Schnittke, Alfred
(1934-1998)
- Quartet no.2 (1981)
- Quartet no. 3 (1983)
Biographical Summary
The Russian composer Alfred Schnittke developed throughout his career a very original and personal style. His attachment to tradition never was a barrier to his modernism. His detractors, however see his music as a series of collages and quotations, but a closer look at his work reveals a great sense of imagination and compositional skills.
Quartet no. 3 (1983)
Olga Ranzenhofer and Jean Portugais
In his third quartet, Schnittke uses three quotations of very different styles and periods, each having in common the same musical material and pitchs. A cadential sequence from Orlando di Lasso's Stabat Mater (1532-1594), the theme of the Great Fugue op.133 by Beethoven (1770-1827) and Shostakovich's (1906-1975) musical signature are the basis for the whole quartet. Schnittke adds to those a closely link theme of his own. The first movement allows each theme a clear exposition and produces the first tranformations. As the quartet develops, the musical material is drawn away from its original source and finds a new life in modernity. The second movement turns the thematic material into a complex and agitated scherzo. The outcome of the quartet is heard in the finale where the music has developed into the modern and original musical language of Alfred Schnittke.
