Just to let you readers know that Schnittke 2 was this year’s holiday work. Heard it on the way to Newquay on August 30th. Been learning it since. It’s based on the mass.
That’s now my cycle of Schnittke symphonies complete- from 1-8 (and 0 and 9 which Schnittke never acknowlwdged).
Heres what 3VS has picked up on so far.
No.2 is slow all the way through.
Mvt 1 is weird, blokes singing a mass and the strange percussion hammering away at the same time, giving it a weird sound world.
Mvt 2 , Gloria, more upbeat. It has the organ exposed. A climax with a bass guitar leads into mvt 3, Credo. This mvt has two climaxes for strings, the 2nd time round you get the exposed chromatic organ chord on top.
Notice that the 1st 3 symphonies contain parts for exposed chromatic organ chords.
Mvt 4 is good fun. A sort of an interlude to start with , with an electric guitar ( on a mass!!??) getting louder, crash bang wallop then a gong. Another string like climax (the forerunner to the start of symphony no.6!) then fades.
More singing, ending happily with Amen. Then a funky instrumental bit with the organ concluding it happily like in church. But Schnittke being Schnittke the orchestra is then added, goes all out of tune and ends in a scream.
Mvts 5 and 6 are more slower and sensible. Hence I can remember less about these mvts at the moment!
The symphony ends quietly( they all do, except no.1 and 6)
Any of you readers heard this one? What do you think?
3VS
That’s now my cycle of Schnittke symphonies complete- from 1-8 (and 0 and 9 which Schnittke never acknowlwdged).
Heres what 3VS has picked up on so far.
No.2 is slow all the way through.
Mvt 1 is weird, blokes singing a mass and the strange percussion hammering away at the same time, giving it a weird sound world.
Mvt 2 , Gloria, more upbeat. It has the organ exposed. A climax with a bass guitar leads into mvt 3, Credo. This mvt has two climaxes for strings, the 2nd time round you get the exposed chromatic organ chord on top.
Notice that the 1st 3 symphonies contain parts for exposed chromatic organ chords.
Mvt 4 is good fun. A sort of an interlude to start with , with an electric guitar ( on a mass!!??) getting louder, crash bang wallop then a gong. Another string like climax (the forerunner to the start of symphony no.6!) then fades.
More singing, ending happily with Amen. Then a funky instrumental bit with the organ concluding it happily like in church. But Schnittke being Schnittke the orchestra is then added, goes all out of tune and ends in a scream.
Mvts 5 and 6 are more slower and sensible. Hence I can remember less about these mvts at the moment!
The symphony ends quietly( they all do, except no.1 and 6)
Any of you readers heard this one? What do you think?
3VS
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