Track Listing

1. Ritual - Leif Segerstam
2. (K)ein Sommernachtstraum - Tom Holst
3. Passacaglia - Leif Segerstam
4. I. Folget nun...
5. II. Die Vierundzwanzig Jahre...
6. III. Gehen Also Miteinander...
7. IV. Meine Liebe...
8. V. Ach, Mein Herr Fauste...
9. VI. Doktor Faustus Klagte...
10. VII. Es Geschah...
11. VIII. Diese Gemeldete Magistri...
12. IX. Also Endet Sich...
13. X. Seid Nuechern Und Wachet...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134140 in Music
• Released on: 1993-05-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
If you were ever faced with having to own one--and only one--Alfred Schnittke CD, this would be an excellent choice. A collection with Seid Nüchtern und Wachet (better known as the Faust Cantata) as its anchor, this set also features inspired performances of the large, pulsing Ritual as well as a pair of additional large orchestral works: (K)ein Sommernachtstaum and Passacaglia. These are sprawling things, each invoking styles by the seeming dozens in blasts of energy. Schnittke's is a music of embarrassing riches, a palette he intentionally overfills in a self-consciously postmodern pastiche that speaks to the twin 20th-century Russian traditions of (in music) rich orchestration and (in politics) political repression. So it is that the Faust Cantata can weave between c. 10th-century texts and a very familiar liturgical choral style and a gut-busting set of solos that drive the piece to a frenzy. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Thrilling 'Faust cantata'
The orchestral works Passacaglia, Ritual and (K)ein sommernachtstraum are all very well-conducted and beautifully recorded on this CD (as usual with BIS-records). The Malmö symphony orchestra specialized in Schnittke during the 80's, and that can be heard here. There is a great understanding to the sometimes very odd music.

The most exciting work in this compilation is the 'Faust cantata'. It's not the same story as behind operas like 'faust' and 'mefistofele', this is a bloodspreading thing. And you hear that in every tone of the music, both from the orchestra and the soloists. Schnittke maybe wasn't the ultimate vocalwriter, but some passages in the faust cantata are the best new singing-music I've heard. At it's very best heard in 'Es Geschah' - a totally hysteric tango(!). It would be on my top-five list of best 'arias' ever. Maybe the soloists aren't absolute worldclass, but they all get of very well.

This CD has the best of the strange russian composer Schnittke. His music is extremely energetic, blasting and style-mixing. If you want the best of this uneven composer, this is the CD for you.

Top of the Line Vocal Composition!
Having obtained contralto Inger Blom's hair-raising "Es geschah" from the Faust Cantata ("Seid nuchtern und wachet") many years ago, I am now delighted to own the entire cantata plus several other of Schittke's finest works. Or perhaps "awed" would be a better choice of word.

The pieces confirm my belief that Schnittke (half Russian Christian, half German Jewish), who studied in Austria and later lived in Germany, was more of a German than a Russian composer. Parts of the Faust strongly remind me of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler (that wonderful underperformed opera). Schnittke, too, suffers from performance neglect. Listen to this magnificent CD and you will wonder why. Now we have lost him forever, and it is our tragedy.

The "Ritual" for large symphony orchestra which begins the CD is a lamentation for World War II, and surely one of the most violent works I've heard this side of Shostakovich's 10th Symphony and Bartok's Bluebeard, concentrated into eight and a half minutes. The next piece, "(K)ein Sommernachtstraum" seems to me the least of this group, but it shows Schnittke's witty and nostalgic side and is both involving and, in many places, melodically beautiful. The "Passacaglia" builds hypnotically, like Ravel's Bolero, from eerie beginnings to a tremendous climax. Ignore the programmatic "seascape" distraction; this is pure and wondrous music.

Faust is the centerpiece, and after a hundred hearings I am still impressed by the diabolical tango, "Es geschah"--sung without a vocal break or even a falter over a range of at least three-and-a-half octaves, from the softest pianissimo to the strongest fortissimo. (Might have been interesting if Yma Sumac had given this one a try.) Following the libretto, I now understand that the words are equally diabolical.

You will also hear Lutheran-style chorales ("Ach, mein Herr Fauste"), simple choral chant ("Also endet sich"), and one of the most magnificent climaxes in the choral arts. All the singers are superb, as is the Malmo Symphony and its conductors--duties shared on this disc by the always excellent James DePreist and Leif Segerstam.

This CD is hard to get (my order took months to arrive) but worth the wait!

(K)EIN SOMMERNACHTSTRAUM UNDERRATED
For the past two years I have been reccommending this CD to everyone i thought would be interested. Constantly touting (K)ein Sommernachtstraum as the superior piece on the disc, I have thrust it into the faces of everyone I know, always with the same "have you heard this?". Without fail, after hearing the disc only once, all have shared my enthusiasm for it.
However, after reading some reviews of this disc online and elsewhere, it has come to my attention that fewer people share my enthusiasm for the Somernachtstraum, prefering, as is their right, the Faust cantata.
The faust cantata is, by far, one of the worlds best pieces of music ever written. It never ceases to make me smile and give me goosebumps. Still, I believe (K)ein Sommernachtstraum outshines it in sheer compositional ingenuity, bravery, and overall intelligence. It starts innocently enough with a quasi-baroque phrase borrowed (if not entirely reworked)from one of Schnittke's earlier works and continues to mold and transform it until it is almost unrecogniseable by the time the piece climaxes. All the while Schnittke weaves modern and classical themes related to the initial phrase throughout and gradually immerses the listener in his "poly-stylism" . . .oops! gotta go!
GIVE IT A SECOND CHANCE!! P.S. Fans of this disc will also LOVE Schnittke's first Concerto Grosso; a word of warning, however: The Deutsche Grammophon recording with Kremer is inferior to the Col Legno recording although the soloists are the same. The DG version seperately tracks the individual movements, and the packaging is nice, but the harpsichord gets lost in the mix and when Schnittke's favorite tango rears its head toward the end of the piece, some of the momentum is lost.