Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) is among the most notable composers in the second half of the 20th century. Over the past 20 years his work has won wide acceptance and greater international attention. His music, performed by world-class musicians in countless countries and in the most prestigious concert halls, has become an integral part of Russian cultural heritage. Schnittke's vast popularity is evident in the existence of so many publications, reviews, and dissertations not only in Russia but all over the world. However, some aspects of the composer's life and music remain unexplored, and a study of Schnittke's work would not be complete without examining one particular subject which influenced Schnittke throughout his creative life: the Faust Legend. The Faustian Legend ‘was among the forces that supported Schnittke's dialogue with the past and shaped his identity’. Before delving into this topic it would be logical to give a brief excursus in the history of the Faustian legend itself.

It is only in the twelve years since his death that the importance of Niccolò Castiglioni's music has begun to be properly appreciated. A growing list of recordings and scholarly writings has contributed to a reassessment of his importance and Alessandro Solbiati's view of Castiglioni as ‘one of the greatest Italian composers of the 20th century’ now looks likely to find general acceptance.

Roberto Gerhard described the problem of structure in the following manner:

My favourite simile is the experience of flying. Imagine yourself sitting next to the pilot of a glider aircraft. Your first problem is that of getting airborne. So it is, metaphorically speaking, with musical form. Your second problem is to keep airborne, how to take advantage of every condition that may confront you in the air, currents, countercurrents, air pockets and so forth; how to navigate your craft and set a course. Your third problem, when in sight of your destination, is (naturally) how to come down.

Believe me the hazards of the take off and the landing are conspicuous in musical form too. If you have been watching your pilot all the time, you will have realised how his skill, his reflexes, his compass-readings, his judgement of hazards and chance happenings combine instant by instant and result in choice, in doing this rather than that. In short you have been witnessing an activity which consists of a chain of decisions taken in full course of the operation. That, I submit, applies exactly to musical form. A chain of decisions, subserving an overall design and steering a course of action. Naturally they ought to be the right decisions every time, or things may go wrong. If you have to bale out or crash land the thing is not considered to be quite as successful.

It is generally accepted that many composers of the British musical renaissance were strongly stimulated and influenced by nature, but questions such as how and why this influence actually worked, how it manifests itself in the music, how variously composers perceived and reacted to nature, and how ‘nature’ might be defined in the first place (particularly as expressed in a work of art) seem less clear. Although discussions of nature's influence on art have been attempted for centuries, only recently have commentators begun analyzing the exact function of nature in its various guises in the inspiration, creation and shaping of music. Concepts of nature itself differ widely for both composers and musicologists; while ‘nature’ (as a social, cultural or personal construct) in early 20th-century British music tended to be rural, idealized and rustic, it may more generally be understood as the material world in its entirety. Thus Vaughan Williams's London Symphony is just as valid ‘nature music’ as the Sea and Pastoral Symphonies that came before and after.

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• Boston: Elliott Carter Celebrations Rodney Lister

• Leuven: Transit New Music Festival Peter Reynolds

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• Elliott Carter Centennial Celebration Christian Carey

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• The Music of John McCabe Tim Mottershead

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• The Music of Hugh Wood Anthony Gritten

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• Further reviews Tim Mottershead, Colin Clarke, Peter Palmer, Bret Johnson