in Memoriam Albert Dderlein

Alfred Schnittke - Chamber Music: Prelude in memoriam Dmitri Shostakovich (1995) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-697} (Item #20)
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© 1995 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-697
Classical / Contemporary Classical / 20th Century

Alfred Schnittke’s work has won wide acceptance in recent years, particularly since political changes in the former Soviet Union. His early studies in Vienna were followed by formal training at the Moscow Conservatory, where he later taught. His musical language is eclectic, combining a number of styles, contemporary and traditional.

Paul Dessau famously collaborated with Berthold Brecht, and his In memoriam Berthold Brecht is a skilled and moving orchestral work. It, and a number of his other pieces (two symphonies, orchestral songs), are excellently performed by soprano Ksenija Lukic, mezzo Manuela Bress, with pianist Holger Groschopp in Les Voix for soprano, piano and orchestra, with Roger Epple leading the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin. The symphonies, dating from 1926 and 1934 (with a movement in memory of Bartók in Bulgarian rhythm added in 1962) are easy, if not fascinating, to listen to but not as memorable as the songs. Excellent sound.

Paul Turok @ Turok’s Choice

Arámbarri is best known as a conductor but this disc of his own compositions is an absolute peach. Following on from the Naxos Guridi disc, this confirms what a great and rich musical heritage the peoples of the Basque lands, straddling France and Spain, have to bring to us. Much of the music here reminds me more of the former than the latter, with the lighter Milhaud a particularly significant comparator for the folk-based suites. This whole disc is absolutely compulsive as far as this listener is concerned, a superbly …….. Highly recommended.

Neil Horner@musicweb-international.com

A highly versatile musician, Ulf Wallin has recorded a succession of discs for BIS, including music by Schoenberg, Schnittke, Janacek and Hindemith. Lately he has focussed on Romantic composers, resulting in an acclaimed recording of Schumann's complete works for violin and orchestra (Daily Telegraph: 'It's hard to imagine more sympathetic and insightful performances of these wonderful pieces'). Supported by the eminent Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Okko Kamu, Wallin now offers a programme spanning some 30 years of the long career of Max Bruch.

This set of two CDs holds the only recording Yehudi Menuhin made of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Sir Yehudi had nothing against the concerto and counted it among the first that he learned and played. Another recording of the concerto had been made with Sir Adrian Boult in 1959 by was never issued as Sir Yehudi was not pleased with the performance. It is a matter of conjecture as to why Sir Yehudi did not play the concerto in concert but this recording of the work is superb.