Schnittke: Symphony No. 9

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Release Date: 9th Mar 2009
Catalogue No: 4766994
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 53 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Schnittke: Symphony No. 9

Work length36:52

Album only

Dresdner Philharmoniker
Dennis Russell Davies
Recorded: 2008-01-09
Recording Venue: Lukaskirche, Dresden

Andante

Track length19:56

Album only

Moderato

Track length8:25

Album only

Presto

Track length8:31

Album only

Raskatov: Nunc dimittis - In memoriam Alfred Schnittke

Work length16:10

Album only

Elena Vassilieva (mezzo-soprano), Gordon Jones (baritone), David James (countertenor), Steven Harrold (tenor), Rogers Covey-Crump (tenor)
Dresdner Philharmoniker, The Hilliard Ensemble
Dennis Russell Davies
Recorded: 2008-01-09
Recording Venue: Lukaskirche, Dresden

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World premiere recording of Schnittke's posthumous last work, the large-scale, expressive Symphony No 9 reconstructed at his widow's behest by fellow Russian composer Alexander Raskatov. Composed shortly before his death in 1998, Schnittke's ultimate symphony - his very last work - is a most unusual "Ninth": put down with a shaky left hand by an artist who had survived four strokes and was laterally debilitated, it is an impressive triumph of spiritual energy over physical constraints. It's lively, vital, varied and transparent music defying ordinary clichés of "late style". The composer's widow Irina treated the barely-legible manuscript as a testament and eventually entrusted the difficult task of deciphering and reconstructing the three movements for large orchestra (38 minutes' music) to Moscow-born Alexander Raskatov who, convinced that Schnittke had intended a fourth movement, also developed the idea to add an independent epilogue, Nunc dimittis for mezzo-soprano, men's vocal quartet and orchestra. It is based on the famous text by orthodox monk Starets Siluan and on verses by Joseph Brodsky, Schnittke's favourite poet. Both pieces were premiered in Dresden in 2007 by the musicians on this recording - mezzo-soprano Elena Vassilieva, The Hilliard Ensemble, and the Dresdner Philharmonie conducted by long-time ECM artist Dennis Russell Davies. It is released simultaneously with Arvo Pärt's In Principio to herald ECM New Series' first 25 years - Schnittke was a performer on the very first New Series album, Pärt's Tabula Rasa. Personnel: Elena Vassilieva (mezzo-soprano), The Hilliard Ensemble, Dresdner Philharmonie, Dennis Russell Davies (conductor)

Schnittke: Symphony No. 9

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