Album

It may be years before we can tell if the performances in BIS' set of Alfred Schnittke's complete symphonies are great or not. There is hardly any competition, at best one or two other recordings for each work, and although most of the alternatives were made with the great Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the podium, they are not necessarily definitive, since most of Schnittke's symphonies were composed in the 1980s and 1990s, and no performance tradition has yet evolved to determine if they are centralist or eccentric performances. It may turn out that BIS' varied group of conductors has turned in a varied lot of performances. Leif Segerstam's interpretations of the First and Second might be considered wildly radical, while Tadaaki Otaka's interpretations of the Sixth and Seventh might be conservative. Okko Kamu's reading of the Fourth could come to be compared with Bruno Walter's of Mahler's Fourth for sympathetic insight, while Eri Klas' account of the Third could prove as insensitive as Leonard Bernstein's performance of Sibelius' Third. Lü Jia's take on the Eighth and Owain Arwel Hughes' on the Ninth might be counted as canonical, while Neeme Järvi's version of the Fifth might be discounted as a run-through.

Two things, though, are clearly apparent after listening to this set many times: Alfred Schnittke is a great symphonist and his works in that form favorably compare with those by his direct forbears, Dmitry Shostakovich and Gustav Mahler. Like them, Schnittke can contain the whole world and everything in it in his symphonies, yet they are still wholly personal and often quite intimate, particularly the later symphonies. Like his predecessors, he can be bitterly ironic but sometimes sweetly sentimental in tone, massively brutal but sometimes delicately tender in effect, and he is always as adept at expressing an extraordinary range of human emotion and experience in his themes and harmonies. Like them, Schnittke in his later symphonies deals with the eternal verities—love of life and fear of death—in a manner that is at once deeply personal but universally comprehensible. Schnittke's harmonic language is intensely dissonant in the First Symphony, and the later symphonies are not always any easier going, but the composer's overwhelming urge to communicate makes his music immensely compelling. BIS' digital sound is clear, clean, and immediate.

© Jim Leonard, All Music Guide

CD 1 of 6
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.1 Work Recorded 1992 1:12:23 Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Åke Lännerholm Trombone, Carl-Axel Dominique Piano, Leif Segerstam Conductor, Ben Kallenberg Violin
1	1.Senza tempo. Moderato. Allegro. Andante	21:22			$3.49
2	2.Allegretto	14:46			$2.49
3	3.Lento	8:59			$1.49
4	4.Lento	27:16			$3.99
Recorded Sound Composer Applause Work Recorded 1992 various artists
5	Applause	4:20			$0.99
CD 2 of 6
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.2, for soloists, chorus and orchestra ('St. Florian') Work Recorded 1994 59:18 Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Anders Eby Chorus Master, Mikael Bellini Countertenor, Leif Segerstam Conductor, Torkel Borelius Bass, Malena Ernman Alto, Goran Eliasson Tenor, Mikaeli Chamber Choir Chorus/Choir
1	1.Kyrie	10:31			$1.99
2	2.Gloria	5:11			$0.99
3	3.Credo	8:50			$1.49
4	4a.Crucifixus: Pesante	8:24			$1.49
5	4b.Et resurrexit: Agitato. Maestoso	3:37			$0.99
6	5a.Introduction: Santus and Benedictus. Andante	3:57			$0.99
7	5b.Andante	8:00			$1.49
8	6.Agnus Dei	10:48			$1.99
CD 3 of 6
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.3 Work Recorded 1989 48:34 Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Eri Klas Conductor
1	1.Einleitung	11:54			$1.99
2	2.Sonatensatz. Allegro	12:30			$1.99
3	3.Scherzo. Allegretto	7:15			$1.49
4	4.Finale. Adagio	16:55			$2.99
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.7 Work Recorded 1995 21:28 Tadaaki Otaka Conductor, BBC National Orchestra of Wales Orchestra, David Nolan Violin
5	1.Andante	5:00			$0.99
6	2.Largo	2:31			$0.99
7	3.Allegro	13:57			$2.49
CD 4 of 6
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.4, for 2 soloists, piano, chamber chorus and chamber orchestra Work Recorded 1990 41:13 Stockholm Sinfonietta Orchestra, Uppsala Academy Chamber Choir Chorus/Choir, Lucia Negro Piano, Mikael Bellini Countertenor, Okko Kamu Conductor, Stefan Parkman Tenor
1	1.Andante poco pesante	9:00			$1.49
2	2.Cadenza	4:33			$0.99
3	3.Moderato	4:39			$0.99
4	4.Molto pesante. Moderato	11:39			$1.99
5	5.Vivo	1:15			$0.99
6	6.Moderato. Andante poco pesante	5:02			$0.99
7	7.Coro	5:05			$0.99
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.5 (Concerto Grosso No.4) Work Recorded 1988 38:57 Neeme Järvi Conductor, Per Lundberg Harpsichord, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Nicola Boruvka Violin, Anders Robertson Cello, Maria Nyberg Piano, Magnus Lundén Viola, Christer Thorvaldsson Violin, Helen Jahren Oboe
8	1.Allegro	4:36			$0.99
9	2.Allegretto	8:38			$1.49
10	3.Lento. Allegro	16:34			$2.99
11	4.Lento	9:09			$1.49
CD 5 of 6
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.6 Work Recorded 1995 33:08 Tadaaki Otaka Conductor, BBC National Orchestra of Wales Orchestra
1	1.Allegro moderato	13:50			$2.49
2	2.Presto	4:07			$0.99
3	3.Adagio	10:08			$1.99
4	4.Allegro vivace	5:03			$0.99
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.8 Work Recorded 2002 35:42 Norrköping Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Lu Jia Conductor
5	1.Moderato	8:35			$1.49
6	2.Allegro moderato	4:19			$0.99
7	3.Lento	15:59			$2.49
8	4.Allegro moderato	5:07			$0.99
9	5.Lento	1:42			$0.99
CD 6 of 6
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.0 Work Recorded 2006 40:07 Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes Conductor
1	1.Allegro ma non troppo	12:58			$1.99
2	2.Allegro vivace	7:08			$1.49
3	3.Andante	10:26			$1.99
4	4.Allegro	9:35			$1.49
Alfred Schnittke Composer Symphony No.9 (unfinished) Work Recorded 2008 33:01 Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Owain Arwel Hughes Conductor
5	1.(Andante)	18:03			$2.99
6	2.Moderato	7:57			$1.49
7	3.Presto	7:01			$1.49