# SS 15.05.21 - Schnittke #2



## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

A continuation of the Saturday Symphonies Tradition:

Welcome to another weekend of symphonic listening!

For your listening pleasure this weekend:

Alfred Schnittke (1934 - 1998)

Symphony No. 2, "St. Florian" 

I. Kyrie
II. Gloria
III. Credo
IV. Crucifixus
V. Sanctus-Benedictus
VI. Agnus Dei

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Post what recording you are going to listen to giving details of Orchestra / Conductor / Chorus / Soloists etc - Enjoy!


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

I have been in quite a few classical concerts, but never I have heard Alfred Schnittke performed live. This second symphony remembered I liked , when I listened it years ago. I go with Leif Segerstam recording I have:









there are also recordings of this in youtube/spotify. Here is one:


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Sorry Mika I'm giving this a pass this weekend - I will be short of listening time and I have to be in the mood for choral Symphonies at the best of times.


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## Mika (Jul 24, 2009)

Malx said:


> Sorry Mika I'm giving this a pass this weekend - I will be short of listening time and I have to be in the mood for choral Symphonies at the best of times.


I will give you a whole week to do this challenge


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

Not familiar with this and will stream this version


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## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

Love a lot of Schnittke's music, but have to admit I'm not familiar with this symphony.

This mass, no, symphony, is rather long... Will try to find some time to listen to either the Leif Segerstam / Royal Stockholm PO (BIS) or the Valeri Polyansky / Russian State SO (Chandos).


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## cougarjuno (Jul 1, 2012)

Schnittke is always an interesting listen, will also try the You Tube recording with the Leningrad Philharmonic under Rozhdestvensky


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I'll also listen to the Segerstam at some point (maybe not today as I seem to be in a Mozart mood). Although I love a fair bit of Schnittke I can't remember enjoying any of the symphonies, except perhaps the 5th, but it is about time I tried again.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

A Schnittke binge is in the offing before too long, so I will be playing the symphony then. Segerstam on BIS. The work's designation kind of reminds me of the occasional squall which breaks out over _Das Lied von der Erde_ and whether it's a symphony, song cycle or cantata - i.e 'why call this a symphony when it's obviously just a mass?' I suppose one answer is as age-old as the question itself - it's what the composer considers it to be.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I have two versions in my CD collection: one conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky on BBC Radio Classics ‎15656 91962, the other conducted by Leif Segerstam from the 6-CD "The Ten Symphonies" box set on BIS, BIS-CD-1767/68. It's been a while since I've heard either, so I may just listen to both again. I don't recall much of anything about the music except that to say, from a flash of memory, that following Schnittke's Symphony No. 1 with this Second Symphony is akin to arriving in Purgatory after traversing through the Dantean circles of Hell. I'm always open to Purgatorial experiences. Hell can be such a downer, not that I have anything against Schnittke's First Symphony (it's a masterpiece in its own right), but that the Second, and every other Schnittke Symphony (and even every other symphony by every other composer) is something else altogether.

I look forward to my revisit of the Schnittke No. 2.


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Sorry, I'm going to sit this one out. Everything I have heard by Schnittke - a composer by all criteria I should like - comes across as remarkably vapid.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

elgars ghost said:


> A Schnittke binge is in the offing before too long, so I will be playing the symphony then. Segerstam on BIS. The work's designation kind of reminds me of the occasional squall which breaks out over _Das Lied von der Erde_ and whether it's a symphony, song cycle or cantata - i.e 'why call this a symphony when it's obviously just a mass?' I suppose one answer is as age-old as the question itself - it's what the composer considers it to be.


I guess it was that he wanted to write a mass but could not do so in Soviet Russia. There are quite a few pieces of his that are thinly disguised religious music.

I've now listened to the work and actually quite enjoyed it - more than I remembered. It is far too long, though.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

CnC Bartok said:


> Sorry, I'm going to sit this one out. Everything I have heard by Schnittke - a composer by all criteria I should like - comes across as remarkably vapid.


I wonder. I find much of his music uninteresting. The concerto for piano and strings was the first of his works that really pleased me. Quite a few others followed.


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