It was because the charismatic in music is genuinely awe-inspiring, and to watch the violist trek across Schnittke's barbarous Russian landscape was like watching humanity and inhumanity in ferocious battle, waging every grand and noble struggle that we associate with the 19 th -century violin concertos, except without any of the reassuring triumphalism that, among 19 th -century composers, was indistinguishable from a finale.
Music is always awe-inspiring.