Alexander Ivashkin

Alexander Vasilievich Ivashkin , (17 August 1948 – 31 January 2014) was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor. He was a professor of music and the Chair of Performance Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London since 1999, the director of the Centre for Russian Music, and the curator of the Alfred Schnittke Archive. In 1996, he published the first English-language biography of the composer Alfred Schnittke.

Early life and education Ivashkin was born in Blagoveshchensk on 17 August 1948. He first played piano, and cello was a necessary part of his school curriculum. His education in cello and piano continued

Ivashkin completed an M.Mus. in cello, piano, and historical musicology from the Russian Music Academy, a D.M.A. from the Russian Music Academy, a Ph.D. from the Russian State Institute for Arts Studies, and a D.Mus. from the Russian State Institute for Arts Studies. In the 1980s, he taught at the Gnessen Institute and then left the Soviet Union in 1990 for a teaching position at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He became the curator of Alfred Schnittke Archive at Goldsmiths, which began when he arrived, Naxos, Melodiya, RCA, Brilliant Classics, and Toccata Classics. After Ivashkin's death, the cello was named the 'Ivashkin Joseph Guarneri filius andreae of 1710' cello in honor of Ivashkin and provided to cellist Soo Bae as a five-year loan. Best CD in last 5 years – 'Fanfare', US. "Alfred Schnittke – Chamber Music". With Mark Lubotsky, violin, Irina Schnittke, piano, Theodore Kuchar, viola. Naxos 8-554728, 2000. Best CD of the year, BBC Music Magazine. "Unknown Prokofiev -Concerto for cello &orchestra op.58, Concertino op 132, orchestrated by Vladimir Blok, Cadenza by Alfred Schnittke". With Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valery Poliansky. Chandos, CHAN 9890, 2001.World premiere recording. The Strad Selection, July 2001. "Nikolai Roslavets . Complete Music for cello and piano". With Tatyana Lazareva, piano. Chandos, CHAN 9881, 2001. CD of the month, BBC Music Magazine, April 2001. "Sofia Gubaidulina. Works for Cello". With Natalia Pavlutskaya, cello, Rachel Johnston, cello, Miranda Wilson, cello, Malcolm Hicks, organ. Chandos, CHAN 9958, 2001. World premiere recording. "Nikolai Korndorf. Passacaglia for cello solo" (dedicated to Alexander Ivashkin), String Trio, Piano Trio. With Patricia Kopachinskaya, violin, Daniel Raiskin, viola, Ivan Sokolov, piano. Megadisc 7817, 2001. World premiere recording. "Dmitry Smirnov. (Introduction to Dmitri Smirnov) Piano Trio, Sonata for cello and piano, Elegy for cello solo (in memory of Edison Denisov)". With Patricia Kopachinskaya, violin, Ivan Sokolov, piano (and Alissa Firsova, piano). Megadisc 7818, 2001. World premiere recording. "Sergei Prokofiev . Sinfonia-Concertante, op. 125". With Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valery Poliansky.. Chandos, CHAN 9989, 2002 . "Nikolai Myaskovsky. Cello Concerto". With Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valery Poliansky. Chandos, CHAN 10025, 2002 . "Sergei Prokofiev. Complete Cello/piano Music". With Tatyana Lazareva, piano. Chandos, CHAN 10045, 2003. "Sergei Rakhmaninoiv. Complete Cello/piano Music". With Rustem Hayroudinoff, piano. Chandos CHAN 10095, 2004. "Alfred Schnittke. Concerto Grosso No 2". With Tatyana Grindenko, violin, Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valery Poliansky. Chandos, CHAN 10180, 2004. "Giya Kancheli. Simi; Mourned by the wind for cello and orchestra". With Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valery Poliansky Chandos 10297, 2005. "Dmitri Shostakovich. Cello Concertos, Nos 1 and 2". With Russian State Symphony Orchestra under Valery Poliansky. Brilliant Classics 7620, 2006 "Alfred Schnittke. Concerto for Three, Dialogue". 'Chandos' (in preparation). "Alexander Ivashkin plays Schnittke" (Double CD). Complete Cello Concertos and Sonatas. Chandos, CHAN 241–39, 2007. Best Re-issue of the month – Gramophone "Due Celli (Music by Pergolesi, Vivaldi, Boccherini, Boismortier, Mozart, and Schnittke)". With Natalia Pavlutskaya, cello. Alma Classics 5031, 2007. "Hommage a Anna Akhmatova." (includes Beethoven Sonata op 102, No 1; Bach – Solo cello BWV 1010; Britten – Solo Cello Suite No. 3; Kancheli – ' Nach dem Weinen' for solo cello', World premiere recording; Shostakovich – Cello Concerto No 2). Alma Classics 5022, 2008. "Alexander Ivashkin plays Prokofiev" (Double CD). Complete Cello Concertos and Sonatas. Chandos, CHAN 241–41, 2008. "Pacific Voyage". With Ora Barlow and Kim Halliday. Alma Classics 5028, 2009. "Edison Denisov. The Blue Notebook". World premiere recording. With Elena Komarova, soprano, Vladimir Smekhov, reciter, Tigran Alikhanov, piano. Moscow: Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire SMC CD 0106, 2009. "Alfred Schnittke: Discoveries. Yellow Sound, Dialogue for cello and instrumental ensemble, Variations for String Quartet". World premiere recording. Alexander Ivashkin, cello/voice. London: Toccata Classics TOCC 0091, 2010. "Russian Cello Concertos 1960–2000. With various orchestras." Concertos by Denisov, Schnittke, Vustin, Shchedrin, including first recordings. Alma Classics, MANU 5029, 2010. "Nikolay Korndorf. Complete Music for Cello." With Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Konstantin Krimets. Anya Alexeev, piano. First recordings. London: Toccata Classics, TOCC 0128, 2012. Ivashkin plays Gubaidulina, Tarnopolski and Redgate. Alma Classics 5032, 2013 Britten .Complete Music for Cello Solo and Cello and Piano. With Andrew Zolinsky (piano). Including world premiere recording of Britten's Sonata for cello and piano in A. Brilliant Classics 94729, 2013.

Publications Selected books Krzysztof Penderecki. Moscow: Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1983. 126 pp. Charl'z Aivz i muzyka XX vieka [Charles Ives and the 20th-century music]. Moscow: Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1991. 464 pp. Besedy s Alfredom Schnittke [Conversations with Alfred Schnittke ]. Moscow: The Culture Publishersg, 1994. 304 pp. Second, revised edition: Moscow: Klassica-XXI, 2003, 316 pp. German Edition: Munich: 1999. Japanese Edition: Tokyo, 2002. Alfred Schnittke. London: Phaidon Press, 1996, 240 pp. Rostrospective (On the Life and Achievement of Mstislav Rostropovich). Frankfurt-Schweinfurth: Reimund Maier Verlag, 1997. 142 pp. A Schnittke Reader. Bloomington /Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2002. 352pp. Alfred Schnittke: Stat'I o muzyke [Articles on music]. Edited by Alexander Ivashkin. Moscow: Kompozitor, 2003. 407 pp. Rostropovich. Tokyo: Shunjusha Publishing Company, 2007. 280 pp. Contemplating Shostakovich: Life, Music and Film . Edited by Alexander Ivashkin and Andrew Kirkman. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012 Schnittke Studies. Edited by Gavin Dixon and Alexander Ivashkin. Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press (in progress).

Selected articles 'John Cage in Soviet Russia'. Tempo, 67/266, October 2013, 18–27. 'Shostakovich, Old Believers and New Minimalists’. Contemplating Shostakovich: Life, Music and Film. Edited by Alexander Ivashkin and Andrew Kirkman. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012, 17–40. 'Kod Schnittke' ['The Schnittke Code']. Al'fredu Schnittke posviashchaetsia [Dedicated to Alfred Schnittke: Schnittke Yearbook, 8]. Moscow: Kompozitor, 2011: 13–24. "Symbols, Metaphors and Irrationalities in Twentieth-Century Music." Cataño, Rafael Jiménez and Yarza, Ignacio (ed.). Mimesi, Verità e Fiction. Roma: Edusc, 2009, 69–87. "Cooling the Volcano: Prokofiev’s Cello Concerto Op. 58 and ‘Symphony-Concerto’ Op. 125". Three Oranges, Journal of the Serge Prokofiev Foundation, No. 18 (November 2009): 7–14. "Podsolnukh [Sunflower]. Rostropovich in memoriam". Muzykal'naya Academia. Moscow, 2007/3: 1 – 16. Short English version: Radius Solis. Three Oranges, Journal of the Serge Prokofiev Foundation, No. 14 (November 2007): 25–27. "Dvoinaya pererabotka otkhodov v sovetskoi muzyke [Double recycling in Soviet music]". Iskusstvo XX veka: elite i massy [ The 20th-century Art: Elite and Masses]. Nizhny Novgorod: The Glinka Conservatoire Press, 2005, 12–18. "Logic of Absurdity or Taste of Freedom? Alexander Knaifel and his opera 'Alice in Wonderland'". Tempo, 219 (2002): 34–36 "Alfred Schnittke." New Grove Dictionary. London: Macmillan. 2001 (with Ivan Moody) ‘…und wenn es mir den Hals bricht’. "Zum Gedenken an Alfred Schnittke". MusikTexte. Heft 78, March 1999, 27- 31. "Shostakovich and Schnittke: the erosion of symphonic syntax". D.Fanning (ed.) Shostakovich Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, 252–268. "The Paradox of Russian Non-Liberty". The Musical Quarterly, vol. 76, no. 4 (1992): 543–556 "Die Musik als grosse Buhne". Kagel . . . 1991. Köln: DuMont Buchverlag, 1991, 110–119 "Charles Ives: Otkrytie Ameriki". Zapadnoye Iskusstvo. XX vek. [Charles Ives: Discovery of the America. In Western Art. 20th Century]. Moscow: Nauka, 1991, 222–247 "Sowietische Musik. Von der Struktur zum Symbol". Sowietische Musik im Licht der Perestroika. Berlin: Laaber, 1990, 109–117 "Post-October Soviet Art: Canon and Symbol". The Musical Quarterly, vol. 74, no. 2 (1990): 350–368

Music scores edited Sergei Rakhmaninov. Melody on a Theme for cello and piano. First publication. Edited and prefaced by Alexander Ivashkin. Hamburg: Hans Sikorski Musikverlage (in preparation). Alfred Schnittke. Collected Works. Critical Edition in sixty-seven volumes. Compiled and prefaced by Alexander Ivashkin. St.Petersburg: Compozitor, 2007 – . Alexander Ivashkin, editor-in-chief (in progress). Alexander Grechaninov. Cello Concerto ( 1895). Performance edition from the manuscript. Moscow: State Symphony Capella, 1998. Frangiz Ali-Zade. Habil-Sayahy for cello and piano. Edited and prefaced by Alexander Ivashkin. Hamburg, Hans Sikorski Internationale Musikverlage, 1991. Twentieth-century American piano music. Compiled, prefaced and commented on by Alexander Ivashkin and Andrei Khitruk. Moscow: Muzyka State Publishers, 1991. Charles Ives. Works for Orchestra. Critical Edition. Compiled, prefaced and commented on by Alexander Ivashkin. Kiev: Muzychna Ukraina, 1990.