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Donald Macleod explores the strange, brilliant and occasionally nightmarish world of the Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke. Today - the composer's role as heir to Shostakovich.

The music of Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) is like being lost in a hall of mirrors. Staring back at you is the whole of music history - from Bach to modern pop via tangos, Soviet work songs, Gregorian chant and Viennese waltzes - refracted and distorted, and woven together to create a uniquely personal style. Thrilling, grotesque, occasionally nightmarish - Schnittke creates a world where everything has a hidden meaning. Beethoven's Fifth suddenly springs terrifyingly out of the darkness in the midst of an otherwise chaotic symphony. Or a cheap Russian pop song appears inexplicably amidst a Baroque chorale. Schnittke's world of suppressed meanings perfectly captured life under the cosh of Soviet Communism. All this week, Donald Macleod unpicks the strands of a musician often seen as the heir to Shostakovich - and perhaps the last truly great composer of the 20th century.

Donald begins the week by exploring the connections - musical, psychological and spiritual - between Alfred Schnittke and the great titan of Soviet music, Dmitri Shostakovich. Featuring the second movement of Schnittke's utterly remarkable First Symphony - a gargantuan, postmodernist fever-dream of a piece in which tangos, Bach, marching bands, Beethoven, honky-tonk pianos, electric guitars and Viennese waltzes collide in a vast particle-accelerator of musical history.

Concerto Grosso No 1 (version for flute, oboe, harpsichord, prepared piano and strings) (2nd mvt)
Sharon Bezaly, flute
Christopher Cowie, oboe
Cape Philharmonic Orchestra
Owain Arwel Hughes, conductor

Violin Concerto No 1 (2nd mvt)
Mark Lubotsky, violin
Malmo Symphony Orchestra
Eri Klas, conductor

Piano Quintet (2nd mvt - "In Tempo Di Valse")
Erato Alakiozidou, piano
Lutoslawski Quartet

Violin Sonata No 1
Roman Mints, violin
Katya Apekisheva, piano

Symphony No 1 (2nd mvt)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Leif Segerstam, conductor

Producer: Steven Rajam for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Wales.