Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)

Esquisses (1985)

choreographic fantasy in one act

  • General information
    • Composition date: 1985
    • Video, installation (detail, author): Chorégraphie de Andrei Petrov.
    • Duration: 47 mn
    • Publisher: Hans Sikorski
    • Libretto (details, author):

      Livret d'Andreï Petrov d'après Nikolaï Gogol.

Detailed formation
  • 2 flutes (also piccolo), 2 oboes (also English horn), 2 clarinets (also Eb clarinet, bass clarinet), 2 bassoons (also contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 5 percussions, piano [préparé] , celesta, harpsichord, electric organ, electric guitar, strings

Premiere information

  • Date: 16 January 1985
    Location:

    URSS, Moscou, Théâtre du Bolchoï


    Performers:

    Guennadi Rojdestvenski, direction.

Observations

Les mouvements 2-4, 9, 10 et 14 sont basés sur la Gogol Suite ; les mouvements 5-8 et 11-13 ont été composés pour cette œuvre et les mouvements 1 et 14 ont été composés avec Sofia Goubaïdoulina, Edison Denisov et Guennadi Rojdestvenski.

Table of contents

1. March ‘The Swan, the Crab and the Pike’
2. Overture
3. Chichikov’s Childhood
4. The Portrait
5. Major Kovalyov
6. The Nose (The Morning, The Loss of the Nose, Searching the Nose, Despair, The Nose is Found)
7. The Overcoat
8. Ferdinand VIII
9. The Civil Servants
10. The Unknown Woman (Barrel-organ, The Unknown Woman, Pas de deux, The Debauch, Sabbath, Barrel-organ)
11. Spanish Royal March
12. The Ball
13. The Testament (Ukrainian Folksong)
14. March ‘The Swan, the Crab and the Pike’