Alfred SCHNITTKE (1934-1998)
Film Music Volume 5
Tagessterne/The Stars of the Day (USSR, 1966) [17:18]
Der Liebling des Publikums/The Favourite - The White Poodle (USSR, 1985) [15:33]
Vater Sergius/Father Sergius (USSR, 1978) [20:56]
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Frank Strobel
rec. 7-9 March 2018 and 15 June 2019, Haus des Rundfunks, Berlin
CAPRICCIO C5350 [53:47]
This follows on from the Schnittke Film Music Edition that brought together Frank Strobel’s arrangements and compilations to date in an admirable four CD set (review). The booklet notes for this fifth volume remind us that Frank Strobel began his work on this project when Schnittke was still alive and encouraging in the plan to turn his film scores into concert suites. Strobel has now arranged around a third of Schnittke’s 60 or more film music pieces, and so we can presumably expect more from this source.
The Stars of the Day is the lyrical, often luminously orchestrated accompaniment to a film that follows the autobiography of Olga Bergholz. Olga’s remarkable life as a writer and poet includes the siege of Leningrad, arrest and the suppression of her work during the Stalin Regime and a great deal of suffering, including the loss of her husband and four of her children. There are ‘barrel organ’ effects, with a simple waltz evoking street scenes against which the moments of violence contrast all the more starkly. There is a gloriously humorous Foxtrott and some inspired and inspiring passages that make this a rather special addition to the Schnittke catalogue.
The Favourite is a 1985 film by Alexander Zguridi that uses Alexander Kuprin’s children’s book The White Poodle as the basis for its narrative. An old organ grinder and an orphan recover Arto, the royal white poodle who has been stolen, of course with lots of adventures on the way. Regal marches, a Shostakovich-like waltz, a tensely atmospheric scene In Front of the Mirror and a jovial Ragtime all make for an entertaining and compact little suite of cinematic nuggets.
Father Sergius is a story by Leo Tolstoy, and was in fact his last work. Set in St. Petersburg in the late 1840s, the wedding of a young Guards officer Prince Stephan is poisoned by the discovery that his bride has been the Tsar’s lover. Stephan enters a monastery, ends up as a hermit and becomes sought after as a saint. Igor Talankin’s film mixes Stephan’s life as a monk with flashbacks to his former life and his childhood, and this is reflected in a score that combines waltzes and dances both innocent and sweepingly redolent of the ballroom, alongside military marches and a deeply pensive and highly ascetic and desolate Monologue - the transition from which into the final Epilogue with wordless chorus being about a precious moment in music indeed. Unity in the score arises from Talankin’s request that Schnittke use a waltz once composed by Tolstoy throughout his score, and so this suite generates a more symphonic impression than the others.
Superbly played and recorded, this is another valuable addition to the Schnittke catalogue and of course to the Capriccio label’s intrepid ongoing project, which we can only hope delivers more.
Dominy Clements
