Schnittke, Shostakovich: Lento

Alexei Lubimov, Keller Quartett

Released on 10/02/2003 by ECM New Series
Main artists: Alexei Lubimov Keller Quartett
Genre: Classical

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Joining together Schnittke's piano quintet with Shostakovich's last string quartet on a single disc was inspired. Both works were composed in the mid-'70s in the U.S.S.R., but more importantly, both works are intimately concerned with dying and death: Schnittke wrote his piano quintet on the death of his mother and Shostakovich wrote his last string quartet the summer before he himself died. But while the works have many things in common -- a tonal language that moves freely from consonance to dissonance and an emotional intensity that can grow almost unbearable -- there is one fundamental difference between them: Schnittke's is a public work of mourning and consolation while Shostakovich's is a private work that is not so much about dying as it itself enacts the processes of dying. In this 2002 recording of the quintet and the quartet, the Keller Quartet is joined by pianist Aleksei Lubimov in performances of immense strength and awful power. The Keller is a superlative young quartet whose severe tone and austere colors are wonderfully appropriate for the music. Lubimov is an affecting pianist whose playing brings tremendous depth and gravity to the quintet. Indeed, Lubimov and the Keller's performance of the quintet may be the most affecting ever recorded, moving from grief through mourning to comfort and consolation. While the Keller Quartet is equally well performed, its interpretation may be too dramatic and demonstrative for some listeners, making too public a process that is fundamentally private. But even those listeners will still be deeply moved by their anguished performance. ECM's sound is completely transparent and thoroughly unobtrusive.
© TiVo

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Schnittke, Shostakovich: Lento

Alexei Lubimov

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Piano Quintet (Alfred Schnittke)

1. Moderato

Alexei Lubimov

00:06:49

Alfred Schnittke, Composer - Keller Quartett, Ensemble, MainArtist - Alexei Lubimov, Piano, MainArtist, AssociatedPerformer - János Pilz, Violin, AssociatedPerformer - Zoltán Gál, Viola, AssociatedPerformer - András Keller, Violin, AssociatedPerformer - Manfred Eicher, Producer - Judit Szabó, Cello, AssociatedPerformer - Peter Länger, Recording Engineer, StudioPersonnel