Schnittke: Cello Concerto No. 1 / Klingende Buchstaben / 4 Hymns

Featuring

Leif Segerstam
Torleif Thedéen
Christian Davidsson
Ingegerd Fredlund
Entcho Radoukanov
Mayumi Kamata

Anders Holdar
Anders Loguin
DR SymfoniOrkestret
Alfred Schnittke

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Compositional Technique

Schnittke's "Klingende Buchstaben" (Sounding Letters) for cello solo uses letters from the dedicatee's name, Alexander Ivashkin, that also correspond to musical notes (A-E-A-D-E and A-Es-C-H).

Composition History

Alfred Schnittke began composing his Cello Concerto No. 1 in spring 1985, commissioned by the City of Munich for the inauguration of the Gasteig Culture Centre.

Compositional Technique

Schnittke's Four Hymns use authentic themes based on tetrachords from old Russian church songs, which he found to be an "extraordinarily interesting example of natural-dissonant tonal thinking."

Performer Biography

Conductor Leif Segerstam, also a composer, has written 26 string quartets and 61 violin concertos, reflecting his origins as a violinist.

Performer Biography

Cellist Torleif Thedéen made his international breakthrough in 1985 by winning three major prizes, including the Hammer-Rostropovitch prize and the Pablo Casals Competition.

Composer's Artistic Vision

In Alfred Schnittke's works, the classical competition between soloist and orchestra becomes a confrontation, an antagonistic conflict between a personality and its environment.

Composer Biography

During the composition of his Cello Concerto No. 1, Alfred Schnittke suffered a severe stroke at the age of 50 but managed to recover and continue composing.