Schnittke: Works for Violin and Piano

Daniel Hope's new album Schnittke: Works for Violin and Piano, was recorded with Ukrainian pianist Alexey Botvinov, an acclaimed interpreter of the composer's works. The programme embraces everything from the immediately accessible Polka and Tango to the multi-layered Violin Sonata No.1, the work that first ignited Hope's passion for Schnittke's music.
Daniel Hope was fifteen when he first encountered the music of Alfred Schnittke in 1989. The experience launched a love affair with the Russian composer's work that has continued to deepen ever since. The violinist's latest album pays homage to this maverick genius, whose elegant explorations of past styles and free-thinking experiments in "polystylism" were both original and iconoclastic, at times bringing him into conflict with the Soviet authorities.