Composer Alfred Schnittke would have celebrated his 80th birthday today.
We recently wrote about the publication of Bálint András Varga’s Drei Fragen an 73 Komponisten, for which he interviewed the composer. You can find a German excerpt of Varga’s interview with Schnittke on nmz.
“What constitutes musical truth? Is there really such a thing as musical authenticity (by which I don't mean using period instruments, or playing without vibrato) in the sense of giving voice to an absolute sincerity of emotional or expressive utterance? […] The huge output of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke raises these sorts of questions – and some even more profound ones about musical meaning and historical signification.”
Tom Service writes about the music of Alfred Schnittke.