November 24, 2024 | Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center
Subscription Series «The NPR and Maestro Vladimir Spivakov»
Concert for the 90th anniversary of the birth of Alfred Schnittke
Soloist – Timofey Vladimirov, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Schnittke. "Ritual" for orchestra, in memory of the victims of the 2nd World War, Op. 183
Concerto for piano and strings, Op. 136
“Sketches”, choreographic fantasia, Op. 186
The 90th anniversary of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998), great composer, one of the leading personalities in the musical culture of the 20th century, falls on November 24. On the master's birthday Vladimir Spivakov and the NPR will give a concert-offering which will feature only Schnittke's works – Ritual, Piano Concerto and Sketches ('choreographic fantasia').
Vladimir Spivakov and Alfred Schnittke were not bosom friends but they shared a close artistic partnership based on great mutual respect. With the author's total approval, Spivakov arranged his Suite in the Old Style for violin and string orchestra after which the composer dedicated to Spivakov his Five Fragments to Pictures of Hieronymus Bosch for violin, tenor, trombone and string orchestra. Nowadays Schnittke's music is part of the staple repertoire of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia and the Moscow Virtuosi State Chamber Orchestra (both directed by the maestro). On Spivakov’s own initiative in 2022 the composer’s name was given to the new multifunctional concert hall at the Moscow Performing Arts Center in which later on there came forth Schnittke’s Memorial room as part of the unique art-space of the Hall.
The program to the memory of the composer will start with Schnittke's tragic work Ritual written to commemorate those perished during World War II. The opus was scored on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Belgrade's liberation. Then the audience will hear the Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra assigned for Vladimir Krainev who first performed it in December 1979 in Leningrad and then in Moscow in 1980. The Concerto spotlights parallels with music styles of the past and allusions to other genres (such as prelude, waltz, choral, quasi-jazz improvisation) while the use of the well-known forms goes in line with outspoken modern forms of expressions.
The solo part in the Concerto will be played by Timofey Vladimirov, grant-holder of the Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation, graduate from the Moscow Conservatory, winner of the Vladimir Krainev Moscow Piano Competition and awardee of several international and All-Russia piano and composition competitions.
Part II of the concert will be devoted to Sketches – a choreographic fantasy based on Gogol's works. Schnittke often addressed the great writer appreciating in his works the “clash of the divine and the foul”, “genre versatility”, “use of the banal as a legal literature approach”. His first opus related to Gogol's works was the music to the play The Census List at the Taganka Theater (1978) followed by the soundtrack to Mikhail Schweitzer's Dead Souls TV-miniseries (1984). In 1985 the music to The Census List served as the basis for the one-act ballet Esquisses staged in The Bolshoi to Gogol's 175th birthday anniversary, later reformed into a fantasy of vignettes referred to the writer's most famous works including The Inspector General, Dead Souls, The Nose, The Overcoat, Diary of a Madman and others.