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

On this CD:

1. Symphony No.8
Composed by Alfred Schnittke
Performed by Russian Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Valery Polyansky

2. Dead Souls (The Census List), suite for orchestra
Composed by Alfred Schnittke
Performed by Russian Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Valery Polyansky

Schnittke: Symphony No. 8/Suite from 'The Census List', Music, Alfred Schnittke, Valery Polyansky, Russian Symphony Orchestra, 20th/21st Century Symphony, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Suite for Orchestra, Symphonic

Average customer rating:

5 star review based on second piece

Schnittke's Eighth Symphony, one of his finest works

New Review

Buy Rozhdestvensky's Recording, NOT this one

An excellent recording of a major post-Soviet masterpiece

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

Manufacturer: Chandos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00005B1D5
Release Date: 2001-05-22

Customer Reviews:

5 star review based on second piece.......2007-05-26

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.

Schnittke's Eighth Symphony, one of his finest works.......2006-06-30

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.

New Review.......2006-04-14

I have both the Rozhdestvensky and this Polyansky. I prefer slightly more the Polyansky, however you need both releases as the Rozh/Chandos has the excellent Concerto Grosso 6 a 14 minute work featuring Viktoria Postnikova on piano and their son, Sasha Rozhdestvensky on violin. Both offer excellent performances in that concerto. Even though Polyansky's russian group be more suited to this Schnittke, the Stockholm in the 8th is as well a must hear. both releases offer insights.
I'm glad to rewrite this review and do justice to the Rozhdestvensky family for their incredible talents.
Paul
Baton Rouge
June 2, 2006

EDIT: I'm not so sure about my preference in the sym 8 now. Its possible the Rozh comes through as more integral, get both as the second work's are essential on both releases.

Buy Rozhdestvensky's Recording, NOT this one.......2004-08-20

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.

An excellent recording of a major post-Soviet masterpiece.......2003-12-12

Schnittke's Eighth Symphony, completed in 1994, is one of the last of his orchestral works (there is a Ninth Symphony, written when the composer was almost totally paralysed by a stroke, but opinion appears divided as to how performable it is). This is the Eighth's second recording, hot on the heels of the premiere under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and I find it a significant improvement on the first.

The symphony is in five movements. The first is a slow set of variations which (counter-intuitively) reaches a climax early on and then devotes the remaining two-thirds of the movement to a gradual 'freezing over' until all that is left is a piccolo and a tam-tam. Following this is a brusque scherzo, the first of two, and then a large-scale slow movement that breathes the air of Bruckner and Mahler, only to subvert it by deliberately austere orchestration, tritonal harmony, pianissimo tone clusters and long-held pedal points in the bass. After this comes the second scherzo, which melts into the miniature finale--merely a collection of ascending scales floating off into the stratosphere (and very reminiscent of the end of the same composer's Peer Gynt).

The conservative musical language of this work may shock those used to Schnittke's more radical music, but I find it's very effective here. This is a very bleak work, but a very fine one and a sure contender for the title of best post-Shostakovitch symphony. Polyansky conducts an outstanding performance, bringing out much more clearly than Rozhdestvensky the manner in which Schnittke is destabilising the comfortable late-Romantic world the symphony would otherwise sit in.

The coupling is rather less impressive. The Census List was an avant-garde Gogol collage for which Schnittke wrote the music. Much of the music was later adapted into Schnittke's ballet Esquisses, but here we only hear the original music (some of which was orchestrated by the composer, some by Rozhdestvensky). Most of it is largely forgettable kitsch polystylism--in the same vein as the First Symphony (if even more over-the-top) but without the same cumulative effect. It's worth a couple of listens, but nothing more.

Four stars overall, five for the symphony and two for The Census List. Nonetheless, I'd recommend this recording over Rozhdestvensky for the symphony, even though Rozhdestvensky's coupling (the strong--if brief--Sixth Concerto Grosso) is much more worthwhile.

Music Track:

Music Track

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