Customer Reviews

Alfred Schnittke (20th Century Composers)

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4 star:		(3)
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This book is the perfect introduction to the life of the late composer. I learned many details about his upbringing and his influences.

Ivashkin has managed to give an overview of Schnittke and replaced him in the history of Soviet composers. The author let sometimes his own grief about the soviet system and some of its members set on fire his style...

Having discovered Schnittke's music abroad, I would comment that his music goes beyond the Russian borders and in this sense, Ivashkin's natural focus on Soviet ties may be only showing one side of the equation.

But he made me miss even more the opportunity to meet with Schnittke as he was in Banff in Canada few years ago. Thanks to the author a biography exists. Sadly it will have to be updated. I wished articles by Schnittke would be available in english as well as a more exhaustive interpretive catalog of his work and recordings. Thanks to Phaidon for a superb volume!

This book is an excellent biography and overview of the music of Alfred Schnittke. The casual listener probably wouldn't be interested, but for those that love Schnittke's music this is a goldmine. It provides plenty of insight in the personal life of Schnittke and the events that helped shape his music. It details many of his personal political struggles (which would truly make comparisons to Shostakovich even clearer.)

There is also, of course, discussions on the music. No in depth analysis or anything, just good commentary on them. I don't have a musical education and the book was still quite enjoyable to me.

Another wonderful inclusion is the discography and the catalogue of works.

This will probably be the definative account of Schnittke's life (in English anyway.) One can only hope though that it will be updated as the book was written two years before Scnittke's death. I highly recommend this excellent book.

This entry in Phaidon Press' biographies of 20th century composers describes the life and work of Alfred Schnittke, the great Russian postmodernist, and is written by noted Russian cellist and friend of the composer Alexander Ivashkin. The work was published in 1996, two years before Schnittke's death. However, because Schnittke's last years were fraught with ill health, there is a general supposition that his career had ended. How surprised Ivashkin must have been to see a final bust of activity from the composer's pen shortly after the book's appearance.

As with all of Phaidon Press' biographies, the focus here is on the life and surroundings of the composer. Ivashkin describes in detail the composer's youth in Engels and Vienna, his tribulations in the Moscow Conservatory, and his marriage and family life. His pieces are often mention in connection to the events that inspired them, such as the death of his mother that led to his Piano Quintet. Unfortunately, there is very little in the way of analysis of his works. What few scores are shown in the book are given only to spice up the text with illustrations, they are not used by Ivashkin to point out the important innovations of Schnittke's music.

Beyond this lightweight nature, the book is fraught with other problems. There is a lot of repetition, many events are presented out of chronological order (for example, a chapter on the 1970s going back to the 1960s), and much tighter editing was necessary. There is even an error with typesetting where a sentence somehow disappears between pages 141 and 142. Becuase the work was rather obnoxious in these regards, I wouldn't recommend it except to hardcore fans of Schnittke who want to read as much as possible about him, or to people who just want to know the general outline of his life without knowing how his pieces work.

This book is a good, quick read, and, as it is apparently the only biography of Schnittke (at least in English), it will have to do. But it has more than a few printing errors; words are missing not only between pages 141 and 142, as another reviewer noted, but between 123 and 124; in addition, some lines are repeated on successive pages and there are other typos. Substantively, I did not feel after finishing the book that I knew what Schnittke was like as a person, other than that, later in life, he became a Christian of a mystical, if not crazy, bent, although the author would never put it negatively like that; he writes not a negative word about Schnittke or his music (though he does call him "a great human being"). Another problem with the book is that some of the author's descriptions of the music are almost meaningless (though I acknowledge that it is difficult to describe music). Examples include, "At the end of the symphony Shostakovich appears to draw aside real space, transporting us from gloomy everyday occurrences into the infinity of astral space." Or, "At times a particular interval becomes the principal character of a work. ... All these symbols ... ultimately enable one to widen the frame of the music as though into outer space." Finally, the author repeatedly refers to Schnittke's popularity and the throngs who attend performances of his music. I am only lately acquiring a taste for Schnittke's music, but it is an acquired taste, and I remain sceptical of the author's claims as to his popularity.

it is so difficult to find information about late 20th century composers. it is all the more remarkable when one finds a breezy, readable text devoted to the extraordinary life path taken by alfred schnittke. this book covers schnittke's upbringing, noth personally and musically. it is especially interesting as a study of the intrigue attendant to the title of "soviet composer". ironically enough, 60s soviet union was one of the few places where dissent and symphonic music were both taken seriously enough that forms of music could be deemed a threat. and, as this book details, schnittke dissented in more than merely his form of music. the book's major weakness is that it assumes a working knowledge of schnittke's music and its differences with other 20th century orchestral music. author ivashkin is himself an accomplished new zealand musician and what is second knowledge to him is not so well known to lay readers, such as myself, who can be fascinated by the lovely discordant wierdness which is schnittke. he does discuss the music quite a bit, though, and his style of never staying too long on any one compostition or life event is in keeping with the pace of modern life. it's not quite a beach book, but i found it a very easy read. recommended highly.

Phaidon specializes in beautifully made books about modern composers, and this one is no exception. Ivashkin, a friend of the composer's, provides a fascinating account. He dramatizes Schnittke's ethnic, national, and religious complexity, making him seem like the quintessential composer of the late 20th century. He includes details about Schnittke's background, friends and colleagues (and enemies), and personal and social life that might have been unavailable to someone who didn't actually know the composer. The publisher throws in many photos and illustrations, which themselves tellingly portray Soviet life--both the context of and the counterpoint to Schnittke's varied music. I would have preferred somewhat more analysis of the music itself (much of the commentary verges on the anecdotal--fun to read but often insubstantial), and more careful proofreading would have saved the pages from some pretty obvious mistakes. Overall, however, this book offers an enjoyable evening's read, and includes a comprehensive work list and select discography for shoppers. Recommended.