Denis Matsuev & Chamber Orchestra Vienna-Berlin Presented by Liszt Academy

There is an unusual gravestone in Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow. It comprises five lines inscribed in the centre; then fermata over a whole rest, over a fortississimo. Perhaps it would not be possible to find a better way of signifying the fate of Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998). He came from a German-Jewish family (thus the sch at the beginning of his name), but he spent his life in the Soviet Union. A musician desirous of new ways, who although not harmed by the authorities, was not loved by them either. Instead, he was merely tolerated, which made him an authority for the younger generations. From his very varied oeuvre, the audience has the chance to get acquainted with a piano concerto with string orchestra accompaniment written in 1979 in a performance by the native of Irkutsk pianist phenomenon. The world knows him as a multifaceted musician, however he is primarily a devotee of Romantic composers, which is why we can expect his Schnittke interpretation to be very special. The pensive, sad, sometimes wildly impulsive music is finely counterbalanced by one of Mozart’s most beautiful and energetic divertimentos, and Dvořák’s five-movement string serenade.