This is an intriguing release. Svetlana
Ponomarëva is a pianist whose devotion
to the music of Schnittke is, on the
evidence of this recording, in no doubt
whatsoever. The Sonata for Piano
No. 1, is Schnittke on a grand scale,
but using minimal forces – at least
when compared to his uncompromising
approach to orchestrating with often
massive or exotically colourful forces.
The first Lento movement begins
sparingly, making the listener lean
forward and pay attention through sparing,
attenuated, softly spoken musical argument.
6:30 into the movement a chorale is
introduced, which entices us into believing
we are actually in safer, Satie-esque
realms, but with Schnittke the uneasiness
and sense of danger is never far away.
Svetlana Ponomarëva has written personal
programme notes, and describes the Sonata
as a cross, with all the symbolic associations
this implies. In fact there would seem
be something of a symbolism fixation
going on here, with subtitles imposed
onto the works as they are presented
on the CD. This is not necessarily helpful,
but would appear to be an attempt to
relate the ‘difficult’ music on this
CD with the Bach and Liszt on Ponomarëva’s
previous recordings.
The Sonata is by no means an
easy work, but the music has enough
connections with 20th century
tradition to make intuitive analysis
relatively unproblematic. The second
Allegretto movement has a kind
of modal/serial tonality going on, with
plenty of disorientating atonality and
rhythmic and dynamic violence to justify
Ponomarëva referring to it as a ‘crucifixion.’
The third movement is another desolate
Lento, with a similar, sustained
and searching main section, which resolves
into a simple chorale, and climaxing
with a rising, cluster-like chordal
apotheosis. The fourth movement follows
straight on, re-asserting the rhythmic
drive and energy of the second. It’s
not beautiful, and you probably won’t
feel inclined to dance to it, but it
has an undeniably compelling quality
for which Ponomarëva is a skilled advocate.
The outer booklet photo has a charming
photo of a little boy who may or may
not be Andrei, Schnittke’s son - we
are not told in the notes - but is certainly
a reference to him as the dedicatee
of the Little Piano Pieces. Each
piece is a deceptively simple miniature,
working largely Mikrokosmos style
around the middle of the keyboard, but
with plenty of dissonant surprises and
being at times technically quite demanding.
Schnittke’s work is almost invariably
tinged with melancholy, and this is
true of these works as well, giving
them a poetic depth which is often missing
in other works intended for children.
The little laugh at the end of the last
piece is a nice touch, if a little twee.
The piano solo works on this disc are
dry, studio recordings, which are clear
and well defined. There should be a
Caveat Emptor however for the
Piano Concerto. This is an amateur
recording made by Pavel Okunev from
his seat in the audience, and is in
a thin, indistinct mono which has plenty
of distortion and what sounds like limiting
compression at peak levels, all of which
emphasises the boomy acoustic of the
hall and clouds any kind of detail.
This is a shame as, from what I can
make of it, this was a significant and
powerful performance. It was the last
concert conducted by Yuri Nikolaevsky,
a distinguished musician with his own
following, who was a champion of contemporary
music and who often worked with and
was a friend of Schnittke. The energy
and urgency of the performance belie
the elderly conductor’s frailty and
ill health, and it certainly sounds
as if he is getting 110% commitment
from the orchestra.
I have nothing against presenting an
historical document of this nature,
but feel that the CD label should at
least give a ‘Mono’ indication, so that
purchasers don’t feel let down when
they get the thing home and find their
ears being given a hard time. So many
advances in cheap portable live recording
devices have been made in the last few
years that I really wonder what was
used to make this one. I know for certain
I could have done a better job with
my box-of-matches sized minidisc recorder
bought over the internet for peanuts,
so there is really no excuse, even in
Omsk. If you are looking for Schnittke’s
Piano Concerto then look elsewhere.
I recommend the Chandos recording by
Igor Khudolei and the Russian State
Symphony Orchestra under Valeri Polyansky
if you can find it, or the Bis recording
under Lev Markiz.
A bit of a mixed bag then. If you are
looking for the substantial and by all
accounts rarely-recorded piano sonata
then I can give this recording a fair
recommendation, and if you are interested
in Yuri Nikolaevsky then this will make
an interesting souvenir of his final
concert. Audiophiles wanting a decent
recording of the Piano Concerto, you
have been warned.
Dominy Clements
Comment received
Dear Dominy Clements,
As the producer of the CD "Schnittke"
featuring pianist Svetlana Ponomarëva,
I wished to thank you for your time
and insightful June 29, 2006 review
on Musicweb. Since the general press
has relinquished its role of discovering
talents for a safer rubberstamping of
heavily promoted artists, initiatives
such as Musicweb's offer an exposure
opportunity to lesser known artists,
some of them true musicians.
"Intriguing release"? Well
we take this as a compliment since we
are interested in producing CDs as musical
objects reflecting our individuality:
the cover photograph was taken in march
1965 with a Foca One star camera equipped
with a 3.5/35 mm lens, by my father,
in our kitchen 75 rue Carnot in Nogent
sur Marne, a picturesque suburb of Paris
where I grew up playing Zorro. We did
not wish to clutter the notes but since
you asked…
There is however a few more important
points in your essay that warrant a
reply in order to precise the perspective
in which our work and your review coexist.
No there is no "symbolism fixation"
here. Perhaps the reviewer would have
benefited from reading the extensive
interviews the composer gave to his
friend and biographer, Prof. Alexander
Ivashkin -available in English but read
by Svetlana both in Russian and English-
where his own opinions on these subjects
-Evil, Good, Mankind, Spirituality to
name a few- emerged to be an integral
part of Schnittke's preoccupations.
Since work of music are not merely notes
but convey meaning, through the booklet
Svetlana is offering her own "key"
that unlocked these works as an insight
to an artist own process, not a musicologist
doctoral thesis. However given Schnittke's
own cues, Svetlana's reading cannot
be treated casually as it goes deeper
toward understanding an organic piece
of music. The same goes for the Concerto
for Piano and Strings where Orthodox
prayers references can be recognized
in the score.
Another major interest in Schnittke's
compositions -history of western music-
was reflected in his musical language
referred by many as polystylistic. Hence
showing thematic connections with the
Baroque and Romantic eras is not only
helpful but truthful to the composer's
own focus. It certainly goes beyond
Svetlana's own CDs. Still, in our opinion,
any listener should indeed be grateful
that a performer is interested in building
these kinds of bridges.
As the review of the Sonata drew to
a close the reviewer could have compared
this recording to the other two existing
recordings of this work -the Premier
recording by renowned pianist Boris
Berman and the recent issue by Ragna
Schirmer, reviewed
on Musicweb-. Then it would have been
apparent to the reviewer that Svetlana's
reading was setting apart her performance
from Berman's dry, cold, intellectual
rendition and also from Schirmer's text
altering sight reading exercise. Hence
the qualities generously attributed
to Svetlana's playing by the reviewer
would have logically been related to
the performer's own understanding of
the piece.
We thank you for a thoughtful description
of the Little Piano Pieces which only
omitted the fact that this was the first
time all eight had been faithfully recorded
on one support.
We are delighted you recognized that
this April 9, 2003 performance of the
Concerto for Piano and Strings was significant
and powerful, thus deserving exposure.
We would have all enjoyed the requested
professional crew to show up that evening
as expected but we too had to settle
with an amateur recording.
Having grown up with the Ace of Club
Decca recordings of my father, I too
value great sound. However, despite
noises of cracking orchestra chairs
as Sir Adrian Boult prepared for the
final epic of the 1812 overture, I still
enjoy this old LP more than the polished
bells and whistle digital hyper recording
of the same piece led by some uninspired
conductor. Hence, it was our decision
to share, as a bonus, this last performance
by Nikolaevsky and include it on this
CD.
Perhaps the reviewer could have also
mentioned to the readership that the
entire CD was dedicated to the memory
of Nikolaevsky and our personal homage
to Alfred Schnittke's music, not merely
another anonymous commercial release
by a megabucks factory. Let's face it,
following 40 minutes of perfectly studio
recorded music featuring a spiritual
reading of the major First Sonata, the
Premier recording of the entire Little
Piano Pieces suite, we figured that
for $15 bucks, the inclusion of a historical
energy packed performance despite its
lesser recording qualities would have
met a kinder response.
After all this was an invitation to
Music Directors to offer Svetlana a
chance to perform again this incredible
work and realize that she can deliver
the goods! As for your alternate "audiophile"
recommendations, none of them in my
opinion come close to Viktoria Postnikova's
Erato recording of the piece.
As a Post Scriptum to this letter,
I wish the reviewer had the chance to
listen to Irina Schnittke playing the
Second Piano Sonata -which we discovered
after our recording of the First was
made- as I believe the reviewer would
have sensed and appreciated the convergence
of the souls and thus offered more than
a fair recommendation to our effort.
Best regards,
Dr. Marc Villéger
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Svetlana Ponomarëva (piano) 
