Shostakovich Edition

Alfred Schnittke - Gogol Suite & Labyrinths (1992) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-557} (Item #13)
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© 1992 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-557
Classical / Contemporary Classical / 20th Century

Schnittke's Gogol Suite (1976) is a collection of eight very short movements lasting between one and eight minutes. They're quirky and fun. Essentially, they're experiments in collage techniques and they take their sources from Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Schnittke's own temperament. (They will remind you of some of Shostakovich's writing for The Bolt and The Gadfly.) Labyrinths (1971) is a five-part ballet score for a ballet that never emerged. One can hardly see this as a ballet. Parts of it suggest Japanese No theatre, other parts stand on their own, nightmarish as they are. Unusual music.

~ The ultimate “Living Stereo” Collector’s Edition – A celebration of high-fidelity analogue recording ~ All 60 CDs newly remastered from the original 2- and 3-track master tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology ~ First ever release of 48 “Living Stereo” LPs on CD ~ Hardcover bound book with a new introduction by discographer Michael Gray, full discographical notes and content listing ~ All albums with facsimile LP sleeves and labels About “Living Stereo”: Early in the fall of 1958, the world of high-fidelity music reproduction changed forever.

Alfred Schnittke - Epilogue, Music for Cello & Piano (2007) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-1427} (Item #23)
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© 2007 BIS Records AB | BIS-CD-1427
Classical / Contemporary Classical / 20th Century

Alfred Schnittke’s use of the elegiac voice of the cello evokes Russian musical tradition and history. His works for the cello were to a large extent inspired by his friendship and close collaboration with the exceptional musicians Mstislav Rostropovich, Alexander Ivashkin and Natalia Gutman, to all of whom he dedicated works. Rostropovich has said about the composer: ‘As far as I am concerned, the most remarkable thing about Schnittke is his all-embracing, all-encompassing genius… he uses everything invented before him. Uses it as his palette, his colours. And it is all so organic: for example, diatonic music goes side by side with complex atonal polyphony.’

Befitting his legendary status, Jascha Heifetz-The Complete Album Collection, is the biggest box set ever created for a solo artist. With 103 CDs and 1 DVD, this limited edition collection features all of the violinist's recordings made by RCA Victor between 1917 and 1972,those made in England for His Master's Voice and distributed in the U.S. by RCA Red Seal, three LPs issued on Columbia Masterworks and one on Vox Cum Laude.

~ The ultimate “Living Stereo” Collector’s Edition – A celebration of high-fidelity analogue recording ~ All 60 CDs newly remastered from the original 2- and 3-track master tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology ~ First ever release of 48 “Living Stereo” LPs on CD ~ Hardcover bound book with a new introduction by discographer Michael Gray, full discographical notes and content listing ~ All albums with facsimile LP sleeves and labels About “Living Stereo”: Early in the fall of 1958, the world of high-fidelity music reproduction changed forever.

Alfred Schnittke - Faust Cantata and other works - Malmö Symphony Orchestra (1989) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-437} (Item #3)
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© 1989 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-437
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Choral / Orchestral

If you were ever faced with having to own one–and only one–Alfred Schnittke CD, this would be an excellent choice. A collection with Seid Nüchtern und Wachet (better known as the Faust Cantata) as its anchor, this set also features inspired performances of the large, pulsing Ritual as well as a pair of additional large orchestral works: (K)ein Sommernachtstaum and Passacaglia. These are sprawling things, each invoking styles by the seeming dozens in blasts of energy. Schnittke's is a music of embarrassing riches, a palette he intentionally overfills in a self-consciously postmodern pastiche that speaks to the twin 20th-century Russian traditions of (in music) rich orchestration and (in politics) political repression. So it is that the Faust Cantata can weave between c. 16th-century texts and a very familiar liturgical choral style and a gut-busting set of solos that drive the piece to a frenzy.

Alfred Schnittke - In Memoriam and Viola Concerto (1989) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-447} (Item #4)
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© 1989 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-447
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Orchestral

In Memoriam is the orchestral version of the Quintet with piano. It was G. Rozhdestvenski who asked Schnittke for an orchestration, the density of the expression being rich enough to support such a transfer (in this, I cannot help but think of the orchestrations of certain Shostakovich quartets by Barshai, the two composers sometimes having common traits). The piano part will be shared between winds and percussion. The strings would suffer little arrangement. The overall transcription remains literal, the instrumentation rich and colorful. This work, whose origin is the death of the composer's mother, is marked by great sadness and continuous darkness. The 5 movements are linked fairly quickly, the first and last are both moderato.

Alfred Schnittke - Symphony No.3 - Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Eri Klas (1990) {BIS Schnittke Edition, BIS-477} (Item #6)
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© 1990 Grammofon AB BIS | BIS-CD-477
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Symphony

Schnitke' s Third Symphony is possibly his most daring and ambitious musical project. The impressive orchestral mass' employment, the exploratory character of every one of its four movements and the overwhelming perspective that hovers it, make of this work hard to label it.