Search - Angelina Gadeliya :: Schnittke & His Ghosts

Alfred Schnittke, the outstanding maverick of Soviet music in the late 20th century, was a man haunted by the ghosts of his predecessors classical, twelve-tone, Russian mystical and otherwise. Trapped in an oppressive Soviet Union (his passport was taken away and he was not allowed to travel abroad), he made his living writing film music and developing a unique polystylistic technique which blended classicism, modernism, Russian tradition and his own personal mysticism. Angelina Gadeliya, born in Soviet Georgia and brought up in the Ukraine, later emigrated to the United States where she became a leading advocate of Schnittkes music and, at the same time, an expert in the influences which shaped his musical personality. This unique program includes music by Mozart, Webern, Shostakovich (based on Glinka) and Scriabin as well as two impressive works by Schnittke himself (his Variations on a Chord and Sonata No. 2), everything performed with virtuoso skill and panache by this outstanding keyboard artist.