Suite in the Old Style

Pastorale: moderato -

Ballet : allegro

Minuet: tempo di minuetto -

Fugue: allegro -

Pantomime: andantino

While acquiring a reputation as a rebel in the Soviet Union, and as a free-thinking hero in the world outside, Alfred Schnittke also had to make a living - which he couldn’t hope to do through performances of the orchestral and chamber works which the Russian authorities found so outrageously distasteful in the 1970s and 1980s. So he applied himself to writing literally dozens and dozens of film scores, wearing himself out in the process but achieving at the same time the stylistic mastery and the facility for pastiche and parody which are such prominent features of his most important works for the concert hall.

The Suite in the Old Style, which was first performed by Mark Lubotsky and Liubov Yedlina in Moscow in 1972, is a direct product of his work for the cinema: the Pastorale and the Ballet were written for a film about the adventures of a dentist, the Minuet and Pantomime for children’s cartoons, and the Fugue for a documentary called Sport, sport, sport. Unexpectedly for anyone at all familiar with Schnittke’s later music, it is more or less straight baroque pastiche with scarcely a hint of irony and with only the occasional deliberately incongruous harmony. The modulation joining the end of the Pastorale to the beginning of the Ballet is obviously not meant to be in period, like the subtle cross-rhythms in the Minuet, and the Fugue is not quite a fugue, but it is only in the middle section of the Pantomime that the playful side of Schnittke’s personality make its presence unmistakably felt.

arranged for chamber orchestra by Vladimir Spivakov and Vladimir Milman

Pastorale: moderato –

Ballet : allegro

Minuet: tempo di minuetto –

Fugue: allegro –

Pantomime: andantino

While acquiring a reputation as a rebel in the Soviet Union and as a free-thinking hero in the world outside, Alfred Schnittke also had to make a living – which he couldn’t hope to do through performances of the orchestral and chamber works which the Soviet authorities found so outrageously distasteful in the 1970s and 1980s. So he applied himself to writing literally dozens and dozens of film scores, wearing himself out in the process but achieving at the same time the stylistic mastery and the facility for pastiche and parody which are such prominent features of his most important works for the concert hall.

The Suite in the Old Style of 1972 – written originally for violin and piano but performed on this occasion in a stylish arrangement for chamber orchestra – is a direct product of his work for the cinema. The Pastorale and the Ballet were written for a film about the adventures of a dentist with the magical powers of extracting teeth painlessly, the Minuet and Pantomime for children’s cartoons, and the Fugue for a documentary called Sport, sport, sport. Unexpectedly for anyone at all familiar with Schnittke’s later music, it is more or less straight baroque pastiche with scarcely a hint of irony and with only the occasional deliberately incongruous harmony. The modulation joining the end of the Pastorale to the beginning of the Ballet is obviously not meant to be in period, like the modest cross-rhythms in the Minuet, and the Fugue is not quite a fugue. But it is only in the middle section of the Pantomime, fancifully scored by Spivakov and Milman, that the mischievous side of Schnittke’s personality makes its presence unmistakably felt. The ending is surprising too.