(1972)Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of
Dmitri Shostakovich, but after the visit of the Italian composer
Luigi Nono to the USSR, he took up the
serial technique in works such as
Music for Piano and Chamber Orchestra (1964). However, Schnittke soon became dissatisfied with what he termed the "puberty rites of serial self-denial." He created a new style which has been called "
polystylism", where he juxtaposed and combined music of various styles past and present. He once wrote, "The goal of my life is to unify serious music and light music, even if I break my neck in doing so." His first concert work to use the polystylistic technique was the second
violin sonata,
Quasi una sonata (1967–1968). He experimented with techniques in his film work, as shown by much of the sonata appearing first in his score for the 1968 animation short
The Glass Harmonica. He wrote the music for
Aleksandr Askoldov's
Commissar, combining and juxtaposing European, ethnic Russian and Jewish musical patterns. He continued to develop the polystylistic technique in works such as the epic
First Symphony (1969–1972) and
First Concerto Grosso (1977). Other works were more stylistically unified, such as his
Piano Quintet (1972–1976, later orchestrated and retitled as
In Memoriam…), written in memory of his mother, who had died in 1972. In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad, thanks in part to the work of
émigré Soviet artists such as the violinists
Gidon Kremer and
Mark Lubotsky, the cellist and conductor
Mstislav Rostropovich, but also by the conductor
Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Despite constant illness, he produced a large amount of music, including important works such as the Second (1980) and Third (1983) String Quartets and the String Trio (1985); the
Faust Cantata (1983), which he later incorporated in his
opera Historia von D. Johann Fausten; the ballet
Peer Gynt (1985–1987); the Third (1981), Fourth (1984) and Fifth (1988) Symphonies (the last of which is also known as the Fourth Concerto Grosso), the
Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (1979) and the Viola (1985) and First Cello (1985–1986) Concertos. This period was also marked by a turn in Schnittke and his music to Christian themes, exemplified in his deeply spiritual unaccompanied choral works, the Concerto for Mixed Chorus (1984–1985) and the Penitential Psalms (1988), and alluded to in various others works, including the Fourth Symphony and the Faust Cantata. As his health deteriorated from the late 1980s, Schnittke started to abandon much of the extroversion of his earlier polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style, quite accessible to the lay listener. The Fourth Quartet (1989) and
Sixth (1992),
Seventh (1993) and
Eighth (1994) symphonies are good examples of this. Some Schnittke scholars, such as
Gerard McBurney, have argued that it is the late works that will ultimately be the most influential parts of Schnittke's output. After a
stroke in 1994 left him almost completely paralysed, Schnittke largely ceased to compose. He did complete some short works in 1997 and also a
Ninth Symphony; its score was almost unreadable because he had written it with great difficulty with his left hand due to his strokes. The Ninth Symphony was first performed on 19 June 1998 in Moscow in a version deciphered – but also 'arranged' – by
Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who conducted the premiere. After hearing a tape of the performance, Schnittke indicated he wanted it withdrawn. After he died, though, others worked to decipher the score.
Nikolai Korndorf died before he could complete the task, which was continued and completed by
Alexander Raskatov. In Raskatov's version, the three orchestral movements of Schnittke's symphony may be followed by a choral fourth, which is Raskatov's own
Nunc Dimittis (in memoriam Alfred Schnittke). This version was premiered in
Dresden, Germany, on June 16, 2007. Andrei Boreyko also has a version of the symphony. ==References==