The Third Symphony by Alfred Schnittke

Alfred Schnittke

Alfred Schnittke ; November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso...

 was his fourth composition in the symphonic form, completed in 1981.

Like its predecessor, it is in four movements: an opening Moderato

Moderato

Moderato may refer to:* Moderato, an Italian musical term for a moderate tempo* Moderato Wisintainer , a Brazilian footballer who played in the first FIFA World Cup...

, followed by an Allegro

Allegro

Allegro may refer to:* Allegro * Musical tempo meaning cheerful or brisk; see Tempo#Italian tempo markings* Allegro library, a computer game programming library* Allegro , a typeface designed in 1936...

, a long movement marked Allego pesante, with the briefer finale marked Adagio

Adagio

-Music:* Adagio, a tempo marking indicating that music is to be played slowly* A composition marked to be played adagio, e.g.** Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber** Adagio for Strings , a cover of Barber's Adagio by Tiësto...

. At around 50 minutes, it is Schnittke's third longest symphony, after the First and Second symphonies.

It shares an intensity similar to the First Symphony, but unlike that work has a more traditional form, and contains no direct quotations. Nonetheless, the influence of many composers hangs over the piece (Richard Taruskin

Richard Taruskin

Richard Taruskin is an American-Russian musicologist, music historian, and critic who has written about the theory of performance, Russian music, fifteenth-century music, twentieth-century music, nationalism, the theory of modernism, and analysis. As a choral conductor he directed the Columbia...

 called the opening of the work "Wagner's Rheingold

Das Rheingold

is the first of the four operas that constitute Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen . It was originally written as an introduction to the tripartite Ring, but the cycle is now generally regarded as consisting of four individual operas.Das Rheingold received its premiere at the National Theatre...

prelude, cubed and cubed again."), not merely stylistically but in Schnittke's repeated use of composers' initials. These include Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

, Handel

HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....

, Mozart, Schoenberg

Schoenberg

Schoenberg is the surname of several persons:* Arnold Schoenberg , Austrian-American composer* Claude-Michel Schoenberg , French record producer, actor, singer, popular songwriter, and musical theatre composer...

, Stockhausen and Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...

. Further use is made of transposed words later in the work: in the third movement the word "das Böse" ("the Evil") appears as an eight-note tone row

Tone row

In music, a tone row or note row , also series and set, refers to a non-repetitive ordering of a set of pitch-classes, typically of the twelve notes in musical set theory of the chromatic scale, though both larger and smaller sets are sometimes found.-History and usage:Tone rows are the basis of...

 (D, A, E flat, A flat, B flat, E, E flat, E), with the B-A-C-H monogram dominating the final movement.

The work was premiered in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 on 5th November 1981, with Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...

 conducting the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester in Schnittke's presence. It was first recorded in 1984 by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky with the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra. A further recording appeared in the 1990s with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is a Swedish orchestra based in Stockholm.The orchestra was founded in 1902 as the Stockholm Concert Society . The orchestra became a permanent ensemble in 1914. Since 1926, it has been based in the Stockholm Concert Hall...

 under Eri Klas

Eri Klas

Eri Klas, is an Estonian conductor.Klas is of Jewish ancestry. Klas graduated as an opera and concert conductor in both Tallinn and Leningrad , beginning his conducting career at the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn and at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow...

.