Schnittke: Sonatas for Cello and Piano

Review: FonoForum
Review: MusicWebInternational

Alfred Schnittke

Cello Sonata No 1 (1978)
1. I. Largo
2. II. Presto
3. III. Largo

Suite in the Old Style (1972)
4. I. Pastorale
5. II. Ballet
6. III. Minuet
7. IV. Fugue
8. V. Pantomime

Cello Sonata No 2 (1994)
9. I. Senza tempo
10. II. Allegro
11. III. Largo
12. IV. Allegro
13. V. Lento

14. Musica Nostalgica (1992)

Alfred Schnittke ©
Schnittke’s relationship with the cello ran deep, induced by human bonds with performing cellists. The first of his cello sonatas, like his first concerto for the instrument, was written for the cellist Natalia Gutman in 1978. It has proved one of the composer’s most enduringly popular works but also marked the start of a new phase in his development as a composer in which outright quotation stopped and a new, subtler approach to musical and historical evocation began. From here, Schnittke would magnify or parody known musical styles, subverting overly-familiar techniques, provoking established devices to the point of mockery – underpinning the whole with formal contrapuntal rigour.

RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 2020

CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 878

EAN: 5709499878002