Hero's symphony.

"A Little Composition and a Little Archaeology"
The New York Times, November 7, 2007

An article about the completion of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke's Symphony No. 9, which will receive its American premiere tonight (Nov. 7) in a Juilliard Orchestra concert conducted by Dennis Russell Davies at Avery Fisher Hall.

The story deals with the process by which Schnittke's final symphony was brought to a performable state, and addresses Davies's own recent health crisis, which thankfully appears to be a thing of the past. Also mentioned is Raskatov's Nunc dimittis, an original epilogue to the Schnittke piece that will be included in tonight's concert. Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe, bassoon and orchestra completes the bill.

I'm pretty giddy about the way this article turned out -- a feeling very much bolstered by the way it appears on the Times website, with a gorgeous photo of Davies by Michael Falco (borrowed above) and a streaming MP3 excerpt of the symphony's first movement recorded during a rehearsal by the Dresden Philharmonic, which gave the world premiere with Davies in June.

While you're visiting the Times site, by the way, don't miss Bernard Holland's characteristically erudite, elegantly written review of a Monday night concert in which Davies and Mari Namekawa played Zemlinsky's two-piano arrangement of Beethoven's opera, Fidelio.

Playlist:

Alfred Schnittke - Symphony No. 2, "St. Florian"; Symphony No. 8; Census List Suite - Russian State Symphony Orchestra/Valeri Polyansky (Chandos)

Kiss - Alive! 1975-2000 (Mercury)

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis; Five Variants of "Dives and Lazarus"; Job - A Masque for Dancing - London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vernon Handley (Classics for Pleasure)

Comments

[Jesse]

Lovely piece, Steve.
I didn't know Mr. Davies had been ill, may he flourish!