One of the most creative Russian composers of recent years, Schnittke came to be seen as the true successor of Shostakovich. His chamber music is constantly engaging, often stark and uncompromising. The Piano Quintet, in many respects the defining work of his career, was begun in 1972 in the wake of his mother’s death and three years after the death of Shostakovich to whom it is stylistically indebted. In essence an instrumental requiem it would remain a stylistic template for Schnittke’s music over the next fifteen years.