A belated thank you for your support, Antonio.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Alfred Schnittke - Violin Concertos (Gidon Kremer)


Information

Composer: Alfred Schnittke

CD1:
  • (01-03) Concerto No. 1 for violin & orchestra
  • (04) Concerto No. 2 for violin & chamber orchestra
CD2:
  • (01-03) Concerto No. 3 for violin & chamber orchestra
  • (04-07) Concerto No. 4 for violin & orchestra

Gidon Kremer, violin
NDR Symphony Orchestra (No. 1)
Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Nos. 2 & 3)
Philharmonia Orchestra (No. 4)
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor

Date: 1993-1999
Compilation: 2000
Label: Teldec


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Review

Schnittke's Second Violin Concerto opens with the kind of jagged, convulsive, Webern-crossed-with-Shostakovich cadenza that is a trademark of his string writing. On his Melodiya/Eurodisc LP recording (not reissued on CD), the concerto's dedicatee Mark Lubotsky made it impressive enough but Gidon Kremer is even more precise and even more intense almost as though the instrument were strung with barbed wire.

Does the rest of the concerto live up to this opening? And what is all the curious writing for the solo double bass supposed to mean? Jurgen Kochel's accompanying note reveals all or at least something startling. It turns out that the structure is based on Christ's life, death and resurrection, and that the double bass is a Judas figure an anti-soloist (shades of Liszt's Faust/Mephistopheles perhaps). That may or may not affect one's reactions to the music. Do Berg's Violin Concerto and Chamber Concerto, for instance, stand by their hidden programmes or by the notes composed as a result of them? Certainly the notes Schnittke composed have never drawn me back to his Second Violin Concerto in the way I have felt drawn back to, say, his Fourth.

And the Third Concerto is certainly not a piece to be trifled with. Its unusual scoring for 13 winds and four strings is partly modelled on Berg's Chamber Concerto, and at one stage the composer was toying with another Biblical subtitle, The Song of Songs. But the musical invention seems to me more self-sufficient, more concentrated and more finished than that of the Second Concerto. The violin's trills convey the alarm of a whole psychic world tottering, and all three movements have their nerve-endings exposed. The Mahlerian chorale of the finale carries bittersweetness to the nth degree.
Throughout the disc Kremer's personality is a compelling presence, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe are terrific in their support. Eschenbach's contribution is perhaps less overt but certainly no less vital, and in the two contrasted miniatures (in many ways the outstanding compositions in the programme) his discretion is the ideal foil for his charismatic partner. Recording quality is of the very finest.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.classical-music.com/review/schnittke-30
https://www.amazon.com/Schnittke-Complete-Violin-Concertos-Nos/dp/B00004Z44N

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Alfred Schnittke (November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Soviet and German composer. Schnittke completed his graduate work in composition at the Moscow Conservatory in 1961 and taught there from 1962 to 1972 Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. Later, he created a new style which has been called "polystylism", where he juxtaposed and combined music of various styles past and present. As his health deteriorated, Schnittke's music started to abandon much of the extroversion of his polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Schnittke

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Gidon Kremer (born 27 February 1947 in Riga) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. He studied with Voldemar Sturestep at the Riga School of Music, and from 1965 with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. Kremer won first prize at the Paganini Competition and International Tchaikovsky Competition, among others. Composers such as Gubaidulina, Nono and Schnittke have dedicated works to him. He has a large discography on the Deutsche Grammophon label, for which he has recorded since 1978. He has also recorded for Philips, EMI, Decca, ECM and Nonesuch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidon_Kremer
http://www.gidonkremer.net

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FLAC, tracks
Links in comment
Enjoy!

8 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I really appreciate your inputs. Many thanks. I want to know if you have the next CD:

    Alfred Schnittke - Music for the Movies
    Frank Strobel, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
    Label: cpo

    ReplyDelete
  3. Could you replace the lost link again?
    Grateful in advance for your work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. This links are dead :( Could you please reload them? Thank you very much.

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  6. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Skip Ad' (or 'Get link').
    If you are asked to download or install anything, IGNORE, only download from file hosting site (mega.nz).
    If MEGA shows 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded' message, try to create a free account.

    http://stoodsef.com/3byH
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