by Ben Hogwood photo (c) Peter Hundert Photography/Deutsche Grammophon

Last week we learned of the sad news that the great Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina had died at the age of 93, in her home city of Hamburg.

Gubaidulina was a true original, a composer of intensely dramatic and often spiritual music that was both distinctive and innovative. A more detailed obituary has been penned by Gavin Dixon for Gramophone magazine. Rather than do a playlist in appreciation, I have chosen a couple of albums that help illustrate some of her musical achievements.

One of Gubaidulina’s biggest early successes was Offertorium, a concerto for violin and orchestra recorded by Gidon Kremer for Deutsche Grammophon back in 1988:

On a smaller scale, Gubaidulina wrote chamber music of striking originality, using unusual instrumental combinations to achieve rarefied colours. A good range of her writing can be found on a collection from the Lockenhaus festival, released on Philips Classics in 1992:

Her early works are equally intriguing, including a number of pieces for solo guitar:

Few composers have written for low instruments quite like Gubaidulina, as her Concerto for bassoon and low strings illustrates:

At the other end of the scale is her St. John Passion, a vast setting over 90 minutes completed in 2000 to mark the 250^th anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach:

Published post no.2,476 – Monday 17 March 2025