Sofia Gubaidulina

Sofia Gubaidulina is, together with Schnittke and Denisov, one of three major Moscow composers of the post-Shostakovich era * Of half-Tartar, half-Slav extraction * Music strikingly combines spiritual and dramatic, with daring and transparently original colours * One of earliest Soviet composers to show a deep interest in religious themes * Music can at one extreme be improvisatory such as Garden of Joys and Sorrows for flute, viola and harp, and at the other extreme be strictly organised on ancient mystical principles such as the orchestral works Symphony: Stimmen… verstummen and Zeitgestalten * Particular interest in setting visionary and prophetic texts by T.S.Eliot, Marina Tsvetaeva and Gennadi Aigi * Aural imagination developed through sonic experiments in her film music * Has been commissioned by world’s finest performers including Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Mstislav Rostropovich, the Kronos and Arditti Quartets, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Sir Simon Rattle

Works by Sofia Gubaidulina include:
Seven Words (1982) for cello, accordion and strings
Offertorium (1980 rev.1986) for violin and orchestra
Jetzt immer Schnee (Now always snow) (1993) Cantata for voices and instruments

Works by Gubaidulina are represented by Boosey & Hawkes in the UK, British Commonwealth (excluding Canada) and the Republic of Ireland


"I am a religious Russian Orthodox person and I understand ‘religion’ in the literal meaning of the word, as ‘re-ligio’, that is to say the restoration of connections, the restoration of the ‘legato’ of life. There is no more serious task for music than this." — Sofia Gubaidulina