David Dalle
Thursday November 28th, 2013 with David Dalle
Schnittke's 8th symphony; Sidi Touré; music from Mali, Niger, Corsica and more

Today we start with some music from Mali and Niger, including the 3rd release from Sidi Touré, a Songhai musician from Gao in northern Mali. This is his first release since Gao went through the trauma of changing hands between Mali and Tuareg rebels, before being recaptured by Mali helped by France in January of this year. On this recent release, Sidi Touré sings poignantly of peace and conflict in his home. We also continue the Alfred Schnittke symphony cycle with his penultimate symphony, no.8 from 1994. As with the previous 2 symphonies from the same period, the 8th is largely coloured by his declining health after several strokes. A cruel irony because his music was becoming fairly popular in Europe and North America with a large number of concerts, recordings, and commissions. The 8th was dedicated to Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky who premiered his 1st symphony in 1974, and premiered the 8th 20 years later in Stockholm. We hear the same forces in a recording made after the premiere in Stockholm. The 8th symphony is in 5 movements, opening with a strange 8 bar theme featuring large intervals, this theme is repeated 22 times shifting between different instruments and instrument groups in the orchestra, with the harmonies of the theme becoming increasingly muddled and mysterious, until finally the theme is heard almost isolated on the piccolo, only accompanied by some soft blows on the tam-tam. The second movement is short, quick with hints of menace and violence before ending abruptely. This leads into the longest movement, a slow lento which recalls Liszt and Bruckner. A great, though restrained and often sparsely instrumented lamentation. The 4th movement is another short, violent outburst, ending with the same same tam-tam strikes as the first movement, however it leads into a short coda. And though the 'heart' of this work is always said to be the great lento, I believe it is the brief coda which is most significant. Unlike the 6th and 7th symphonies which end in bleak despair (6th) or bitter sardonicism (7th), the coda to the 8th has the orchestra ascending, reaching for peaceful, spiritual, transcendence. A magical ending to a truly magnificent work. Schnittke's 8th symphony is one of his greatest works.