Schnittke: Complete Piano Music

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Smith demonstrates complete empathy with Schnittke's distinctive sound-world. His playing has great dramatic immediacy...Altogether these are compelling and utterly persuasive accounts. — BBC Music Magazine, June 2014, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 10th Feb 2014
Catalogue No: DCD34131
Label: Delphian
Length: 2 hours 26 minutes

This release includes a digital booklet

Delphian

Special offer ends: 08/05/2024

Schnittke: Piano Sonata No. 1

Work length30:21

$7.00

$9.10

$12.25

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

I. Lento

Track length8:33

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Allegretto

Track length4:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Lento

Track length8:06

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

IV. Allegro

Track length8:44

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Schnittke: Piano Sonata No. 2

Work length18:51

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

I. Moderato

Track length6:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Lento

Track length5:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Allegro moderato

Track length6:56

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Schnittke: Piano Sonata No. 3

Work length16:18

$4.00

$5.20

$7.00

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

I. Lento

Track length5:44

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Allegro

Track length2:03

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Lento

Track length5:14

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

IV. Allegro

Track length3:17

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Schnittke: Variations

Work length11:11

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: Prelude and Fugue

Work length8:15

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: Improvisation & Fugue

Work length5:53

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: Variations on the Chord

Work length6:56

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: 8 Pieces

Work length10:02

$8.00

$10.40

$14.00

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

No. 1, Volksweise

Track length0:29

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2, In den Bergen

Track length0:35

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3, Kuckuck und Specht

Track length0:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 4, Melodie

Track length1:23

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 5, Erzählung

Track length1:51

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 6, Spielerei

Track length0:38

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 7, Kinderstück

Track length3:13

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 8, Marsch

Track length1:19

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Schnittke: Dedication to Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev & Dmitri Shostakovich

Work length6:49

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Simon Smith (piano), Richard Beauchamp (piano), John Cameron (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: Five Aphorisms

Work length13:09

$5.00

$6.50

$8.75

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

No. 1, Moderato assai

Track length4:09

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 2, Allegretto

Track length1:53

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 3, Lento

Track length1:57

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 4, Senza tempo

Track length2:36

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

No. 5, Grave

Track length2:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Schnittke: Sonatina for piano four hands

Work length3:02

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Simon Smith (piano), Richard Beauchamp (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: Cadenza to W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491, 1st Movement "Allegro"

Work length4:56

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: 2 Cadenzas to W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467

Work length5:12

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

1st Movement "Allegro maestoso"

Track length4:03

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

3rd Movement "Allegro vivace assai"

Track length1:09

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Schnittke: Cadenza to W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503, 1st Movement "Allegro maestoso"

Work length2:43

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Schnittke: 2 Cadenzas to W.A. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, K. 39

Work length2:32

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Simon Smith (piano)
Recorded: 23 January and 4-5 December 2012
Recording Venue: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

1st Movement "Allegro spiritoso"

Track length1:34

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

3rd Movement "Molto allegro"

Track length0:58

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

About
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About

Schnittke’s largest works for the piano are the three sonatas, which all date from the later part of his output. Piano Sonata No 1 (1987) is a substantial work by any standard, structured in four movements played without a break, and lasting upward of half an hour. The emotional journey of the piece is in many ways typical of the composer’s work in the years following his first stroke. Piano Sonata No 2 (1990–91), written for Schnittke’s wife Irina, follows a more traditional three-movement pattern. The opening is rather sensuous and overtly ‘Romantic’, wistful and bittersweet, its delicate counterpoint recalling Berg’s Op. 1 Sonata. Piano Sonata No 3 (1992), first performed by Boris Berman in 1996, is an example of what we might call Schnittke’s ‘late style’, pared down and without the extravagance of some of the works of the 1980s though of similar intensity. It was his last work for solo piano.

The shorter works included here, which along with the sonatas comprise Schnittke’s entire published output for solo piano (including one piece for piano duet and another for six hands at one instrument), are mostly earlier than the sonatas, and are presented here in chronological order, with the cadenzas for four of Mozart’s piano concertos as a sort of appendix.

Simon Smith studied piano with Richard Beauchamp [to whom these discs are dedicated] and composition with Tom David Wilson. As a pianist he has performed many of the landmarks of the 20th-century piano repertoire, most notably many of Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke and the Piano Concerto and complete Etudes of György Ligeti. Following a performance of which latter he was acclaimed as ‘a phenomenon – nothing daunts him, technically or musically’ The Scotsman. For Delphian Records he has recorded solo music by James MacMillan and Stuart MacRae (Delphian DCD34009), Hafliði Hallgrímsson (DCD34051) and Thomas Wilson (DCD34079).

"I remember vividly the first time I heard a piece of music by Schnittke... It is not an exaggeration to say that that moment changed my life and certainly turned on its head the way that I thought about music and its possibilities. Thereafter I avidly devoured as much of Schnittke’s music as I could get my hands on, and this recording is one of the results." Simon Smith

Reviews

June 2014

Smith demonstrates complete empathy with Schnittke's distinctive sound-world. His playing has great dramatic immediacy...Altogether these are compelling and utterly persuasive accounts.

May 2014

Simon Smith has the technical wherewithal and serious musicianship that enable him to convey seemingly intractable passages with narrative cogency...His thoroughly researched annotations add further value to an important release.

2nd May 2014

Simon Smith can easily challenge at the highest level and to my ears gives us a sharpness of focus on these pieces which makes him a real winner.

8th February 2014

This career-retrospective offers a fascinating glimpse of how a series of strokes affected Alfred Schnittke’s work..captured by Simon Smith with extraordinary sensitivity, detail and emotional commitment.

2nd March 2014

The young British pianist Simon Smith gives compelling, expressive performances. Schnittke's reputation grows ever greater in death than in life.

Offer,Schnittke: Complete Piano Music

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