The music on this
CD can be summed up in one word, Shostakovich. This would
be unfair however, as Schnittke, still a student at the Moscow
Conservatory on completing his Symphony (now known as Symphony
No.0), and following postgraduate courses a year later when
composing Nagasaki, clearly avoids mere pastiche or slavish
imitation. Schnittke believed in ‘ideas of the time’ which existed
in a kind of collective consciousness which could and should be
shared by composers. The Symphony was
only performed once during his lifetime, by the conservatory orchestra
and with Dmitri Shostakovich in the audience.
“There are long developments
and long climaxes in my music not because I am imitating Shostakovich,
but because I grew up in an atmosphere related to his music, and
saturated with his ideas.” There are of course other influences
in the Symphony, including some of the melodic style of
Nikolai Myaskowski, who had been a teacher of Schnittke’s orchestration
teacher Evgeny Golubev. This clear link to an elegant balance
in both instrumentation and form springs from this heritage, but
is also infused with other influences, one of the most apparent
being that of Carl Orff, whose Carmina Burana Schnittke
had heard in its first Soviet performance in this period. The
lively mind of the young composer absorbed and re-interpreted
the energies and effect of the music which impressed him most,
and there is no teacher or musician alive who would blame him
or any other student for so doing. Much like Shostakovich’s own
student first symphony, Schnittke’s is a brilliant work, a feast
of ideas both impressive and expressive, all rolling along on
a carpet of the richest and most effective orchestration. If you
couldn’t predict the road Schnittke’s work would ultimately follow
from this piece alone, you would certainly come away with the
sense that his career was safely assured.
In
the opinion of cellist and Schnittke expert Alexander Ivashkin,
who has written the liner notes to this release, the oratorio
Nagasaki (1958) remains “one of Schnittke’s most powerful
compositions. In spite of many obvious elements taken from Orff’s
style, Schnittke’s music speaks in its own language, which is
a highly imaginative and original one.” Nagasaki calls
for a very large orchestra as well as a choir and soloist and
is in fact one of the largest orchestral settings in all of
Schnittke’s music. On the recommendation of Shostakovich, the
work was broadcast in 1959 on Moscow World Service Radio, but
it had never received a public performance until November 2006,
when it formed the main event at the first Cape Town International
Summer Music Festival, performed by the musicians on this disc.
Again, the influence of Shostakovich is strong, but Schnittke’s
response to the subject made it “a very honest work” and one
in which the composer was “absolutely sincere.” The work is
highly dramatic, with the extended central movement On That
Fateful Day without choir easily being as pictorial and
expressively descriptive as those with. The finale, The Sun
of Peace was part of a re-write by Schnittke, is another
dramatic statement, but with a moving final apotheosis supported
by weighty pedal-tones from the mighty Cape Town City Hall organ.
Owain
Arwel Hughes will be known to BIS followers for his highly acclaimed
recordings of the orchestral music of Rachmaninov and Holmboe,
but the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra makes its début on BIS with
this release, and shows itself to be a highly skilled instrument.
The choir is good too, though there are some wobbly voices in
there which stand out a little too much at times. The recording
is up to the usual excellent BIS standard, with rich sonics
which embrace all of the detail of the orchestration without
any strange perspectives. Schnittke collectors will want this
release as a matter of course, and it provides valuable insights
into the composer’s early work. Fans of Shostakovich should
snap it up as well – they’re bound to love it!
Dominy Clements
Hanneli Rupert
(mezzo)
