Critical edition based on the composer's archive materials.

The publication of Alfred Schnittke’s Collected Works is a joint project of the Compozitor Publishing House - Saint-Petersburg and the Alfred Schnittke Archive at Goldsmiths College, University of London. This critical edition is intended for performers, scholars and music lovers interested in Schnittke and his music. Its main purpose is to provide them with access to his scores, which are not readily available in Russia or elsewhere. All the scores have been checked against Schnittke’s manuscripts and existing publications of his music ?nd have been edited by leading performers who collaborated with the composer.
Musica Nostalgica for cello and piano is Schnittke’s arrangement of the Minuet from his Suite in the Old Style for violin and piano (1972), made for Mstislav Rostropovich in 1992. There is another arrangement by Schnittke of the same music for two violins, in which the composer also gives some indicat ions implying the possibility of performance by violin and cello. Musica Nostalgica was premiered by Rostropovich in 1992 in Tokyo and recorded for compact disc by Alexander Ivashkin and Irina Schnittke in 1998 on the Chandos label.
Klingende Buchstaben / Sounding Letters was written in one day in September 1988 as a birthday present for Alexander Ivashkin. As the title suggests, letters of the alphabet take on an important symbolic role in the work. Schnittke uses musical monograms based on his own name (A. Schnittke) and that of the dedicatee (Alexander Wassiljewitsch Iwaschkin) as the main material for the piece.
Klingende Buchstaben was premiered by Alexander Ivashkin at the ''Alternativa'' Moscow Festival on 28 December 1988 in the Glinka Museum Concert Hall and recorded by him in 1990 for a compact disc on the Melodiya label.
Madrigal in Memoriam Oleg Kagan was composed in 1990, the year of the violinist’s death. Schnittke collaborated with Oleg Kagan (1946-1990)