The Fredösphere

I found a biography of Alfred Schnittke at the library and I am working my way through it.  It is part of a series of biographies of 20th century composers put out by Phaidon.  So far I have read Ravel and Sibelius from the series.  They are a nice length for an introductory biography, and I appreciate their effort to bring attention to composers like Ligeti and Nielson, especially since they probably are not making big bucks doing it.

But. 

But so far, the writing has not been up to very high standards.  The prose does not flow in these books, and the way the material has been condensed and summarized is a little disappointing.  (I suppose I am especially picky because I have recently read a couple of magnificent examples of the biographer's art.)

Is this Schnittke biography an improvement over the others?  This is from just one highly complimentary review on Amazon:

This book is an excellent biography and overview of the music of Alfred Schnittke. The casual listener probably wouldn't be interested, but for those that love Schnittke's music this is a goldmine. It provides plenty of insight in the personal life of Schnittke and the events that helped shape his music. It details many of his personal political struggles (which would truly make comparisons to Shostakovich even clearer.)

I respectfully disagree.  This biography lurches from one topic to another.  The author is a friend of Schnittke's, which ought to be an advantage, but really, a professional who knows how to research and organize biographies would have been a better choice.

The single most fascinating fact about Schnittke is his spiritual odyssey.  The son of Jewish communists (on his father's side) and devout Volga Deutschers* (on his mother's side), he considered a wide range of philosophical and religious beliefs before choosing, well into adulthood, to be baptized into the Catholic church (thereby proving that pope is a verb).  I want more information about this journey, how it influenced his compositional choices, and how it made his life more difficult under the Soviet system.  I suspect there is a lot more to the story than we get in this book.

But hey, I should focus on the season we are in and give thanks that any biography of Schnittke exists in English at all.

I found a good micro-bio of Schnittke here, BTW.

*The wifeösphere is Volga Deutsch.  See more information about them here.