Alfred Schnittke Quotes

Alfred Schnittke was a 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. In the 1980s, Schnittke's music began to become more widely known abroad with the publication of his Second and Third String Quartets and the String Trio the ballet Peer Gynt the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Symphonies; and the Viola and 1st Cello  Concertos. As his health deteriorated, Schnittke's music started to abandon much of the extroversion of his polystylism and retreated into a more withdrawn, bleak style. In 1990, Schnittke left Russia and settled in Hamburg. His health remained poor, however. He suffered several more strokes before his death on August 3, 1998, in Hamburg, at the age of 63. He was buried, with state honors, at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, where many other prominent Russian composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich, are interred.