Schnittke 3

When I started this blog, I had not planned to progress through the Schnittke symphonies so early in the year, but it seems appropriate now. The third symphony was the first of Schnittke's to be premiered in the west and it is both a tribute to Austro-German symphonies and a commentary on the difficulties of writing a symphony in the late twentieth century.

Far more cynical than the first two symphonies, the third symphony is often a cry of despair at the futility of creative composition. For me it still has enough to say - especially in the calmer last movement - to be worthwhile unlike unlike late and post-Soviet music which degenerated to utter pointlessness.