Boosey & Hawkes

Alfred Schnittke: Between Two Worlds festival in London

(October 2009)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra presents its Schnittke festival, Between Two Worlds, directed by Vladimir Jurowski, between 15 November and 1 December. Through concerts, film screenings, opera and a study day, the festival explores the life and work of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-98), whose music weaves together an extraordinary melting pot of techniques and styles. A thoroughly individual voice, his influences include Bach and Mahler, Webern and Berg, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, and Russian sacred music.

Visit the LPO website for an audio introduction to the festival by Edward Seckerson and Vladimir Jurowski.

Concert highlights by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London include semi-staged excerpts from Schnittke’s opera The History of D. Johann Faustus (18 November), Symphony No.3 (25 November) and Cello Concerto No.2 with soloist Alexander Ivashkin (28 November). The Royal College of Music presents a programme including Symphony No.6 (15 November) and the Concerto for Choir sung by the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir (19 November). The weekend of 21 and 22 November brings an international Schnittke symposium at Deptford Town Hall and a day of chamber music and talks at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. Four films with Schnittke’s music will be screened and the festival ends with a chamber music programme at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with leading soloists Leonidas Kavakos, Antoine Tamestit, Gautier Capucon and Nikolai Lugansky (1 December).

Vladimir Jurowski writes in the festival brochure of how “for me Alfred Schnittke is one of the most interesting Russian composers of the late twentieth century. I have always thought that he occupied a very special place connecting the world of classicalEurope – from Bach, Haydn and Beethoven, through to Mahler, Berg and Schoenberg – and the Russian tradition, starting with medieval and church music, through composers such as Musssorsky and Tchaikovsky to Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Schostakovich."

“Schnittke was half German by birth, spending his early years in Vienna as the child of an occupying force, and later, when living and composing in Russia, he struggled because of his non-Russian pedigree (his other half was Jewish). It was a schizophrenic context in which to live and I think this was not just the case for him, but for his whole generation, growing up behind the Iron Curtain. The irony is that this lack of personal freedom led to an explosion of creativity – not just in Soviet Russia but in the whole of Eastern Europe.”

Festival events

15 November (7.30pm): Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra - Schnittke and Prokofiev
18 November (6.15pm): Schnittke string quartet
18 November (7.30pm):Haydn, Wagner, Schnittke
19 November (7.30pm): Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir
21 November (10.00am-6.00pm): International Symposium
22 November (10.00am-10.00pm): Study day
25 November (6.00pm): Bach, Safronov, Schnittke, Stravinsky
25 November (7.30pm): Webern, Lindberg, Berg, Schnittke
25 November: Barlines. Post-concert discussion
26 November (7.30pm): Film screening: Larisa; The Ascent
27 November (7.30pm): Film screnning: The Commissar
28 November (2.30pm): Film screening: The Agony
28 November (6.00pm): Pre-concert talk
28 November (7.30pm): Schnittke and Haydn
1 December (7.30pm): Trios by Schnittke and Tchaikovsky with Leonidas Kavakos

> Further information on Work: Historia von D. Johann Fausten

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