Dmitry Shostakovich (1906-1975) • Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)

Piano Quintets

As the leading Soviet composers of the mid- and late twentieth century, Dmitry Shostakovich (1906- 1975) and Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) shared certain characteristics: musically, a frequent recourse to symphonic writing, with fifteen and nine symphonies respectively; socially, having to endure constant pressure from the authorities, whether the ruthless directives of Stalin, or the repressive conformism of Brezhnev. While Schnittke never studied with the older composer, his assuming of Shostakovich’s mantle was something he himself was aware of, and nowhere is the connection between the two more apparent than in the piano quintets, written at relative turning-points in their careers. For Shostakovich, this meant the consolidation of a more classical approach to large-scale form in the wake of his Fifth Symphony, for Schnittke, the arrival at a pluralist approach to composition, wi