Alfred Schnittke: 3rd Symphony Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin & Vladimir Jurowski

• Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998): 3rd Symphony (1981)
• 1 I. Moderato 11:26
• 2 II. Allegro 13:23
• 3 III. Allegro pesante 08:15
• 4 IV. Adagio 19:08
• Total Runtime 52:12

Info for Alfred Schnittke: 3rd Symphony

One hundred and eleven musicians celebrating a large-scale symphony that sounds like Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, or Arnold Schoenberg. In fact, the composer of this symphony, Alfred Schnittke, had precisely these composers (and many others) in mind back in 1981. Whereas he initially mirrored certain styles from figures as Mahler, Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, he was soon also borrowing concepts from “trivial music”, folklore, jazz, tango, as well as many other styles. He himself described his compositional technique, but an aesthetic programme: a serious effort to break through the vicious circle of the self-satisfied and self-sufficient avant-garde music.

Alfred Schnittke’s 3rd Symphony testifies all this searching, this “in-betweenness”. The four-movement work – an opening Moderato, followed by an Allegro, a long movement marked Allegro pesante, with the briefer finale marked Adagio – was commissioned for the ceremonial opening of the new Gewandhaus in Leipzig. He used the prestigious commission from Leipzig as a moment to confront not only the multi-layered historical past, but also the weakened current state of affairs while remaining highly respectful of the achievements of both the past and the present.

Released in HighResAudio by Pentatone, this symphony is recorded with Vladimir Jurowski conducting the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. Jurowski states, “He (Schnittke) was not alone in his capacity of ‘seismograph of the cultural nightmares of his/our present”. The conductors insightful, unique reading and his collaboration with an orchestra who are on top form undeniably produced nothing less that a magnificent tribute to Schnittke’s great and intricate score.

Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
Rainer Wolters, Concertmaster
Heike Gneiting, piano
Tobias Berndt, organ
Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Vladimir Jurowski
has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since autumn 2017. He has also held the position of General Music Director of Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper since 2021, one of the most prestigious roles in German musical life.

One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow in 1972, and completed the first part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the Musikhochschule of Dresden and Berlin, studying conducting with Rolf Reuter and vocal coaching with Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s “May Night”, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Nabucco.

He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2000). In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. In 2021 Vladimir Jurowski stepped down from his highly-acclaimed fifteen year tenure as of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, to become their Conductor Emeritus. His close connection to British musical life was recognized by King Charles III in the spring of 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.

Until 2021 he was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra “Yevgeny Svetlanov” of the Russian Federation and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the George Enescu International Festival in Bucharest (2017 – 2021). He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts with the leading orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein and Grafenegg.

The joint album recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has received many awards for his achievements, including numerous international recording prizes.

Booklet for Alfred Schnittke: 3rd Symphony