Schnittke 2 "St Florian"

Inspired by a visit to the St Florian monastery where Bruckner played the organ and is buried, Schnittke's Second Symphony is another post-modern work but less diverse and radical than his first. That said, it still has contrasting sections of consonant religous singing and dissonant orchestral writing. But here the religous, strongly melodic music gradually takes over and the work moves to a serene ending. It is a masterful and moving piece of music, obviously related to the work of other composers in the communist countries like Part and Gorecki who simplified their style moving from modernism to "holy minimalism".