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Alfred Schnittke by Alexander Ivashkin

ISBN: 9780714831695 PUBLISHER: Phaidon Press Ltd FORMAT: Paperback PAGES: 240 PUBLICATION DATE: 25.09.1996 DIMENSIONS: 220mmX156mmX20mm 635grams

DESCRIPTION: This biography of the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (born in 1934) presents a portrait of a man whose musical input has been inextricably linked to the strictures of life in the Soviet Union. His music, as a reflection of Russian cultural and social traditions, as well as mentality, enjoys tremendous popularity in his own country, and increasingly on an international level. Sixtieth-birthday celebrations in 1994 left no doubt as to the stature of this prolific composer, who has suffered three strokes since 1985. Born in the Volga German republic of the USSR, Schnittke enjoyed early formative musical experiences in 1940s Vienna. For most of his adult life in Russia, however, his music was powerfully shaped by the frustrations of the Soviet period; he reacted strongly against the ideology of the era. After his controversially dissonant oratorio, "Nagasaki" (1958), he was attacked for writing music with "bourgeois" and "formalistic" tendancies. But despite and perhaps because of official disapproval, his music, particularly from the "First Symphony" (1969-1972) onwards, achieved immense popularity in Russia, and later abroad. Schnittke has also established himself as one of the country's foremost film music composers, working for the Mosfilm studios in the 1970s and 1980s. His symphonies lie arguably at the end of the Germanic symphonic tradition, but each represents a new concept of the genre for the 20th century. His works a

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