Alfred Schnittke - Improvisation and Fugue (Orlando Bass)

Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) Improvisation and Fugue, for solo piano, 1965 performed by Orlando Bass, a track from the album "Modern Piano Recital Vol.2", published by IndéSens, recorded by Nikolaos Samaltanos and under Dimitri Tchesnokov's artistic direction. Improvisation and Fugue for Piano by the Russian-German Alfred Schnittke, is an early piece already bursting with the composer’s characteristic sardonic sense of humour and caustic irony. Despite fierce Soviet opposition to serialism, Schnittke’s 1965 piano work obstinately asserts a twelve-tone row repeatedly from the start. Adding insult to injury, the same sequence then becomes the fugue’s main theme. A second subject, also based on the initial tone series, enters over a walking bass line that would not be out of place in free jazz circles. The two subjects then combine and interact as in a classical double-fugue, increasing in density until they explode into clusters, destroying any final remnants of counterpoint. The work terminates with snippets and fragments of earlier elements deployed aimlessly like scattered ruins, a type of ending that Schnittke was to adopt in several subsequent pieces. I. Improvisation 00:00 II. Fugue 01:44