48782 LPO Schnittke.qxp:48782 LPO Schnittke
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Sunday 22 November 2009 Supported by MAST
IN THE LABYRINTH OF ALFRED SCHNITTKE Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Foyers FULL DAY 10am to 10pm | ENTRANCE TO ALL EVENTS £30 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Sir Timothy Ackroyd reciter Annabel Arden director Allison Bell soprano Kristina Blaumane cello Vesselin Gellev violin Alexander Ivashkin cello Boris Petrushansky piano Dmitry Sitkovetsky violin Alexander Zemtsov viola Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Royal College of Music Chamber Orchestra An absorbing day of music and discussion celebrating the life and music of Alfred Schnittke with leading exponents of the composer’s work.
10am-12pm | Purcell Room Schnittke Today Presented in association with the Royal Musical Association.
Introduction by Alexander Ivashkin of Goldsmiths, University of London and the Alfred Schnittke Archive, London. Followed by round table discussion with: Holger Lampson of The Alfred Schnittke Academy and the Alfred Schnittke International Society, Hamburg (Germany). Hans-Ulrich Duffek, Director of Hans Sikorski Publishers. Alla Bogdanova, Director of the Schnittke-Centre, Moscow. Also presentation of Alfred Schnittke’s new Collected Works Critical Edition (published by Compozitor, St Petersburg, Russia) and new CD Schnittke Discoveries (Toccata Classics, London).
1.00pm - 2.30pm | Purcell Room | Tickets: £5 Director Andrei Khrzhanovsky, in conversation with Clare Kitson, will discuss his collaboration with Schnittke on seven films, including the long-banned The Glass Harmonica.
Two papers will be presented: 10.40am How German is Schnittke’s Third Symphony? given by Gavin Dixon of The Alfred Schnittke Archive, Goldsmiths, University of London. 11.00am A Geneology of Polystylism: Alfred Schnittke and the Late Soviet Culture of Collage given by Peter J. Schmelz of Washington University in St Louis, USA.
3.00pm | Queen Elizabeth Hall | Tickets: £15 SCHNITTKE Five Aphorisms (15’); Three Madrigals (5’); Peer Gynt Epilogue (26’); Sonata 1 for violin and piano (20’); Three Scenes (17’); Music to an Imagined Play (8’)
11.25am Performance: New Discoveries at the Schnittke Archive SCHNITTKE Six Piano Preludes – world première
5.30pm | Purcell Room | FREE BUT TICKETED SCHNITTKE Concerto for Electric Instruments (15’)
Drosostalitsa Moraiti (piano) from the Centre for Russian Music, Goldsmiths, University of London.
10.00am - 12.00pm | Purcell Room | Tickets: £5 A discussion of Schnittke’s music and writings chaired by Alexander Ivashkin followed by a performance of Schnittke’s Six Piano Preludes.
6.15pm | Queen Elizabeth Hall | Tickets: £15 SCHNITTKE Monologue (18’); Concerto for Piano and Strings (23’); Concerto Grosso 1 (31’); The Yellow Sound (40’) 9.15pm | Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer | FREE BUT TICKETED SCHNITTKE Piano Quintet (26’) This performance will be followed by a Schnittke discussion forum in The Front Room with Vladimir Jurowski and today’s guests. Open to all.
Biographies Vladimir Jurowski page 30 Sir Timothy Ackroyd page 30 Annabel Arden page 30 Allison Bell page 31 Kristina Blaumane page 31 Vesselin Gellev page 32 Alexander Ivashkin page 32 Boris Petrushansky page 34 Dmitry Sitkovetsky page 35 Alexander Zemtsov page 35 London Philharmonic Orchestra page 36 Royal College of Music Chamber Orchestra page 38 The timings of the works shown above are not precise and are only given as a guide. In The Labyrinth of Alfred Schnittke is promoted by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in association with Southbank Centre. www.lpo.org.uk/schnittke
The Piano Preludes were written during the composer’s conservatory years from 1953-54. Before then Schnittke had studied the piano at the Moscow Music College from 1949-1953. His favourite composers were Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. Quite an advanced player, Schnittke learned and played some of Chopin’s Etudes. He also performed Rachmaninoff ’s Second Piano Concerto and Grieg’s Piano Concerto. At that time the first LPs became available in Russia and he was able to listen to recordings of Wagner’s operas and Scriabin’s orchestral music. The piano style in the Preludes is sometimes very orchestral, reflecting Schnittke’s interest in the music of these composers. One of the Preludes almost quotes Chopin’s E minor Prelude, another reminds one of Liszt’s Funérailles. The last Prelude is a well developed fugue. The music of the Preludes bears some similarity to that of Nikolai Myaskovsky.
22 November Events
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