Schnittke: Symphony No. 8 / Suite from The Census List

Alfred Schnittke (Composer), Valeri Polyansky (Conductor), Russian State Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Russian State Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Valeri Polyansky
• Composer: Alfred Schnittke
• Audio CD (May 22, 2001)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Chandos
• ASIN: B00005B1D5
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #405,210 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buy Rozhdestvensky's Recording, NOT this one, August 20, 2004

By 

Daniel J. McConnell (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schnittke: Symphony No. 8 / Suite from The Census List (Audio CD)

Whereas another reviewer on this site recommends this recording over Rozhdestvensky's of Symphony No. 8 (also on Chandos), I'm inclined to suggest the reverse. This recording is plagued by often comical performance problems NOT present on the other recording. At the very start of the symphony, for instance, the fourth horn is unable to play in the extreme low register notated by Schnittke and thus transposes those low-register pitches an octave higher. For shame! In another passage during the first movement, the first trumpet performs nearly a quarter-tone higher than the rest of the orchestra. What an uncalled-for grating effect, literally: the violins and trumpet are suppose to be playing in unison! Again during the first movement - an ostensibly steady-flowing passacaglia - the brass and strings continually, and unevenly, rush and drag the tempo. While the strings play at one speed, for instance, the trumpets gradually surge ahead. At another moment: immediately after the trumpets play the passacaglia theme at one speed, the horns answer by performing the same theme at a tempo markedly slower than the trumpets, as if to put the "brakes on." An acoustic reprimand to the speeding trumpets? Hmmm.

No doubt Schnittke's Symphony No. 8 is tough, which this recording underlines, time and again, through its errors. But this symphony is also fantastic, wonderful music. Buy Rozhdestvensky's recording; it unlocks (some of) the beauty composed into the challenging instrumental lines of Schnittke's piece.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 star review based on second piece, May 26, 2007

By 

Moniker (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Schnittke: Symphony No. 8 / Suite from The Census List (Audio CD)

What is wrong with people? I'm not going to comment on the 8th Symphony, as I haven't heard it yet, but the "throw away" piece on here, the one that is supposedly "forgettable" is in my insignificant and uneducated opinion, amazing. I don't know how ANYONE who likes Schnittke can have such unfavorable opinions about some of his pieces like this one and Peer Gynt, when such a huge part of the composer's aesthetic and approach was to write material that is equally "heavy" spiritual and intellectualized as it is whatever the pretentious, boring snobs would like to label stuff like the Gogol/Census suite. To quote the composer himself "The goal of my life is to unify serious music and light music, even if I break my neck in doing so." Then again, what the hell do I know. I guess I'm probably ignorant and I just don't get it. Is it just a sequencing problem? Perhaps it's that in placing this quirky piece next to the gravity of the 8th, it seems absurd and of very little significance. I doubt it though.

Anyway, Nino Rota fans, as well as fans of Shostakovich's "light" music, will want to hear this so-called minor and insignificant piece, although this suite to me sounds much better than Shostakovich's stab at "light" music. Also, check out Schnittke's ballet Peer Gynt for very cohesive, strong writing in a lighter tone that is quite the contrast to his more sprawling and meandering works that are more about showcasing the technical aspects of performance. And also, be grateful that there were composers like Schnittke who realized that music has many facets and it need not be so serious ALL THE TIME. Sheesh.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Schnittke's Eighth Symphony, one of his finest works, June 29, 2006

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schnittke: Symphony No. 8 / Suite from The Census List (Audio CD)

This recording of Schnittke's 8th Symphony is magnificent in two ways -- it is one of Schnittke's finest works, and it is here superbly performed by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, led by Valery Polyansky, part of the Chandos series of Schnittke recordings. This would be an excellent choice for anyone just investigating Schnittke's music, and is not to be missed by those who already know the composer. I highly recommend Polyansky's Schnittke recordings, both orchestral and choral -- he captures the essence of the composer's vision in a vivid and incomparable way. I wish Chandos would bring us the Polyansky/RSSO recordings of Symphonies 3 and 5!

As the renowned cellist Alexander Ivashkin points out in the liner notes, Schnittke's symphonies fall into two groups, the odd-numbered ones dealing with culture and society, and the even-numbered ones dealing with religious faith and spirituality. Lyrical and elegiac, influenced by strong intimations of mortality after his long illness as well as by the similarly death-obsessed Mahler, the 8th has five movements, but the last movement is but a brief coda, and the third movement is a Lento that is almost half the length of the entire symphony. This is the heart of the work, centered on a beautiful melodic theme. That theme is surrounded by anguish, dissonance, and doubt, but it seems to be one of the composer's last and strongest statements of faith.

The filler piece, "Suite from 'The Census List'", based of course on Gogol, is a throwaway, one of Schnittke's scores for drama and film, of interest only to Schnittke completists. I can give the disc no less than 5 stars, though, on the strength of the splendidly realized Symphony No. 8!

For more by Alfred Schnittke, one of the best composers of the late 20th century, see my list SCHNITTKE: A LISTENER'S GUIDE.