Schnittke: Cello Concerto No.2; In Memoriam

Alfred Schnittke (Composer), Seiji Ozawa (Conductor) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
• Composer: Alfred Schnittke
• Audio CD (June 2, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000027X0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #93,904 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cello Concerto No.2: sublime!, November 5, 2001

By 

villegem "villegem" (canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schnittke: Cello Concerto No.2; In Memoriam (Audio CD)

This recording of Cello Concerto No.2 is the first recording to come out of this amazing concerto. Written in 1990 Rostropovitch and Osawa are giving their best in 1992 to understand a complex work. Recent recording such as Ivashkin on Chandos may give a clearer vision of the work, although the jury is still out. However the 4th and 5th mvt in the Rostropovitch recording are haunted like nowhere else. This makes it a MUST have recording for Schnittke fans. I heard the piece performed in concert in January 2001 by Torleif Thedeen Cello, in London and this was superb too (check his BIS recording of it).

Today April 27, 2007 Rostropovich left us to join his best friends. I listened again to this recording and I wish to add to my 2001 review. I think the reason this performance might be a bit more difficult to apprehend at first is because of its incredible depth. Other recordings tend to simplify or brush off certain aspects and thus bring instant gratification. However, and without any doubt, Rostropovich/Osawa recording IS the definitive recording of this monumental piece. The clarity of the orchestration, the noble, steely yet deeply humane cello playing, the quality of recording and the organic music are unmatched. Listening to Slava in the Dvorak with Karajan was Slava's earthly journey, while the Schnittke concerto represnts where Slava now is.

This recording is a MUST listen for all.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Schnittke!, March 30, 2008

By 

John Hopfensperger "Hoppy" (Midland, MI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Schnittke: Cello Concerto No.2; In Memoriam (Audio CD)

Rostropovich in the Concerto No. 2 makes a strong impression. Recorded about the time of his somewhat labored-sounding Bach suites, he sounds like a much younger man here! This work is incredibly demanding on the soloist, but Slava is able to completely transcend the work's technical difficulties to deliver a cogent reading of the gnarly score.

If anything, this orchestrated version of "In Memoriam," conducted by Rostropovich, is even finer. If you're really listening, this piece will carry you through the whole range of human emotions, leading up to one of the most eerily solemn endings in all Western music. Every time I hear it, I'm left shaken, feeling minuscule in the cosmic scope of things; it's one of those works.

This disk contains the finest "modern music" which I have ever heard, and is recorded in very fine 20-bit sound. For fans of Schnittke, Rostropovich, contemporary music, or simply of broadening their horizons, this disk is most heartily recommended!

5/5

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Cello Concerto No. 2 is a worthy successor to the First, and "In Memoriam..." gives a fresh perspective on the Piano Quintet, May 24, 2009

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schnittke: Cello Concerto No.2; In Memoriam (Audio CD)

Most of Sony Classical's output is becoming hard to find, but as I write this, this 1992 disc featuring two fine pieces by Alfred Schnittke is still widely available. I'd suggest snatching it up without delay.

The Cello Concerto No. 2 (1989-90) forms a bridge between the zany polystylistic concertos of the 1980s and the bleak soundworld of his last works. Like with his first cello concerto, the viola concerto, and the fourth violin concerto, and a couple of the concerti grossi, the Second suggests a battle between the soloist and the orchestra ending in the former's death. The violence of the second and third movements segues atacca subito into a danse macabre in the fourth, one of Schnittke's favourite forms. The final movement develops as a passacaglia incorporating material from Schnittke's score to Klimov's film AGONY, a subversive work criticizing the Soviet regime as a nightmare that descended on Russia in 1917. The Second is a hallucinatory work of low dynamic and half-finished lines. While a tougher nut to crack than the Cello Concerto No. 1, whose inspiring resurrection of the soloist at the end will wow all audiences, I've come to enjoy the Second very much after a few repeated listenings. Rostropovich,

"In Memoriam..." (1978) is an orchestration of Schnittke's Piano Quintet of 1972-1976. The Piano Quintet was written after the death of Schnittke's mother and is devastatingly direct in expressive, alternating the most lovely waltzes in brutal dissonance I consider it one of Schnittke's key masterworks and recommend the Naxos disc where his widow Irina Schnittke performs the piano part. In the orchestration, the strings inherit the material of the string quartet, but the piano part is given to woodwinds, percussion and organ. The orchestration does rise to greater climaxes though grand tuttis and organ at key moments, but at the cost of some intimacy of message. I'm nonetheless not entirely happy with "In Memoriam..." here. I think the recording is somewhat muddled, and Osawa takes it too slow to be effective.

Fans of Schnittke should certainly seek out this disc as soon as possible. Heck, even those who haven't even really begun discovering this great figure should pick up the disc before it is completely deleted from the catalogue.