Alexander Raskatov


Alexander Mikhailovich Raskatov is a Russian composer.

Life

Alexander Raskatovs father was a leading journalist of the magazine Krokodil, his mother was a medical doctor and war hero of World War II. Raskatov studied composition under Albert Leman and Tikhon Khrennikov at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he was composer in residence at Stetson University and 1998 in Lockenhaus. Raskatov was a member of the Union of Soviet Composers; after the collapse of the Soviet Union he is a member of the Composers' Union of Russia. In the early nineties he moved to Germany, then to France in 2004. Raskatov is a member of the Russian Authors' Agency. Raskatov's son, Valentin Raskatov, is a contributing editor at the news agency Sputnik in Germany: https://de.sputniknews.com/authors/valentin_raskatov/.

Musical style

Raskatov’s music, especially his sound development, is influenced by Modest Mussorgski and Anton Webern. His vocal works are often based on texts of Russian poets like Alexander Blok or Joseph Brodsky. His viola concerto 'Path-Put-Chemin-Weg' was commissioned on the occasion of the 50th birthdays of Yuri Bashmet and Valeri Gergiev and premiered in Le Chatelet in January 2003. A documentary on the concerto was recorded by the Dutch National Television and can be viewed via the link
Irina Schnittke, Alfred Schnittke’s widow, entrusted him with the reconstruction of Schnittke’s Ninth Symphony of 1998, which he finished in 2007.
In June 2010 his opera A Dog's Heart received its world premiere at the Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam, in a co-production with the English National Opera, where it was seen in November 2010. The production, by Simon McBurney, has also been staged at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and the Opéra National de Lyon.
One of his most recent musical pieces, entitled 'A White Nights Dream', was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in September 2011. This led to the commission of another work, Green Mass, which was premiered by Jurowski and the LPO along with the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge in 2016.

Selected works

;Opera
;Orchestral
; Wind ensemble
;Concertante
;Chamber music
;Keyboard
;Vocal
;Arrangements and reconstructions