Search - Alfred Schnittke, Dmitry Shostakovich, Constantine Orbelian :: Dedicated to Victims of War and Terror [Hybrid SACD]

Beethoven's spirit lives on in the music of 20th C. Russians

Dr. Christopher Coleman | HONG KONG | 06/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The spirit of Beethoven pervades this disc of Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony and Schnittke's Concerto for Piano and Strings, Dedicated to Victims of War and Terror. I can't listen to either of these works without thinking of the new dramatic sense of struggle, especially harmonic and rhythmic, but also in terms of register, dynamics and gesture, that Beethoven brought to music. This dramatic sense makes significant demands on the listener, causing him to become an active partner in the aesthetic event rather than a passive receiver, and twentieth century composers have accepted this gift from Beethoven with gusto--indeed, some might say altogether too much so. I don't think a listener can casually enjoy these works of Shostakovich and Schnittke, but they will certainly repay the effort spent in concentrating actively on them.In particular, the Chamber Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich is reminiscent of Beethoven's late string quartets. Both composers develop a slowly moving four-note chromatic motive in the context of a largely contrapuntal texture, while making contrasting excursions into more lyrical and dance-like domains. In fact, the Chamber Symphony began life as Shostakovich's Eighth String Quartet composed in 1960, and is simply an orchestration of that piece for String Orchestra. The quartet is dedicated "to the Memory of the Victims of War and Fascism", but given that the four note motive Shostakovich so plaintively develops is based on a musical abbreviation of his own name, it is clear that there is a tremendously important autobiographical aspect to the piece. Indeed, the first four notes of the piece make up the motive based on the composer's name, D Eb, C, B. [In German nomenclature, Eb is known as Es (pronounced like the letter S) and B as H, therefore D. SCH.]Most listeners will find the Concerto for Piano and Strings by Alfred Schnittke more demanding and harder to understand at first listening than the Shostakovich. Schnittke, who was almost 30 years younger than Shostakovich, is still full of Russian lyricism and rhythmic excitement, but his harmonic language is more complex and dissonant, and the musical worlds from which he draws are more diverse. Indeed, at times Schnittke reminds me of Prokofiev gone wild, with touches of jazz and classical and folk music thrown in a musical blender flavored with sound mass, polytonality and other exotic contemporary tastes. The performances on this disc, by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra led by conductor and piano soloist Constantine Orbelian, are above reproach. The depth of the string sound is gorgeous, intonation impeccable and rhythm stunningly precise. Orbelian is an excellent interpreter of this music, and has technique to spare as a pianist. All in all, the only problem with this disc is that it is rather short, at only 47 and a half minutes. But given the intensity of the music, perhaps that is appropriate. I'll certainly be giving this disc repeated listening."