Viola Concerto (Schnittke)

It was written in the summer of 1985 (Schnittke's final work on it was on 11 July 1985, just ten days before he suffered his first stroke).

The movements are as follows: Depending on the precise tempi chosen a performance typically lasts between 35 and 40 minutes.

Almost the entire structure of the concerto is based on a 6 note motif derived from the first 6 letters of the German spelling of Yuri Bashmet's surname (Baschmet).

Further iterations of the opening music lead to the viola's cadenza and, finally, a march-like theme which slowly fades out.

[1][3] Schnittke himself commented on the music's structure as follows: "Like a premonition of what was to come," (referring to his stroke soon after finishing the Concerto), "the music took on the character of a restless chase through life (in the second movement) and that of a slow and sad overview of life on the threshold of death (in the third movement).