Piano Sonata No. 1 (1987)
Piano Sonata No. 2 (1990)
Piano Sonata No. 3 (1992)

Ragna Schirmer (piano)

Berlin Classics 0017292BC

Recording: 2000

Having lived with these piano sonatas for some time before preparing this review, I can say that, in my opinion, these three works are of very considerable stature … even greatness. They are perhaps the most significant additions to the repertoire in the second half of the 20th Century. So there, I’ve said it. The only problem is I don’t think I like them … and why? Because they constantly challenge the listener. They are never or rarely easy listening. They are never easy playing. Even when not technically difficult they are emotionally charged or they demand a particular touch or sensitive pedalling. Sometimes, as with the opening of the 1st Sonata, they are so delicate that they are almost too sensitive to speak. Sometimes, as with the great climax of the 2nd Sonata, they are so violent and loud as to appear to be out of control with anger.

Another typical Schnittke mannerism is the charming and delightfully tuneful way he may begin a movement. Examples include the second movement of the 2nd sonata or the first movement of the 3rd sonata. Listen too to the little melody which begins the 2nd movement of the 1st sonata, and then watch and listen whilst the melody is destroyed systematically and wastes away into a black hole.

The 1st sonata, in four movements, lasts over thirty minutes and makes considerable demands on the listener. The 2nd is in three movements and lasts less than twenty minutes. It makes many technical demands on the pianist. The 3rd sonata in four movements makes heavy demands on everyone but seems to me, in its concentrated span of just fifteen minutes, to be the finest of the three works; that is not to decry the first two. Each is dedicated to a different pianist. The dedicatee of the second is the composer’s wife, Irena.

The booklet notes by Ewa Burzawa, which are translated from the German, are quite excellent. I could have quoted great chunks from them in this review. Any music lover would grasp their meaning and learn much in the process. There is an introduction to Schnittke himself then some helpful and not too technical advice as to the way it is best to listen to these complex works. There is no doubt that these notes open the door of understanding of some of the technicalities. This is necessary if the music is to be more deeply grasped. How true it is that Schnittke "upheld the classical forms which always predominated in Russian or Soviet music – even if only in variant form or as an allusion to them". I think she might even be referring to the 3rd Sonata’s second movement where, one might suggest, the Allegro marking is a reference to a classical Scherzo movement. That is certainly the way it seems to me.

I cannot speak too highly of pianist Ragna Schirmer. Curiously enough, though not inappropriately, she is something of a Bach specialist. She has adapted the necessary precision and anti-Romantic touch perfectly to Schnittke. I have never heard anyone else play these pieces, and other interpretations would throw some fascinating insight onto the myriad possibilities inherent in these scores. Nevertheless Schirmer is superb, not always helped by the rather brittle recorded sound of the top register which Schnittke regularly demands.

There is a consistency of language in these pieces and a distillation of sonata writing technique in the five or so years which cover their composition. They have integrity. Ultimately, future generations may well come to regard them as benchmarks in the piano literature of the late 20th Century.

Gary Higginson
MusicWeb, November 2002

By the time he completed his First Piano Sonata, Schnittke had considerably modified his stylistic approach in that the polystylism that informed many of his earlier works, had been cast off, or – at least – drastically mastered, so that many of Schnittke’s later works have a greater stylistic coherence. The music of the First Piano Sonata is dark and introvert. The sonata was actually composed after the First Cello Concerto and just before the intense, almost Mahlerian Fifth Symphony. The music, in turn tense, dramatic, sometimes ironic (as in the second movement), is serious, conveying some intense, personal emotions.

The Second Piano Sonata, dedicated to the composer’s wife, Irina Katayeva, who gave the first performance in 1991, begins almost innocently with a tender, romantic theme that progressively gains in intensity until it reaches an abruptly cut-short climax after which the music disintegrates into some unfathomable abyss. The slow movement is a Sarabande in the form of a chorale and variations. The mostly quick and nervous Finale restates the second movement’s chorale which becomes brutally distorted as the music unfolds. It is torn to pieces. Loud chords follow. The chorale tries to re-assert itself, but in vain. The sonata ends in utter silence.

The Third Piano Sonata is the most substantial of the three. It is in four movements: hesitant, isolated sounds slowly try to find their way towards a restrained chorale that finally emerges before receding into silence. There follows a hectic Scherzo with insistent rhythms punctuated by clusters. The slow movement is a sorrowful, dark-hued ręverie with some impassioned, short-lived outbursts, that unfolds in simple counterpoint. The long Finale brings all main ideas from the preceding movements into harsh conflict, ruthlessly interrupted by angry clusters. The music here never really achieves any sort of reconciliation but bluntly suffocates. No real Finale here.

Schnittke’s piano output is fairly limited, and the three piano sonatas are his most substantial piano works as well as some of his finest pieces. They share many common features with their orchestral contemporaries, and clearly reflect the composer’s deepest emotions and feelings at the time of writing. The music is often bleak, austere though with some irony (the Third Piano Sonata may well be the bleakest of the three); and Schnittke’s religious pre-occupations are also reflected in the chorales that keep appearing in these otherwise pessimistic works.

This release is, to the best of my knowledge, the only one so far bringing Schnittke’s piano sonatas together. They make a very coherent whole as such, both in terms of emotional content as well of musical language. They all three are deeply serious works of substance that repay closer examination and repeated hearings, especially in such fine readings as those by Ragna Schirmer, which I find completely convincing. Recommended.

Hubert Culot
MusicWeb, November 2002