Alexander Raskatov

Alexander Mikhailovich Raskatov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Раска́тов; born 9 March 1953, in Moscow) is a Russian composer.

Alexander Raskatov's 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.

Irina Schnittke, Alfred Schnittke’s widow, entrusted him with the reconstruction of Schnittke’s Ninth Symphony of 1998, which he finished in 2007.

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 (NTR) and can be viewed via the link

In the early nineties he moved to Germany, then to France in 2004.

Raskatov is a member of the Russian Authors' Agency (RAO).

Raskatov’s music, especially his sound development, is influenced by Modest Mussorgsky and Anton Webern.

His vocal works are often based on texts of Russian poets like Alexander Blok or Joseph Brodsky.

(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.

One of his most recent musical pieces, entitled 'A White Nights Dream', was premiered at the Royal Festival Hall (London, UK; cond. Vladimir Jurowski) in September 2011.

The production, by Simon McBurney, has also been staged at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (in March 2013 starring Paulo Szot), and the Opéra National de Lyon (in January 2014).

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.