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Who was Alfred Schnittke? In the West, the reply comes off pat: a political martyr, a professional invalid, and the inventor of something called musical "polystylism". To Russians he was quite simply a hero, whose works were performed, in the dark Soviet days, amid fanatical pop- concert fervour. A year after his death following his fifth and final stroke, a new musical resource in London may close the gulf between these caricatured perceptions.
Last month the Schnittke Archive was set up at the Centre for Russian Music at Goldsmiths College in London. Ask Alexander Ivashkin, the curator, who Schnittke was, and you will get an impassioned reply.
"He was the last great symphonist in the Romantic tradition, and the most important composer after Shostakovich. The elements of his compositions may seem simple, but he took us to the deepest foundations of musical language." Schnittke, he says, was an innovator in the Beethoven mould, reintegrating traditional elements to forge a new style.
On the reason for his compatriots' pop-concert fervour, Ivashkin is equally clear. "Schnittke's music speaks about more than itself. Perhaps we Russians could hear things in it which Western ears could not." When the Sixties thaw ended, and censorship was reimposed, true culture acquired urgent significance. "Soviet art became a substitute for everyday reality, which had become a nightmare charade. Many Russians felt their `real' life could...