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Product Description
BBC Music Magazine
Schnittke's uniquely drawn visions of despair, irony, violence and nostalgia cannot help but exert a powerful spell over even the most sceptical of listeners. The uncompromising directness of expression often reminds one of his great predecessor Shostakovich whose influence is particularly tangible here in the shadowy waltz of the Piano Quintet and in the eerie trills that haunt sections of the String Trio.
The current catalogue already boasts fine authentic performances of both these works from Ludmilla Berlinsky and the Borodin Quartet in the Piano Quintet (Virgin) and the all-star line-up of Kremer, Bashmet and Rostropovich (EMI). But this new recording made during the 1999 Australian Festival of Chamber Music can claim an equal degree of authenticity in featuring the composer's widow Irina Schnittke as pianist in the Quintet and some of his closest collaborators such as violinist Mark Lubotsky and cellist Alexander Ivashkin. That said, I still much prefer the Borodin performance, which carries even more conviction and finds extra emotional dimensions in passages such as the gently undulating piano line in the concluding movement. In the String Trio, matters appear more evenly balanced, though EMI's recording has greater refinement and accommodates a wider textural and dynamic range. Still, it would be unduly churlish not to applaud Naxos's enterprise for including a number of rarely heard miniatures and undoubtedly helping to bring Schnittke's music to a much wider public.
Performance ****
Sound ****
© BBC Music Magazine 2001
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Continuous Tension,
By
This review is from: Schnittke: Chamber Music (Audio CD)
The main feature of this disc is the Piano Quintet. It's a quite challenging piece to listen to, yet ultimately sublime and rewarding music. A major interest of the disc is the fact that Alfred Schnittke's widow (Irina) appears, playing the piano. However, it soon becomes obvious that the balance of the ensemble is not right and on extended listening, this becomes quite annoying. The complexity of the different layers of music demand attention to detail and a seamless performance. Schnittkestates that one of the main features of his music is a feeling continuous tension, but you get that here, for all the wrong reasons. The recording quality is not great either, certainly not demonstration class. This is a real shame, as the music deserves better. The other pieces on the disc don't really get a chance to shine either. I would instead recommend the Keller Quartet's version of the Piano Quintet on ECM (coupled with Shostakovich String Quartet no.15) which is well recorded and very communicative.
2 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Like having poltergeist in the house,
By Aquinas "summa" (celestial heights, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Schnittke: Chamber Music (Audio CD)
This music has something of the night about it - the deep abyss of night!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Weeping Russian Music,
By Christopher Forbes "weirdears" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Schnittke: Chamber Music (Audio CD)
Up until I got this disc, I had little interest in the music of Schnittke, though I had heard him praised to the nines in the pages of Fanfare. I had heard one piece before that had struck me as forbiding and had not explored the composer in any more depth. My loss. This CD, at it's bargain price, induced me to try a little more Schnittke and I'm glad I did. This music is haunting and profound. The two major works on this disc are the Piano Quintet and the String Trio. Both are sustantial, dark works in a "weep for Russia" kind of style. Schnittke obviously shows influence of Shostakovitch, and through the older Russian, of Mahler, Bruckner, Brahms, Beethoven....you name it. But he also includes techniques pioneered in the 60s in Germany France and Poland. Of the two large pieces, the Quintet is nominally more interesting. The piece is a heartfelt response to the death of the composer's mother. The string writing is dense, with the piano often chiming in on one repeated note, like a bell toll. Several movements contain the ghost of an old waltz, twisted beyond recognition. The language careens between tonal, and violently atonal and even microtonal. However the conclusion of the piece, in unadulterated major, is a true apotheosis. It moved me to tears. The Trio is also a beautiful and very moving work. Set it a primarily dissonant serial language, windows open up in the work where romantic motives and lush triads ring through for a few seconds. What amazes about Schnittke's style in these works is how beautifully it all holds together. The works never feel like a pastiche. The tonal material is integrated into the overall framework in some mysterious way that I can't quite put my finger on. (Are there motivic connections? Is it something deeper?) As such, it seems more of a piece than much of the work of more quotational composers like Rochberg, fine as he is. The smaller works on the album are also effective. The duo for Violin and Piano shows Schnittke's mastery of string writing. The sound is so rich and full that you rarely are aware that there are only two instruments, yet, the players never sound taxed beyond their limits. The solo cello work is lovely and the Fugue is a fun piece of juvenilia. On the whole, a terrific program Performances seem excellent to me. Naxos has a genius for coaxing terrific performances out of relatively unknown musicians, at least unknown to the general public. This Australian group is no exception. I hope this is not the last disc they record. 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Follow Up Review,
By Giordano Bruno - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Schnittke: Chamber Music (Audio CD)
Yesterday I reviewed the Borodin String Quartet's performance of Schnittke's Piano Quintet, with Ludmilla Berlinsky at the keyboard. That CD, I'm sad to say, is available now only at inflated used prices. This performance of the Quintet, by the string ensemble of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music with Irina Schnittke on piano, is remarkably different from the Borodin version - a good deal harsher and fiercer, more angry than mournful - but very skillfully played. At the Naxos bargain price, I recommend it unconditionally. Hey, I'm pleased to have both CDs.The Piano Quintet was composed in the wake of Schnittke's mother's death; it is dedicated to her memory. This AFCM performance has, to my ears, a powerful concept of the work. The piano is on a path of beauty and resignation, while the strings snarl and mock any easy consolation, reminding us of the harsh joys of life. While the Borodin performance reminded me considerably of Shostakovich, this AFMC version brings the influence of Mahler on Schnittke more to the fore. Also performed on this CD are works for strings ranging from Schnittke's adolescent (1953) Fuga for solo violin to his Klingende Buchstaben for solo cello (1988). The last and longest work on the disk is a String Trio written in 1985 on commission to be performed in Vienna in commemoration of the anniversary of Alban Berg, whose music also influenced Schnittke. It's a more somber and convulsive work than the Piano Quintet, and one that ends with a haunting diminuendo into silence. Though recorded in Australia, this performance features several Russian musicians who knew and worked with Schnittke himself before his death in 1998. In particular, the violinist Mark Lubotsky had the privilage of premiering Schnittke's violin concertos. Alexander Ivashkin was the principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra during Schnittke's active years in Russia. Lubotsky and Ivashkin are the performers of the two solo fantasies recorded here, both of which inevitably remind me of Bach's solo string sonatas. The cello work, Klingende Buchstaben, asks the cellist to draw sounds from his instrument unlike any you've heard before; it's a subtle, somber study of sound and silence interspliced. On the whole, I prefer Schnittke's chamber music to his orchestral works, especially in recorded performances. These Russian fiddlers make him a more tormented soul than I have imagined him to be. Perhaps they're right, though his photos show a man with a gentle, forgiving smile. 11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
70 minutes of really sad, angry, beautiful music,
By vic spicer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Schnittke: Chamber Music (Audio CD)
if you've never heard schnittke, start here. if you've heard schnittke but didn't much enjoy his work (as i did) also start here.solo pieces for violin and cello are edgy and quite daring. the core of the CD is the 1976 piano quintet. this is possibly the most terrifying, sad and deeply disturbing chamber piece i've heard in ages. it's literally haunted- there's a little waltz that drifts around tracks 4 and 7 like a ghost-- truly chilling. this is also the 2nd recording of "stille music" on naxos; amazing, desolate emptiness. my only tiny complaint is that it's been very closely miked; you can hear the performers breathing in some places. why does so much great music come out of the townsville city chamber music festival? big praise for naxos for making this wonderful playing available at a bargain price. |
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