Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)
Alfred Schnittke was a Soviet composer, music teacher, and theoretician. He composed several really beautiful works and many works written in the avant-garde style. One of his beautiful melodies is a waltz tune that he wrote as part of a film score for the film “Story of an Unknown Actor.” In the original film score, the waltz was not written as a complete piece, but instead was featured in various fragments in the score.
Conductor Frank Strobel took the various fragments and put them together into an orchestral arrangement of the Waltz (which is known as the Waltz of Farewell.) This is the only complete arrangement of this piece that I have come across. The composer to my knowledge never bothered to put the musical fragments together into a complete piece of music. Here is the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Frank Strobel performing Strobel’s arrangement of the Waltz of Farewell by Alfred Schnittke. I hope that you enjoy this music.
Musical Treats 