Born: November 24, 1934; Engels, Russia
Died: August 3, 1998; Hamburg, Germany
Upon his emergence in the West in the early 1980s, Alfred Schnittke became one of the most talked-about, recorded, and influential composers of the last decades of the twentieth century. Schnittke was born in 1934 in the Soviet Union to German parents. After living for several years in Vienna, he returned to Moscow to attend the Conservatory from 1953-1958. He returned there to teach instrumentation from 1962 through 1972. Thereafter, splittingRead more his time between Moscow and Hamburg, he supported himself as a film composer. Schnittke composed nine symphonies, six concerti grossi, four violin concertos, two cello concertos, concertos for piano and a triple concerto for violin, viola and cello, four string quartets, ballet scores, choral and vocal works. His first opera, Life with an Idiot, was premiered in Amsterdam (April 1992). Two more operas, Gesualdo and Historia von D. Johann Fausten were unveiled in Vienna (May 1995) and Hamburg (June 1995) respectively. In 1985, Schnittke suffered a series of strokes, but nevertheless entered into the most creative period of his life. From 1990 until his death in 1998, he lived exclusively in Hamburg.
A Jewish-born Christian mystic, Schnittke had philosophical theories that permeated his music. According to his biographer Alexander Ivashkin, he believed a composer "should be a medium or a sensor remembering what he hears from somewhere else and whose mind acts as a translator only. Music comes from some sort of divine rather than human area." (Alfred Schnittke, Phaedon Press 1995). Read less
Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 520463
Release Date: 10/09/2020
Number of Discs: 8
Composer:
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Dmitri Shostakovich,
Alexander Borodin,
Vissarion Yakovlevich She
...
Performer:
Natalia Gutman,
Yuri Bashmet,
Ludmilla Berlinsky,
Elisabeth Leonskaja
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Borodin String Quartet,
Borodin String Quartet members
Label: Warner Classics
Catalog: 538517
Release Date: 08/07/2020
Number of Discs: 70
Composer:
Alban Berg,
Franz Joseph Haydn,
Franz Schubert,
Anton Webern
...
Performer:
Günter Pichler,
Klaus Maetzel,
Valentin Erben,
Hatto Beyerle
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Alban Berg String Quartet,
Germany Amadeus Ensemble,
Alban Berg String Quartet members
Recommendation
Label: Bis
Catalog: 2344
Release Date: 07/03/2020
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Brett Dean,
Sofia Gubaidulina,
Sergei Rachmaninov,
Johann Sebastian Bach
...
Performer:
Andrej Power,
Lawrence Power,
Christianne Stotjin,
Rick Stotijn
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble
Label: Swr Music
Catalog: 19100
Release Date: 06/12/2020
Number of Discs: 9
Composer:
Aaron Copland,
John Cage,
Morton Feldman,
Leonard Bernstein
...
Performer:
Kerstin Steube,
Rüdiger Linn,
Philip Niederberger,
Angelika [Soprano Vocal] Lenter
...
Conductor:
Marcus Creed
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Southwest German Radio Vocal Ensemble,
SWR Vocal Ensemble
Recommendation
Label: Globe
Catalog: 5272
Release Date: 05/10/2019
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Gershwin,
Alec Templeton,
Alfred Schnittke,
Erroll Garner
...
Performer:
Patrick Ayrton,
Thomas Gould
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Les Inventions
Label: Ars Produktion
Catalog: 38552
Release Date: 11/16/2018
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Arvo Pärt,
Antonio Vivaldi,
Alfred Schnittke
Performer:
Manrico Padovani,
Natasha Korsakova
Conductor:
Charles Olivieri-Munroe
Orchestra/Ensemble:
North Czech Philharmonic
Label: Orchid Classics
Catalog: 100080
Release Date: 03/02/2018
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Max Richter,
Isang Yun,
Alfred Schnittke,
Salvador Brotons
Performer:
Francisco Fullana,
David Fung
Conductor:
Carlos Izcaray
Orchestra/Ensemble:
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Label: Dux Records
Catalog: 1407
Release Date: 02/02/2018
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Alfred Schnittke
Performer:
Agnieszka Kuk,
Katarzyna Oles-Blacha,
Monika Korybalska,
Olga Maroszek
...
Conductor:
Bozena Stasiowska-Chrobak
Orchestra/Ensemble:
University of Rzeszow Music Faculty Choir,
Artur Malawski Philharmonic Instrumental Ensemble
Label: Dg Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 002582102
Release Date: 11/18/2016
Number of Discs: 22
Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Béla Bartók,
Alban Berg,
Ludwig van Beethoven
...
Performer:
Gidon Kremer,
Heinz Holliger,
Mischa Maisky,
Rainer Keuschnig
...
Conductor:
Gidon Kremer,
Pierre Boulez,
Sir Colin Davis,
Emil Tchakarov
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields,
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
...