How Eri Klas brought Schnittke back to life
mainMartin Anderson contributes a splendid story about the Estonian conductor, who died last week.
Eri used to tell a wonderful Schnittke story. He was with Alfred and Irina Schnittke at the Kiev Festival when Schnittke had a stroke (perhaps the first one, in 1985 — I’m not sure) — so severe that, although they got him to hospital and he was lying on a stretcher, they couldn’t get any sign of life from him: he was completely paralysed.
Eri leant over him and said: “Khrennikov” — and Schnittke gave a defiant laugh: “Ha!”
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