Alfred Schnittke - Concerto for Three; String Trio (Gidon Kremer; Yuri Bashmet; Mstislav Rostropovich)

Information

Composer: Alfred Schnittke

• (01) String Trio
• (03) Alban Berg - Canon (trans. Schnittke)
• (04) Concerto for Three
• (08) Minuet

Gidon Kremer, violin

Yuri Bashmet, viola

Mstislav Rostropovich, cello

Moscow Soloists

Date: 1996

Label: Warner Classics (EMI)

https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/schnittke-concerto-three-string-trio-minuet

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Review

It is hard work keeping up with Alfred Schnittke’s changes of style, or apparent changes of style, but this disc satisfyingly couples one of his most perplexing works with one of his richest and most absorbing. The String Trio is a fascinating piece, revealing more and more of itself on repeated hearings. It is, for example, in two movements, but seems on further acquaintance more and more like a single one, a most ingenious expansion or redefinition of sonata form. It was commissioned to commemorate Alban Berg’s centenary, and one of its recurring ideas is based on the rhythm (though not the notes) of Happy birthday to you. This is not, however, one of Schnittke’s jokes; nor is the apparent kinship of one of the themes that are set against it to Gershwin’s “It ain’t necessarily so”. There is much poignancy and anxiety in the piece, and some Shostakovich-like fury and despair, but the melody that remains at the end, rising eerily above the drama but certainly not exorcizing it, is a close relative of the Happy birthday idea in a nostalgically lyrical form. If the work is ‘about’ anything it may be how far genuine rather than false simplicity is accessible to a modern composer, especially one overtly celebrating one of modernism’s heroes. I hope I have not made it sound cerebral; it is a passionate, at times anguished piece, and a strangely moving one.

Another sort of simplicity is the puzzling element in the Concerto for Three. The soloists are not heard together until the very short fourth movement. Instead they have a movement apiece, and despite the presence in each of accompanying groups of strings, all three are monodies, gruffly restless for the cello, eloquently lyrical for the viola, still more intense for the violin. In what sense is the finale, a furious moto perpetuo for all the players, a reply or conclusion to all this? After a minute or so it is abruptly snuffed out by a single chord on the piano (its only appearance in the work). It is weirdly disconcerting, but the initially lyrically expressive, then tongue-in-cheek Minuet was designed by Schnittke to be played as an encore to the concerto and, perhaps, as its true or ‘alternative’ finale. And the Minuet sounds distinctly like an affectionate group portrait of Kremer, Bashmet and Rostropovich, thus insisting that you go back and try to solve the enigma again. All three of the dedicatees play with passionate urgency, and the recording is close but not airless. Berg’s soberly beautiful canon is amplified and coloured by Schnittke’s transcription, not transformed, but at times it rises to a distinctly Russian plangent expressiveness.

-- Michael Oliver, Gramophone

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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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Yuri Bashmet (born 24 January 1953 in Rostov-on-Don) is a Russian conductor, violinist, and violist. Bashmet studied viola at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky and Fyodor Druzhinin. He was the first violist to perform a solo recital in such halls as New York's Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Barbican in London, the Berlin Philharmonic, La Scala of Milan. Numerous modern composers have composed works especially for Yuri Bashmet or dedicated to him, including 50 viola concertos and other works. Bashmet plays a 1758 viola made by Milanese luthier Paolo Testore, which he purchased in 1972.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bashmet

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Mstislav Rostropovich (March 27, 1927 – April 27, 2007), was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered to be one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enlarged the cello repertoire more than any cellist before or since. He inspired and premiered over 100 pieces, forming long-standing friendships and artistic partnerships with composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Henri Dutilleux, Witold Lutosławski, Olivier Messiaen and Benjamin Britten.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Rostropovich

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