Nicolas Stavy * Alfred Schnittke: Pno Music Vol. 1 [New CD]

Pianist Nicolas Stavy, who has already made recordingsdevoted to works by Boris Tishchenko (BIS-2189) andDmitri Shostakovich (BIS-2550), now presents the firstinstalment of a complete survey of Alfred Schnittke'scompositions for solo piano. This recording presentsworks from various periods of the Russian-Germancomposer's career - from the 1950s, which thecomposer described as the 'years of obscurity', to the1990s, a time shaped both by world fame and seriousillness. While Schnittke wrote relatively little music forthe piano, each work reflects - or sometimes anticipates- the phases of the composer's creative development.The Five Preludes and Fugue and the Prelude and Fuguebelong to Schnittke's first creative phase, when he wasstill under the influence of Shostakovich. The Little PianoPieces, composed for the composer's six-year-old son,are an example of his 'polystylism', juxtaposing andcombining music of various styles from the past andpresent. The Sonata No. 2 and the Five Aphorisms, bothfrom 1990, return to a more ascetic and abstractlanguage, with a bleaker tone, no doubt echoing hisserious health problems.