Alfred Schnittke, who wanted his extensive creative output for film productions brought to life in concert halls as well, approached Frank Strobel in 1993; he asked him to create concert suites from his wide selection of around sixty film music compositions, and conferred upon him the right to rework these compositions for that purpose. This ongoing endeavor with Schnittke’s film scores and orchestra material ? in cooperation with the Sikorski Musikverlage in Hamburg, Germany ? has so far led to the publication of 14 concert hall productions, adapted and arranged by Frank Strobel. The year 1996 witnessed the start of the exclusive recording of these works as productions of Deutschlandradio Berlin, performed by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with Frank Strobel conducting. Four concert suites have been released as CDs on the cpo CD label, and an additional eight as three SACDs on the Capriccio label. In 2005 and 2006, the first two SACDs released by Capriccio were awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for recording excellence. On November 5, 2005 the concert suites The Commissar andThe Life-Story of an Unknown Actor were premiered in the Konzerthaus in Berlin,Germany, with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Frank Strobel.

Alfred Schnittke – Frank Strobel

A special, artistic and private, bond existed between Frank Strobel and Alfred Schnittke until the composer’s death in 1998. It witnessed Frank Strobel’s conducting the premiere of the music to The Last Days of St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alten Oper as a live broadcast of the ZDF televison network ? a collaborative work by Alfred Schnittke, his son Andrei, and Frank Strobel. In 1993 Frank Strobel conducted the Moscow Philharmonic performing Schnittke’s composition for a new film adaptation of The Master and Margarita; he also conducted, in Moscow, the Russian first performance of Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 5, with Gidon Kremer as soloist performing with the Russian National Orchestra. In January of 1997, in Hamburg, Frank Strobel conducted the premiere of Schnittke’s concert suite The Agony. Since 1996 he records an increasing number of concert suites based on Alfred Schnittke’s film music as Deutschlandradio productions with the musicians of the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, marking the first time these works have been made available to the public and released as CDs. Alfred Schnittke, who wanted his extensive creative output for film productions brought to life in concert halls as well, approached Frank Strobel in 1993; he asked him to create concert suites from his wide-ranging selection of circa sixty film music compositions, and gave him the authority to rework these compositions for that purpose. This ongoing endeavor has so far created fourteen concert suites, which include The Commissar and A Tale of Travels, two of Schnittke’s most important works.