequent performances of the final version followed in Vilnius, Moscow, Riga, Tallinn and Budapest. Schnittke was at the time not allowed to travel outside the Eastern Bloc. Kremer was therefore to invite Schnittke to serve as a harpsichordist in the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra on its tour to Austria and Germany the same year. Schnittke was therefore able to attend the premiere of his piece in the West. During the Salzburg Festival in August 1977, Kremer and Grindenko recorded the piece for Eurodisc together with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky. When the LP recording was released in 1978 the Concerto Grosso was coupled with Sibelius’s Violin Concerto. In 1988, at the request of the Russian oboist Viacheslav Lupachev, Schnittke made a new version of the Concerto Grosso, with flute and oboe (alternatively two flutes) replacing the two violins. The first recording of this version was made in 2008 by flutist Sharon Bezaly and oboist Christopher Cowie together with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Owain Arwel Hughes for BIS.

Concerto Grosso No. 3 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition#

Schittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 3 was commissioned by the Rundfunk der DDR (East German Radio) in 1985 and on the occasion of five composers having notable anniversaries in a year ending with the number 85: Heinrich Schütz, who was born in 1585; Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Domenico Scarlatti, who were all born in 1685; and Alban Berg, who was born in 1885. This concerto was completed just before the onset of a series of strokes that affected him greatly for the rest of his creative life, marked by his Triple Concerto for violin, viola, cello (1994). This stroke took place exactly three months after the first performance of the preliminary version, which took place in Moscow on 20 April 1985, by the dedicatees Oleh Krysa and Tatiana Grindenko, with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Saulius Sondeckis. The final, revised version of this concerto, however, was first performed in East Berlin on 9 December 1985, by the Dresden Chamber Orchestra with conducting.

Dead Souls (miniseries)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Synopsis#

This is a small-screen rendering of Gogol’s epic poem critiquing the class system in 19th-century Russia by the same name. In this film, main character Chichikov travels through the countryside buying dead souls, or serfs who had deceased. By purchasing the deed to these “property,” Chichikov is able to improve his social standing at a discount as these individuals were still accounted for in property registers postmortem and the rights to ownership for deceased serfs was less than that of the living. Dead Souls is a critique and satire of middle class life in Imperial Russia.

Farewell (1983 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The village of Matyora, located on a small island of the same name, faces imminent flooding due to the construction of a hydroelectric dam. The villagers have long been informed of their relocation to a new settlement, but the elderly residents hold out, reluctant to leave their ancestral home. The task of overseeing the move is given to Pavel Pinigine, a longtime resident who finds the duty painful, while his supervisor, Vorontsov, sees the project as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good: the construction of a new hydroelectric dam and the towns that will develop around it. A team arrives on the island to dismantle the village, cutting down ancient trees, burning abandoned homes, and removing cemetery crosses to prepare the land for flooding. The destruction of their world horrifies the elders, especially Darya, Pavel’s mother, who is determined to preserve her parents’ graves. Her grandson initially helps with the relocation but eventually leaves, troubled by the impact of his actions. As rains fall and the flooding timeline is moved up, families reluctantly burn their own homes before departing, leaving behind only a few elderly women, an old man named Bogodul, and a boy, Kolya. On the eve of her departure, Darya tenderly cleans her home, decorates it with flowers, and watches it burn. The remaining villagers gather in the last standing shed as officials approach the mist-shrouded island at dawn, only to find it elusive in the fog, as if Matyora has already sunk. The final shot of the film shows Matyora’s ancient tree, lush and untouched, symbolizing the enduring spirit of the land despite the loss of the village.

Father Sergius (1978 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

Prince Stepan Kasatsky, an officer, ardent, proud young man is a big admirer of the king. Kasatsky is about to get married, but at the last moment learns from the bride that she was the mistress of the emperor. The prince is deeply disappointed in secular life, he takes a monastic vow and leaves the capital. Faith in God was supposed to save his soul, but passions and worldly temptations do not leave Kasatsky. Father Sergius (Kasatsky’s new name) leads the hermit’s way of life, strictly adhering to order and pacifying the flesh. Deciding that this is not enough - he decides to leave the monastery. He becomes a recluse and starts to live in a cave. Rumors about a former handsome officer who took tonsure, reach a group of people who are resting nearby the monk’s cave. A beautiful depraved woman tries to seduce him, and Father Sergius has to cut off his finger to avoid succumbing to her charms. More time passes, and he still does not manage to avoid sin. The feeble-minded daughter of a local merchant, who was led to the hermit for prayer therapy, seduces the monk. Father Sergius leaves the monastic cell, takes a knapsack and goes off to wander and beg.

Historia von D. Johann Fausten (opera)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History of creation#

Schnittke worked on this opera for twelve years (1983–94). The work was twice interrupted by his work on another opera Life with an Idiot (1990) and by his second stroke in 1991. His Faust Cantata (1983), famous for its tango sung through the microphone by the Devil with the mocking comments on the cruel death of Faust, became the third act of the opera. When premiered in 1995, the opera was performed in an abridged version; it has never been performed or recorded complete.

How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The beginning of the film contains some animations depicting Abram’s acquisition from his native land and eventually we find him in the courts of Paris. He gets himself in trouble when a French countess, whom he had had a romance with, bears a black child. Abram is challenged to a duel which is played out humorously in a sped up timeframe. He leaves Paris shortly thereafter to return to his home in St. Petersburg where his godfather, and czar of Russia Peter the Great enthusiastically awaits his return. Upon arriving Abram expresses he is done with love, as his lover denounces him as a savage and his son is never fated to know his father. In an attempt to help Abram, as well as tie him into the nobility of Russia, Peter announces Abram and Natasha Rtishcheva are to be wed, to the despair of the family and her current suitor. Abram, however, refuses the marriage on the grounds that he believes Natasha is in love with another. This angers the czar who in turn begins to alienate both Abram and Natasha’s family from his favor. The conundrum plays out in humorous and dramatic ways and eventually resolves in a pleasant and light-hearted manner.

Introduction to Life

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The Great Patriotic War is nearing the end. In a train two youths, Volodya (Boris Tokarev) and Valya (Natalia Bogunova) returning from evacuation to Leningrad cross paths for a few minutes. The plot carries them to their first random encounter that takes place in the summer of 1941 at a crowded refugee station. The period of growing adolescents, their introduction to adult life occurs in the arduous years of war. During the bombing of the evacuation train near the Mga station, dies Valya’s mother (Lyubov Sokolova) and her younger sister Lyusya (Lida Volkova). After long wanderings in orphanages, she and her survived sister Alyonka are found by their aunt and taken to her house. The fate of Volodya Jakubowski develops in a difficult way; mother (Nina Urgant) is divorced from his father (Yuri Volkov), who has long had another wife and son Oleg (Nikolai Burlyayev), a half-brother of Volodya. In evacuation the mother is trying to arrange her personal life, and gets close to the army captain (Stanislav Chekan). Not wanting to burden her, the teenager takes a job at a defensive aircraft factory and moves to a hostel. There he finds a good friend Romka (Valery Nosik). Learning that the woman is pregnant, the captain breaks up with Volodya’s mother. The unfavorable reputation of a “loose” woman, a baby girl born without a father, make her unable to rent decent accommodation. The teen has a difficult time coping with his mother’s unhappy personal life, and goes to Leningrad to his father, so that he would issue a due summons to the city from which the blockade was only recently lifted. Jakubowski Sr. initially refuses to help (facts about the mother’s infidelity are discovered) but matured Volodya is insistent and gets what he wants. The father objects to communication between Volodya and Oleg; however, the teenagers are introduced and become friends.

Little Tragedies (film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Pushkin’s works used#

Scene from Faust
Mozart and Salieri (play)
The Stone Guest (play)
A Feast in Time of Plague (play)
Egyptian Nights
Гости съезжались на дачу…
На углу маленькой площади…
Мы проводили вечер на даче…
Жил на свете рыцарь бедный…

Cast#

Matluba Alimova as Laura
Natalya Belokhvostikova as Donna Anna
Nikolai Burlyayev as Alber, young Baron
Natalya Danilova as Princess Volskaya
Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina as Ekaterina Pavlovna
Inna Gulaya as Queen of the Night
Ivars Kalniņš as Faust and Don Carlos (voiced by Sergei Malishevsky)
Leonid Kayurov as Alexey Ivanovich
Nikolai Kochegarov as Mephistopheles (voiced by Igor Yasulovich) and one of Laura’s guests
Mikhail Kokshenov as Ivan, servant
Leonid Kuravlyov as Leporello, servant of Don Juan
Ivan Lapikov as Priest
Avangard Leontiev as Solomon
Grigory Malikov (episode)
Radner Muratov (episode)
Svetlana Pereladova as Mary
Filipp Smoktunovsky as Duke (voiced by Igor Yasulovich)
Innokenty Smoktunovsky as Salieri and Old Baron
Georgy Taratorkin as Charsky
Aleksandr Trofimov as Chairman
Larisa Udovichenko as Alber’s fiance and Louise
Vladimir Vysotsky as Don Juan
Sergei Yursky as Improvisator
Valeri Zolotukhin as Mozart

Nagasaki (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Form#

It consists of five movements, on Soviet and Japanese lyrics:

Recordings#

Rupert Hanneli, mezzo-soprano. Cape Philharmonic – Owain Arwel Hughes. BIS, 2007.

Requiem of Reconciliation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sections of the work#

Prolog: Hör (by Luciano Berio, Italy) # Introitus and Kyrie (by Friedrich Cerha, Austria) # Dies irae (by Paul-Heinz Dittrich, Germany) # Judex ergo (by Marek Kopelent, Czech Republic) # Juste judex (by John Harbison, US) # Confutatis (by Arne Nordheim, Norway) # Interludium (by Bernard Rands, UK/US) # Offertorium (by Marc-André Dalbavie, France) # Sanctus (by Judith Weir, UK) # Agnus Dei (by Krzysztof Penderecki, Poland) # Communio I (by Wolfgang Rihm, Germany) # Communio II: Lux aeterna (by Alfred Schnittke, Russia, left incomplete due to illness and completed by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky) # Responsorium (by Joji Yuasa, Japan) # Epilog: Inscription on a Grave in Cornwall (by György Kurtág, Hungary)#

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The film takes place in the jungle of India. A forester Robert Lawson lives there, and his son Teddy walks, swims, and watches various animals with his boy John. Suddenly a thunderstorm begins and the boys are hiding near the shore. Before their eyes, the rapid current carries away animals, including the mongoose, which Teddy rushed to save.

Cast#

Igor Alekseyev as Teddy
Vera Altayskaya as Darzi the bird (voice)
Aleksey Batalov as Robert Lawson
Irina Kartashyova as Nagayna (voice)
Andrey Mironov as Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (mongoose, voice)
Yury Puzyryov as Nag (voice)
Margarita Terekhova as Margaret Lawson
as Doctor
Surendra Suri as Bernard Shibnell

Sport, Sport, Sport

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The film opens with the following subtitle: “Several stories take place in the stadium arena, in the stands, and beneath the bleachers. Real athletes, coaches, and fans will introduce you to the everyday life of sports and its legends. We advise you to approach the tales of the old masseur with caution.” The action unfolds across stadiums in Moscow, Philadelphia, Stockholm, and Mexico City, as well as in imagined arenas of the future and distant past. Combining documentary footage of real sporting events with narrative vignettes presented through pantomime and ballet, the filmmakers explore the evolution of sports and its intersection with politics, art, and ethics. The central narrative revolves around the anecdotes of Uncle Volodya, an old masseur, who shares his tales with young athletes training at a sports complex. According to him, he once trained the famous pre-World War I runner Jean Bouin. At a championship in London, he reportedly helped a Soviet heavyweight boxer lose 13 kilograms to qualify in the light heavyweight category. To uplift a young boxer who has just lost a match, Uncle Volodya recounts the legendary duel between merchant Kalashnikov and Kiribeevich from Russian folklore. He also speculates about the future of sports, envisioning a time when sports will be inseparably tied to art, with no winners or losers, and where massage will take center stage. Uncle Volodya’s stories are interspersed with archival footage and episodes from sports history, including: *Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, infuriating Adolf Hitler. *American runner Bob Soth narrowly surviving dehydration during a grueling 10,000-meter race in extreme heat at the 1959 USA-USSR athletics meet. *Soviet high jumper and world record-holder Valery Brumel’s inspiring recovery and return to competition following a severe accident.

Symphony No. 1 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The symphony is in four movements: The second movement opens with a faux-Baroque rondo which is soon usurped by a Mahlerian intervention on clarinet. This too is soon eclipsed by a sleazy percussive theme. There are also direct quotations from Tchaikovsky’s B-minor Piano Concerto, Johann Strauss Jr’s ‘Vienna Woods’ waltz, Chopin’s Second Piano Sonata amongst many others. Often the material collides in a manner similar to Charles Ives’ music, but as the critic Alex Ross notes, taken to a much greater extreme. Schnittke also includes an extended jazz improvisation sequence for violin and piano in the second movement. Ross regards it as surprising that the work was ever passed by the Soviet authorities, even though by the 1970s the regime had become less hardline. Schnittke himself noted: Somehow, Ross notes, the authorities saw this as an endorsement of the Soviet regime. He argues that in this piece: The symphony was premiered on 9 February 1974, in Gorky (Nizhny Novgorod). The Gorky Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. The work was published (at least for rental) in 1978. Rozhdestvensky recorded the work in 1987 with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra for Melodiya Records. A further recording with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Leif Segerstam was released in 1994 on BIS Records, and Rozhdestvensky re-recorded the work in 1988 with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, available on Chandos Records. Schnittke’s score was used by John Neumeier in his 1983 ballet Endstation Sehnsucht (A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the Tennessee Williams play of the same name). Given the resources required to perform the music, a tape recording was used instead of a live orchestra.

Symphony No. 2 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

The symphony is written in six movements, structured after the Ordinary of the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church,

Bibliography#

Ivashkin, Alexander, Alfred Schnittke (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1996). .
Ivashkin, Alexander, notes to Chandos 9519, Schnittke: Symphony No. 2, “St. Florian”; Marina Katsman, contralto; Yaroslav Zdorov, countertenor; Oleg Dorgov, tenor; Sergei Veprintsev, bass; Russian State Symphonic Capella and Russian State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Polyansky (Colchester: Chandos Records Ltd., 1997).
Sadie, Stanley (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Expanded Edition, 29 vols. London: Macmillan, 2001. .

Symphony No. 3 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The symphony is in four movements: an opening Moderato, followed by an Allegro and a relatively brief movement marked Allegro pesante, with the lengthy finale marked Adagio. At around 50 minutes, it is Schnittke’s third longest symphony, after the First and Second Symphonies. It shares an intensity similar to the First Symphony, but unlike that work has a more traditional form, and contains no direct quotations. Nonetheless, the influence of many composers hangs over the piece (Richard Taruskin called the opening of the work “Wagner’s Rheingold prelude, cubed and cubed again.” ), not merely stylistically but in Schnittke’s repeated use of composers’ initials. These include Bach, Handel, Mozart, Schoenberg, Stockhausen and Hans Werner Henze. Further use is made of transposed words later in the work: in the third movement the word “das Böse” (“the Evil”) appears as an eight-note tone row (D, A, E, A, B, E, E, E), with the B–A–C–H monogram dominating the final movement.

Symphony No. 4 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

The symphony is written in a single movement of 22 variations and is approximately 45 minutes in length. Ronald Weitzman writes, “The form of Schnittke’s Fourth Symphony is at once cross-shaped and spherical…. The composer draws musically on the three main strands of Christianity—Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant—while underlying this is a three-note semitone interval motif representing synagogue chant, thus symbolizing the Jewish source of Christianity.” A tenor and a countertenor also sing wordlessly at two points in the symphony. Words are saved for a finale in which all four types of church music are used contrapuntally as a four-part choir sings the Ave Maria.

Symphony No. 6 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The movements are as follows: The composition of the symphony coincided with Schnittke’s work on the orchestration of the first two acts of his opera Historia von D. Johann Fausten. Hence there are similarities between the instrumentation and thematic material of both. Following performances in the United States in 1994, Schnittke made changes to the score, reducing the number of silent bars and making minor alterations to the orchestration. The first movement opens with a built up chord which shatters into fragments from which themes on viola and then on trombones emerge, the latter stating a chorale-like theme reminiscent of Bruckner. The fragments gradually come together before collapsing again. Stabbing motifs intervene which become more agitated until the opening chord returns to bring the movement to a close. The second movement is effectively a scherzo. Beginning with echoes of the stabbing motif from the first movement it features prominent roles for the four trumpets and contains references to Shostakovich’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies. The Adagio is based on a 12-note tone row, first heard on the strings, whose harmony consists in permutations of itself. The bass clarinet, supported by two bassoons, picks out four notes from the tone row in a reference to the overture to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. As the movement comes to a conclusion one of the more sombre permutations of the tone row becomes prominent and the movement concludes in an atmosphere of pathos. The final movement continues on from the third without a break (i.e. attacca). As with other pieces by Schnittke (for instance the fourth violin concerto) the finale draws upon the previous three movements for much of its material. It begins with a persistent four note motif to which previous themes, less fragmented than previously, are joined suggesting the unity of the symphony as a whole. The stabbing motif from the second movement returns. It is joined by a more urgent version of the four note motif from the beginning of the finale, together driving the music towards a climax in which the themes again shatter into fragments from which the tolling of a bell emerges to end the symphony.

Symphony No. 7 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The movements are as follows: The playing time is approximately 23 minutes. The symphony opens with an extended (42 bars) violin solo. This is eventually joined by the other string instruments in an expansive, open, chorale-like structure which, nevertheless, maintains a mysterious and dissonant atmosphere throughout. Towards the end of the movement the solo violin theme reappears, this time for the first violins together. The theme is accompanied by a sustained chord from the second violins which continues through to the beginning of the second movement which is played without a break (i.e. attacca). In contrast to the string-focused first movement, the brief second movement (just two and a half minutes in the recording by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales) concentrates on woodwind and brass. The mood is very different from that of the first movement: blocks of cluster chords are interspersed with sharp interjections from the woodwind and brass, and long periods of silence. The final movement is nearly as long as the first two combined. The woodwind figurations from the second movement become increasingly significant before the music breaks down in a similar way to the music of the first movement and finale of the previous year’s sixth symphony. A melody in the horns, invoking Bruckner, suddenly breaks through in an attempt to give the movement some direction, but the music soon breaks down again, becoming stuttering and texturally thinner. Finally, the Bruckner-like horn theme returns on tuba, contrabassoon and double bass but this time in the guise of a funereal waltz and the symphony comes to a close.

Symphony No. 8 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

The movements are as follows: The playing time is approximately 35 minutes. The first movement begins with a simple 8-bar melody played on the horns. The movement is based on an ostinato of twenty-two transposed repetitions of this melody passed backwards and forwards between different groups of instruments. The first Allegro moderato acts as an intermezzo. Initially it seems to be a continuation of the ostinato from the first movement but fast crotchets, flourishes, dissonant chords and increasingly dense tone clusters intrude. The dominating movement of the symphony is the central Lento which takes up nearly half the length of the entire work. Its slow theme, initially heard on the strings, evokes the music of various other composers important to Schnittke, including Bruckner, Mahler, Wagner and Shostakovich. The second Allegro moderato commences with fanfares and, in contrast with the mood of much of the rest of the symphony, attempts at being sprightly but ultimately descends into echoes of Shostakovich-like bleakness. The final Lento (very short at just two minutes) is effectively a coda dedicated solely to the gradual building of a tone cluster of all of the notes of the C major scale spread across more than three octaves which gradually fades.

Symphony No. 9 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Music#

Schnittke employs a large orchestra, including triple woodwinds, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, strings, three percussionists and harpsichord. The symphony is in three movements, each faster than the one before it: The opening movement originally had no tempo marking: Raskatov added one following Irina Schnittke’s suggestion that the composer’s idea was to escalate from a slow movement at the beginning to a faster one in the middle and a very fast movement at the end.

The Ascent (1977 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), two Soviet partisans, Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) go to a Belarusian village in search of food. After taking a farm animal from the collaborationist headman (Sergei Yakovlev), they head back to their unit, but are spotted by a German patrol. After a protracted gunfight in the snow in which one of the Germans is killed, the two men get away, but Sotnikov is shot in the leg. Realizing he is about to be captured, he points a gun to his head to kill himself, but Rybak arrives just in time and takes him away. Rybak takes him to the nearest shelter, the home of Demchikha (Lyudmila Polyakova), the mother of three young children. However, they are discovered and captured. The two men and a sobbing Demchikha are taken to the German headquarters. Sotnikov is interrogated first by local collaborator Portnov (Anatoly Solonitsyn), a former Soviet club-house director and children’s choirmaster who became the local head of the Belarusian Auxiliary Police, loyal to the Germans. When Sotnikov refuses to answer Portnov’s questions, he is brutally tortured by members of the collaborationist police, but gives up no information. However, Rybak tells as much as he thinks the police already know, hoping to live so he can escape later. Portnov offers him the job of policeman. Afterwards, they are imprisoned in the same cellar for the night with the headman, now suspected of supporting the partisans, Basya Meyer, a young Jewish girl hidden by one of the village members, and Demchikha. Sotnikov agrees to speak with Portnov the next day and shoulder all responsibility, hopefully absolving the others. The next morning, all are led out of the cellar, with Sotnikov demanding to speak to Portnov, who brushes him off after an impassioned plea. Desperate, Rybak begs with Portnov to let him join the police, who allows it. Seeing this, Demchikha attempts to reveal who was hiding Basya but to no avail. Sotnikov and the others are led away and hanged. As he heads back to the camp with his new comrades, Rybak is vilified by the villagers. With his guilt and lack of courage to escape, he tries to hang himself in the outhouse with his belt, but fails. A fellow policeman calls for Rybak until Rybak opens the door. The policeman tells him that their commander wants him and leaves him alone in the courtyard. Rybak stares out the open door and begins to laugh and weep.

The Glass Harmonica (film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

The story begins with text stating: “Long ago a craftsman created a magical musical instrument, and called it: The Glass Harmonica. The sound of this instrument inspired high thoughts and fine actions. Once the craftsman came to a town whose citizens were in thrall… to a yellow devil”. The craftsman plays the instrument for the citizens in the town square, and magical colorful balls disperse from it. A man touches one, and it turns into a red rose in his hand. Suddenly, the “yellow devil” (the bowler-hatted ruler of the town) appears next to the craftsman and leads him away. The yellow devil smashes the glass harmonica into pieces, and the craftsman is never seen again. The man with the rose hides it in his hands, until a snitch pulls his hand away and points it out to the yellow devil. The yellow devil barks an order, and suddenly a pair of guards appears and grabs him. He drops the rose, which withers and dies. The man is not seen again, and the yellow devil rewards the snitch with a gold coin bearing his face. The yellow devil barks another order, and the townspeople rush to a clock tower and tear it apart. The only one who doesn’t follow the order is a young boy who picks up the dead rose, upon which it regains life and blooms. The film then follows a man and woman who stole the hour hand from the clock tower back to their house, which is full of other random objects. The man watches the other side of a wall through a large keyhole, where he sees the snitch in a room full of large chests. The snitch opens one to reveal they are full of gold coins, and he places the one the yellow devil gave him in it. He then showers himself in his coins, until he chokes on one. He spits it out and it goes through the keyhole into the man’s home. The coin rolls to the woman, and she hides it under her foot. The man tries to get it for himself, but the woman transforms into a hippopotamus and pushes him back. The man transforms into a rhinoceros and begins to charge at her when suddenly, a drum sounds from the town square and they rush towards it along with the rest of the townspeople. All the citizens have been transformed into various monsters. Giant statues of the yellow devil’s hand holding one of his coins are now in the town square. The monstrous townspeople flock to the statues, where they fight each other until they collapse. They start to rise when the boy who picked up the fallen rose earlier returns as a grown man, playing the glass harmonica. Those who hear its music are transformed from monsters to various renowned figures from throughout history. Soon, there is a large crowd of enlightened people following the glass harmonica. They begin to fly through the air, until they are about to reach the heavens, when suddenly the yellow devil appears and they fall back to the ground. He once again smashes the glass harmonica to pieces, and the man who was playing it disappears. The yellow devil shows one of his coins to the townspeople like before, but this time the enlightened townspeople do not react to it. Instead, someone picks a rose off the ground, which multiplies and are passed around the group. After this, the yellow devil fades away and disappears in a flash of light. The townspeople then return the parts of the clock tower they took and rebuild it.

The Master and Margarita (1994 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

Although the film was made in 1994 (or 1993), it was not released until April 4, 2011, and played only in Russia. Despite its large budget and a well-known cast, the producers decided not to release it because they found the director’s cut to be unacceptable. The soundtrack, recorded by Alfred Schnittke, was released on CD. When journalist Valeriy Kitshin of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta saw the film in a private screening at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2005, he tried to convince the producers to release it. However, Sergey Shilovsky, the grandson of Mikhail Bulgakov’s third wife Elena Sergeevna, claimed to have the copyright on Bulgakov’s literary inheritance, and asked for payment. Shilovsky eventually sold the rights to producer Scott Steindorff of Stone Village Productions, who commissioned Caroline Thompson to write the script. A bootleg low-quality version, 200 minutes long, was leaked on the internet in December 2006. On November 15, 2010, the Russian film distributor Luxor announced that they had bought the rights to the film. It was released on April 4, 2011. Luxor shortened the film to 123 minutes from the original director’s cut, which was 207 minutes long. The theatrical version was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 3, 2011.

The Seagull (1972 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

Beside a lake on his land, Sorin helps his nephew Treplev set up the first production of his play. The main actor is Nina, with whom Treplev is in love. The audience includes celebrities like Treplev’s mother, the actress Arkadina, and her lover Boris Trigorin. For Nina and Treplev the show is of major importance, as they both dream of a future in the theatre. However, the audience is distracted and Arkadina talks through it under her breath, accusing the play of being decadent. Feeling humiliated and overlooked, Treplev calls off the play and later drops a dead seagull at Nina’s feet, announcing “I will kill myself in the same way”. Later Trigorin seduces Nina and confesses to her “A subject is coming to me full of life… that of a short story: a woman lives beside a lake from her childhood… like you. She loves this lake like a seagull, like a seagull she is happy and free. But a man arrives, by chance, and causes her death, just as this seagull died.” Shortly afterwards they leave for town and Nina follows. Two years later, we return to the same setting - Treplev still lives there and is now a well-known writer. The audience learns that Nina’s love for Trigorin was unrequited and that her acting career was a disappointment.

The Story of Voyages

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

In a medieval fantasy kingdom, two orphans, May and his sister Martha, live in poverty. May has a unique ability to sense gold from a distance, but he feels ill whenever he is near gold. May and Martha never used the former’s ability to gain riches. One night, during Winter celebrations, a group of robbers kidnap May to exploit his magic ability. Martha sets out on a quest to find her brother. As she tries to pursue the robbers in the cold winter night, she passes out on the snow. Martha is picked up by travelling scientist, Orlando. Together they wait out the cold night in Orlando’s traveling wagon. During the night, wolves ate Orlando’s horse and the two are forced to continue traveling on foot. Martha tries to convince Orlando to help her rescue May, but Orlando is not passionate about the quest. Orlando has dozens of scientific ideas that he wants to turn into reality and he believes that traveling with Martha sets him back. He reluctantly agrees to go with Martha. Together, the two wander through various fantastic countries. They first travel across a swamp to a mountain where a dragon sleeps. That place was believed to be dangerous because not a single knight who went there has returned. Orlando is cautious at first due to the danger, but he agrees to go on Martha’s behalf. Once they reach the mountain, they discover a paradise village built on the dragon’s back. Apparently, every single knight was alive and they stayed in the village because it was a paradise. In the village it is warm, there is plenty of food available, and nobody has to work. The knights were lazing around all day long and they did not want to share the secret paradise with anyone else. Orlando is tempted into staying at the village and that causes a dispute between him and Martha. Soon, Martha discovers the robbers and her brother near the village. Before she and Orlando can rescue May, the dragon wakes up and destroys the entire paradise village. Martha and Orlando survive the destruction, but they are once again separated from the robbers and May. Martha and Orlando continue their journey while still quarreling over their dispute. They reach another city and they stop at a tavern for food. Orlando dances with a local woman and that gets him drawn into an argument because he is an outsider. The argument ends with Orlando being restrained and beaten by several local men. Orlando retaliates by fighting back and a brawl ensues. Martha and Orlando escape from the tavern, but outside they are caught and arrested by the city’s guards. Orlando is put to a trial by an inquisition and during the trial Orlando delivers a passionate speech about his scientific discoveries and philosophies. Regardless, Orlando is founded guilty by the inquisition and he is sentenced to execution by being immuremented in a tower. Orlando remains magnanimous as he is being sealed inside of the tower. But, Martha does not want to leave Orlando behind and she jumps into the tower shortly before it is sealed. Orlando reprimands Martha for her reckless action as they both are doomed to face a slow agonizing death. Orlando loses his spirit and he hopelessly lays in the dark. Meanwhile, Martha remains optimistic because she believes that Orlando can think of something. Meanwhile, Martha’s brother May is being carried around by the robbers. At first, May is subjected to exploitation and abuse, especially after his abilities fail to find a sufficient amount of gold. However, as time passes, the robber leader Gorgon starts to develop a caring and a protective personality towards May. Eventually, the robbers discover a chest full of gold using May’s ability. The robbers continue their quest of finding more gold. Martha and Orlando find a way to the top of the tower, but there is no possibility of escape. Just as Orlando suggests they jump off to end their misery, he gets an inspiration to build a flying apparatus. He first draws a sketch of the apparatus before building it. In a climatic moment, Martha and Orlando leap off the tower and they fly away from captivity. They crash-land in a city ravaged by the Black Death, which is personified as a witch in black. After exploring the gloomy city, the two travelers make camp in the forest. They are approached by two orphaned children and Martha takes care of them. As they sit around a campfire, Martha confesses to Orlando that she loves him. In response, Orlando admits that his life would have been much more mundane had he not met Martha. Just as they dream of the future, they are approached by the Black Death Witch who wants to claim their lives. Orlando uses a torch from the campfire to fend off against the Witch. He succeeds in defeating the Witch by setting her on fire, but he gets infected by the plague and he dies soon after. His body is cremated by Plague doctors. With the Witch defeated, the city is saved from the plague. As the locals celebrate, Martha helps the two orphans to reunite with their grandmother before continuing to search for her brother. Ten years later, Martha reaches a land where a cruel prince was reigning. After being chased by the prince’s hunting party, Martha realizes that the prince is her brother May. In the past ten years, May stopped feeling ill when he was near gold and he managed to develop an ability of attracting gold to himself using telekinetic powers. May’s ability made Gorgon rich, but Gorgon admitted that gold no longer brought him joy. Instead, Gorgon found joy by raising May as his own son and making him his heir. After a reunion celebration, Gorgon understood that Martha is a threat to his ambitions. He tries to convince Martha to leave by offering her gold. But, when she refuses Gorgon incarcerated her in a tower. Gorgon and Brutus, conspire a plan to kill Martha by sabotaging a staged escape plan. Before that takes place, May discovers that his sister is incarcerated. He sees that she is suffering and he becomes disappointed with himself and with Gorgon. In a rage of self-hatred, May attracts all of the gold in the castle to himself. By doing so, he destroys the castle and kills all of the robbers. Martha and May emerge from the castle’s ruins. May discovers that he lost his gold-sensing ability. Martha is disappointed and she expresses regret for finding her brother. However, she soon realizes that the spirit of Orlando has been reborn in May once he makes a remark about ‘flying home.’ Martha encourages May to draw a flying apparatus. Even though May never knew how to draw, he walks up to a wall and he starts sketching a flying apparatus that looks similar to the one that Orlando once drew.

Viola Concerto (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure and style#

The concerto is scored for solo viola and an orchestra of: 3 flutes (no. 2 doubling piccolo, no. 3 doubling alto flute), 3 oboes (no. 3 doubling cor anglais), 3 clarinets in B (no. 2 doubling clarinet in E, no. 3 doubling bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (no. 3 doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (6 players), harp, celesta, harpsichord, piano, and 8 each of violas, cellos and double basses. Note that violins are absent. The movements are as follows: Depending on the precise tempi chosen a performance typically lasts between 35 and 40 minutes. Almost the entire structure of the concerto is based on a 6 note motif derived from the first 6 letters of the German spelling of Yuri Bashmet’s surname (Baschmet). In German and French music letter notation the note names B–A–Es–C–H–Mi correspond to the notes B–A– E–C–B()–E() in the more familiar Anglo-Saxon notation. Each movement is longer than its predecessor, with the final movement being almost as long as the previous two together. The first commences with a declamation from the soloist, echoed by the orchestra, in which the “Bashmet motif” is first heard. This is followed by an extended version of the declamation culminating in a fortissimo chord from the orchestra. The movement closes with a delicate cadence. The second movement begins with frenetic arpeggios, including multiple double stopping, from the viola. During the movement Schnittke interweaves ideas from the first movement with an array of other musical references - dance-band music, film music, Soviet military marches - typical of Schnittke’s brand of polystylism. Further iterations of the opening music lead to the viola’s cadenza and, finally, a march-like theme which slowly fades out. The final movement returns to the slow tempo of the first. Its mood has been described as “bleak” and “funereal”, the music formed of disjointed fragments from the first two movements. Schnittke himself commented on the music’s structure as follows:

Violin Concerto No. 4 (Schnittke)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure and style#

The concerto is scored for solo violin and an orchestra consisting of 3 flutes (3rd doubling alto flute), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets in B (3rd doubling bass clarinet in B), alto saxophone in E, 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns in F, 4 trumpets in B, 4 trombones, contrabass tuba, percussion (6 players), harp, celesta, harpsichord, prepared piano, and strings. The movements are as follows: A performance typically lasts approximately 35 minutes. The concerto focuses its musical material on a monogram derived from the name of its dedicatee. : \clef treble \key c \major \tempo “Andante (opening theme - bars 1 to 5)” \time 4/4 g'2 c2 d2 e'2 \time 3/4 r1 \time 4/4 g'2 d2 e2 e'2 \addlyrics G C D E G D E E Thus, in the opening movement, the first four notes (bars 1 and 2) on bells and prepared piano spell out, in Anglo-Saxon and Tonic sol-fa music letter notation the note names G – C (Do in Tonic sol-fa) – D (Re in Tonic sol-fa) – E, corresponding toGiDonKRemEr. The next four notes (bars 4 and 5), on the same instruments, spell out Gidon Kremer in a different way, using Anglo-Saxon letter notation only, thus G - D - E - E (an octave lower) forGiDonKrEmEr. These eight notes provide the principle theme (“Kremer theme”) for the first movement and re-appear elsewhere in the concerto, particularly the final movement. Schnittke uses a similar technique to include a musical monogram of his own name: A – F – E – D – S – C – H – E (in German notation S corresponds to E and H corresponds to B) in the music of this movement. The first movement is largely based on alternations between the Kremer theme and another warmer theme, introduced immediately after the Kremer theme’s first appearance by woodwinds and horn, played initially in A major before shifting towards a darker C minor. The second movement, marked Vivo (lively), contrasts strongly with the first. It begins with the solo violin playing a moto perpetuo theme and then taking up a more lyrical melody. The soloist’s role gradually thins out until Schnittke instructs them to perform a cadenza visuale, a “visual cadenza” in which they mime playing a cadenza but without actually producing any sound. The third movement begins in almost Baroque territory with the solo violin being accompanied by a chamber music group including harpsichord. This is soon and repeatedly interrupted by strident repetitions of themes from movements one and two. The finale consists of recollections of music from the previous three movements, as if summarising and commenting on what has preceded. Schnittke also weaves in musical monograms of fellow composers Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Arvo Pärt. At the climax of the movement there is a second cadenza visuale before the concerto closes quietly with a repetition of the Kremer theme.

You and Me (1971 film)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Plot#

Having come close to a groundbreaking discovery in neurosurgery, the protagonist, Pyotr, decides to abandon his scientific work, his colleague in the experiment, and his best friend, leaving to work as a doctor at an embassy in Sweden. Several years later, dissatisfaction with his job drives him back to Moscow. However, he finds no warm welcome—he is not accepted back into the scientific community, and his best friend refuses to help him despite pleas of Pyotr’s wife. Following this rejection, he moves to Siberia. Through various encounters with different people, he gains the courage to overcome his struggles and ultimately returns to his once-abandoned scientific work.

Alfred Schnittke on Music Theory Print

A Step

Plot#

Adventures of a Dentist

Plot#

Agony (1981 film)

Plot#

Air Crew

Plot#

Autumn (1974 film)

Plot#

Belorussian Station

Plot#

Commissar (film)

Plot#

Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra

History#

Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Schnittke)

History#

Concerto Grosso No. 3 (Schnittke)

Composition#

Dead Souls (miniseries)

Synopsis#

Farewell (1983 film)

Plot#

Father Sergius (1978 film)

Plot#

Historia von D. Johann Fausten (opera)

History of creation#

How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor

Plot#

Introduction to Life

Plot#

Little Tragedies (film)

Pushkin’s works used#

Cast#

Nagasaki (Schnittke)

Form#

Recordings#

See also#

Requiem of Reconciliation

Sections of the work#

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (film)

Plot#

Cast#

Sport, Sport, Sport

Plot#

Symphony No. 1 (Schnittke)

Music#

Symphony No. 2 (Schnittke)

Music#

Bibliography#

Symphony No. 3 (Schnittke)

Movements#

Symphony No. 4 (Schnittke)

Structure#

Symphony No. 6 (Schnittke)

Movements#

Symphony No. 7 (Schnittke)

Movements#

Symphony No. 8 (Schnittke)

Movements#

Symphony No. 9 (Schnittke)

Music#

The Ascent (1977 film)

Plot#

The Glass Harmonica (film)

Plot#

The Master and Margarita (1994 film)

Background#

The Seagull (1972 film)

Plot#

The Story of Voyages

Plot#

Viola Concerto (Schnittke)

Structure and style#

Violin Concerto No. 4 (Schnittke)

Structure and style#

You and Me (1971 film)

Plot#