This compilation assembles previously published and unpublished essays by Schnittke and supplements them with an interview with cellist and scholar Alexander Ivashkin. The book is illustrated with musical examples, many of them in Schnittke's own hand. In A Schnittke Reader, the composer speaks of his life, his works, other composers, performers, and a broad range of topics in 20th-century music. The volume is rounded out with reflections by some of Schnittke's contemporaries.

This biography of the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (born in 1934) presents a portrait of a man whose musical input has been inextricably linked to the strictures of life in the Soviet Union. His music, as a reflection of Russian cultural and social traditions, as well as mentality, enjoys tremendous popularity in his own country, and increasingly on an international level.