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Alfred Schnittke: Concerto for Electric Instruments

This research project and performance are one example of Ivashkin’s work in rediscovering Schnittke’s music and bringing it to prestigious public performance. He discovered the score of the unique Concerto for Electric Instruments, thought lost for 50 years, at the Schnittke family archive in Moscow. It was originally written for early Russian electronic instruments, virtually none of which are in working order at present. However, one authentic instrument was obtained for the premiere, the thereminvox invented by the Russian Lev Theremin. For the rest, research involved finding the equivalent of the original timbres on modern keyboards, by sourcing and analysing the historical recordings of early electronic instruments that fortunately survive at the Moscow Electronic Music Studios. It remained then to decide on the appropriate interpretation of the many notational challenges of this unusual score.

This reconstruction is related to the authoritative Schnittke Critical Edition project, based at Goldsmiths under the aegis of its Alfred Schnittke Archive, in collaboration with the State Compozitor Publishing House, St Petersburg; the Alfred Schnittke Institute, Moscow; the Juilliard School, New York; and the Schnittke Internationale Gesellschaft, the Schnittke Akademie and the Hans Sikorski Musikverlage in Hamburg. As General Editor, Ivashkin researches all the primary material: autographs, previous editions, sketches and letters, recordings supervised by the composer, and consultations with the original performers. Sub-editors in St Petersburg prepare the editions for publication, with introductory essays by Ivashkin based on his detailed research into composition and performance history and his direct personal knowledge of the ciphers, monograms, quotations and allusions that underpin so much of Schnittke’s output.

Recent volumes comprise: III/8, 10, 19; IV/5; VI/1/1–5, VI/2/1–2; VII/1–3 (St Petersburg: Compozitor, 2009–2013, supported by the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Schnittke Foundation and the Russian Government).