Robert Blocker, Dean
ya le in new yor k
The Late Romantics of Austria Music from Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances
David Shifrin, Artistic Director Wednesday, October 25, 2017 • 4:30 pm Morse Recital Hall Sunday, October 29, 2017 • 7:30 pm Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
yale in new york
The Late Romantics of Austria October 25, 2017 • Morse Recital Hall October 29, 2017 • Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Gustav Mahler 1860–1911
Five Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1887–1899) Ich ging mit Lust Ablösung im Sommer Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? Bryan Murray, baritone Sophiko Simsive, piano intermission
Anton Bruckner 1824–1896 arr. for chamber orchestra by Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein, and Karl Rankl
Symphony No. 7 in E major (1881–1883) I. Allegro moderato II. Adagio. Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam III. Scherzo. Sehr schnell IV. Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht schnell Graeme Johnson, clarinet William Purvis, horn* Ani Kavafian, violin* Jessy Je Young Kim, violin Julia Clancy, viola Jenny Kwak, cello Kohei Yamaguchi, double bass Hilda Huang, harmonium Wei-Yi Yang, piano* Nansong Huang, piano Sam Seyong Um, timpani *YSM faculty
As a courtesy to the performers and audience, please silence all electronic devices. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Artist Profiles
About the Yale School of Music Established in 1894, the Yale School of Music continues a position of international leadership in the training of performers and composers. A professional graduate school and the only school of music in the Ivy League, the Yale School of Music maintains a highly selective admissions process, admitting approximately 200 students who come from the finest American and international conservatories and universities to study with a distinguished faculty. The School of Music has one of the highest international profiles at Yale: approximately forty percent of students come from countries outside the United States, and the School engages globally in partnerships with leading conservatories, festivals, and opera companies. Alumni of the Yale School of Music hold major positions throughout the music world. Yale graduates perform with and conduct preeminent American and international orchestras, and voice alumni earn renown in professional opera companies. Reflecting the School’s strong chamber music program, many graduates have founded or joined prominent chamber ensembles. Yale composition alumni enjoy noted success, with continual premieres of new music. Along with artistic accomplishment, Yale School of Music graduates provide strong leadership in guiding the course of numerous academic and cultural institutions. The Yale School of Music awards the Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Musical Arts, and Master of Music Degrees, as well as the Artist Diploma and the Certificate in Performance. There is also a five-year
B.A./M.M. program for undergraduates in Yale College. » music.yale.edu Bryan Murray ’18MMA, baritone Baritone Bryan Murray is currently pursuing a Master of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music. While at Yale, he has performed numerous scenes as well as the role of Smirnov in William Walton’s The Bear. Mr. Murray received an artist diploma from the Purchase College Conservatory of Music where he also received his master’s degree in vocal performance. While at Purchase, Mr. Murray appeared as John Proctor in Robert Ward’s The Crucible (with a recording done by Albany Records), Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the Father in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. Recently, Mr. Murray was the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the baritone soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Yale Symphony Orchestra. He is excited to make his Carnegie Hall debut on October 29, and his debut with the Jacksonville Symphony in November. Sophiko Simsive ’18MM, piano Hailed as “an exeptional musician of rare talent who promises to become one of the leading pianists of her generation” by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Georgian-born Sophiko Simsive began her piano studies at the age of three. In 2007 Sophiko was admitted to the Sweelinck Conservatory
Artist Profiles
of Amsterdam where she studied with Mila Baslavskaya as the school’s youngest student. Sophiko has won numerous awards and accolades including first prize at the Princess Christina Concours in the Netherlands and at the Yamaha Piano Competition in Amsterdam, the audience first prize and obligatory work prize at the Young Pianist Foundation Competition, first prize at the Geertruidenberg Klassiek, and, most recently, the Grachtenfestival Prijs in the Netherlands, where she will perform as artist-in-residence during the 2017 Grachtenfestival. In 2013 Sophiko was invited to the Verbier International Music Festival and in 2015 made her debut at Carnegie Hall with cellist Kian Soltani. Graeme Johnson ’17MM ’18MMA, clarinet The winner of the Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition, Graeme Steele Johnson has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at the Music Mountain Festival (Connecticut), Summer Music from Greensboro series (Vermont), Steinway Hall—Plano (Texas), Argentum Chamber Works series at the University of Nevada—Las Vegas, Music For All National Festival (Indiana), The Banff Centre (Canada), and the Brooklyn Center for the Arts. In recent summers, he led the Caroga Lake and Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestras as soloist and conductor in concertos by Copland and Mozart. Upcoming engagements include performances of music for clarinet and strings at the Greenpoint Gallery (New York City) and with Houston’s KINETIC chamber ensemble, as well as a recital at Berkeley College at Yale University. Now completing
a Master of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music, Graeme earned his Master of Music Degree there under the guidance of David Shifrin and Ricardo Morales and was awarded the school’s Alumni Association Prize. William Purvis, horn William Purvis pursues a multifaceted career both in the United States and abroad as horn soloist, chamber musician, conductor, and educator. A passionate advocate of new music, he has participated in numerous premieres, including horn concerti by Peter Lieberson, Bayan Northcott, Krzysztof Penderecki (New York premiere), and Paul Lansky; horn trios by Poul Ruders and Paul Lansky; Sonate en Forme de Préludes by Steven Stucky; and recent premieres by Elliott Carter, Retracing II for Solo Horn and Nine by Five with the New York Woodwind Quintet. He is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Purvis has been a frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, and has collaborated with many of the world’s most esteemed string quartets, including the Juilliard, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets. He has recorded extensively on numerous labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, Naxos, Koch, and Bridge. Mr. Purvis is currently Professor in the Practice of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale School of Music, where he is also coordinator of
Artist Profiles
winds and brasses and serves as director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments. Ani Kavafian, violin Violinist Ani Kavafian enjoys a prolific career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has performed with virtually all of America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit, and San Francisco symphony orchestras, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. A renowned chamber musician, she has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1979. Her numerous solo recital engagements include performances at New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully halls, as well as other major venues across the country. Ani Kavafian has served as concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, with which she has performed the Mozart violin concertos. She has participated in the Heifetz International Music Institute, Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Yale Summer School of Music/Norfok Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest Festival (Portland, Oregon), Great Lakes Festival, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. Kavafian appears frequently with her sister, violinist and violist Ida Kavafian. With violist Barbara Westphal and cellist Gustav Rivinius, she is a member of the Triton Horn Trio, with members William Purvis, french horn; and pianist Mihae Lee. She also has teamed with David Shifrin and pianist André-Michel Schub to form the
Kavafian-Schub-Shifrin Trio. She is coartistic director of the New Jersey chamber music series “Mostly Music.” Kavafian has premiered and recorded a number of works written for her, including pieces by Henri Lazarof, Tod Machover, Michelle Ekizian, and Aaron Jay Kernis. Ani Kavafian has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions award, has appeared at the White House on three occasions, and has been featured on many network and PBS television specials. Her recordings can be heard on the Nonesuch, RCA, Columbia, Arabesque, and Delos labels. Ani Kavafian is a professor of violin at the Yale School of Music. She plays the 1736 Muir McKenzie Stradivarius violin. Jessy Je Young Kim ’18MM, violin Jessy Je Young Kim is a 23-year-old violin student from Vancouver, British Columbia, who is pursuing a Master of Music Degree at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Ani Kavafian. She began to play the violin at the age of 9 and won numerous awards in British Columbia and across Canada including the Shean Strings Competition in Edmonton. She has also performed with several orchestras including the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Pilgrim Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest Orchestra of Seattle, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra. She made her Toronto debut in Koerner Hall with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Maestro Johannes Debus in February
Artist Profiles
2014. Since 2014, she has attended the Aspen Music Festival with a full fellowship. She earned her Bachelor of Music Degree from the Glenn Gould School under the tutelage of Paul Kantor. Her previous teachers include Lawrie Hill and Gerald Stanick. Julia Clancy ’16MM ’22DMA, viola Violist Julia Clancy is a student of soloist Ettore Causa at the Yale School of Music. She recently completed a Bachelor of Music Degree with honors at the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey, and Robert Vernon, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree (magna cum laude) in medical anthropology at Case Western Reserve University. As a member of Aldeburgh Strings, she performed concerts in London and Snape, England, recordings of which were released in early 2016 by Signum Classics. She has performed frequently at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Yale Philharmonia, and the Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra. Julia has served as principal violist in the BrittenPears Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, Moritzburg Festival orchestra, and Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Orchestra. As a soloist, she performed with the CIM orchestra as the winner of the school’s 2013 concerto competition, and with the Sound Symphony in 2010.
Jenny Kwak ’17MM ’18MMA, cello Cellist Jenny Kwak has appeared as a soloist with the Music in the Mountains Chamber Orchestra and the Texas Christian University Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kwak has attended the Aspen Music Festival and School, Music Academy of the West, and Pacific Music Festival, where she performed as principal cellist. She currently serves as principal cellist of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. Recently, she was selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program as a Zarin Mehta Fellow. Ms. Kwak completed her Master of Music Degree at the Yale School of Music in 2016 under the guidance of Aldo Parisot and is currently pursuing her Master of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music. Kohei Yamaguchi ’18MM, double bass Kohei Yamaguchi has played as a section bass member of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and was the principal bassist of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Kohei earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in double bass performance from the University of Michigan studying under Diana Gannett and Stephen Molina. Currently, he is persuing a Master of Music Degree at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Donald Palma.
Artist Profiles
Hilda Huang ’19MM, harmonium Pianist Hilda Huang came to international attention after being awarded first prize in the 2014 Leipzig International Bach Competition. Her performances of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have been hailed for achieving “philosophical depths” (West-Allgemeine Zeitung) and for possessing an “alluring extroversion” (New York Concert Review). She has been praised for a “mind that can multi-task and ears that can ... ‘multi-listen’” (San Francisco Examiner). Huang has appeared in recital at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, at BASF Ludwigshafen, and both the Leipzig and Montréal Bach Festivals as part of the Steinway Prizewinners’ Concert Network. In 2016, she was a Protégé Project young artist at Chamber Music Northwest and in 2017, a Steans Fellow at the Ravinia Festival. Huang studies with Melvin Chen, in pursuit of her Master of Music Degree. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 2017, receiving a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with distinction. She is a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Wei-Yi Yang ’95MM ’96AD ’99MMA ’04DMA, piano Pianist Wei-Yi Yang has earned worldwide acclaim for his captivating performances and imaginative programming. Winner of the gold medal at the San Antonio International Piano Competition, he has performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center,
and major venues across America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Most recently, he was praised by The New York Times for giving a “sensational” performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie at Carnegie Hall. Born in Taiwan of Chinese and Japanese heritage, Mr. Yang studied first in the United Kingdom, and then in America with renowned Russian pianists Arkady Aronov at the Manhattan School of Music and Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music. Additionally, Mr. Yang has worked with eminent pianists Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Vera Gornostaeva, Byron Janis, and Murray Perahia. Mr. Yang’s acclaimed performances have been featured on NPR, PBS, ARTE (Association Relative à la Télévision Européenne), and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company), and on recordings on the Ovation, Albany Records, Genuin-Leipzig, and Holland-America Music Society labels. A dynamic chamber musician with a diverse repertoire, Mr. Yang has collaborated with many esteemed ensembles including the Alexander, Brentano, Cassatt, Pacifica, and Tokyo string quartets. Mr. Yang is a frequent guest artist at festivals across the United States, from Norfolk to Napa Valley and abroad, including Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Mexico, Serbia, and Montenegro. A dedicated teacher, Mr. Yang has presented master classes and performances in Scotland, Ireland, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Korea. He has adjudicated at the Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial Competition, the San Antonio International Piano Competition, and the Concert Artists Guild auditions. In 2004, Mr. Yang
Artist Profiles
received his doctorate from the Yale School of Music, where he joined the faculty in 2005. Nansong Huang ’18MM, piano Born in China 1993, Nansong started to play the piano when he was 4 years old. He recently graduated from the renowned Columbia-Juilliard Exchange program with degrees in political science and music. He started pursuing a Master of Music Degree at the Yale School of Music in fall 2016. Nansong has won top prizes at many piano competitions, including first prize at the Minnesota International E-Competition Juniors, first prize and best performance of a Tchaikovsky piece at the sixth International Tchaikovsky Competition for young musicians (South Korea), and a special jury prize and special audience prize for performance at the fourth Sendai International Music Competition (Japan). He has collaborated with more than 20 orchestras around the world including the Ukraine National Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and Russian Symphony Orchestra. He is an avid chamber musician and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Peter Jay Sharp Hall, and many other prominent venues.
Sam Um ’17MM ’18MMA, timpani Sam Seyong Um is a percussio artist, performer, and educator. He has been featured at such music series and festivals as YellowBarn, Sunset Music Series, and the Essex Winter Music Series. As the winner of the Marimba Concerto Competition at the Eastman School of Music, Sam performed Emmanuel Sejourne’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings. He was awarded third place at the 2012 PAS NYU Marimba Competition. Sam is a member of The Collective, a percussion group that consists of students from the Yale Percussion Group directed by Robert van Sice. Sam has premiered new works by such well-known composers as YSM faculty members Martin Bresnick, Christopher Theofanidis, and Hannah Lash. Sam earned his Master of Music Degree at the Yale School of Music, with a Havemeyer Scholarship, under the tutelage of Robert van Sice. He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastman School of Music, with a Howard Hanson Scholarship and John Beck Scholarship, having studied with Michael Burritt, and he was honored with the prestigious performer’s certificate. Sam is currently pursuing a Master of Musical Arts Degree at the Yale School of Music. He is a proud endorser of mallet manufacturer Vic Firth.
texts and translations
gustav mahler Five Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1887–1899) “Ich ging mit Lust”
“I Walked with Joy”
Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald, Ich hört’ die Vöglein singen; Sie sangen so jung, sie sangen so alt, Die kleinen Waldvögelein im grünen Wald! Wie gern hört’ ich sie singen!
I walked with joy through a green wood; I heard the birds singing. they sang so youthfully, they sang so maturely, those small birds in the green wood! How gladly I listened to their singing!
Nun sing, nun sing, Frau Nachtigall! Sing du’s bei meinem Feinsliebchen: Komm schier, wenn’s finster ist, Wenn niemand auf der Gasse ist, Dann komm zu mir! Herein will ich dich lassen!
Now sing, now sing, Lady Nightingale! sing by my sweetheart’s house: just come when it’s dark, when no one is on the street then come to me! I will let you in.
Der Tag verging, die Nacht brach an, Er kam zu Feinsliebchen gegangen. Er klopft so leis’ wohl an den Ring: “Ei schläfst du oder wachst mein Kind? Ich hab so lang gestanden!”
The day was gone, night fell; he went to his sweetheart. He knocks so softly on the ring: “Eh, are you sleeping or are you awake, my dear? I have been standing here so long!”
“Daß du so lang gestanden hast, Ich hab noch nicht geschlafen, Ich dacht als frei in meinem Sinn, Wo ist mein Herzallerliebster hin, Wo mag er so lange bleiben?”
“Even if you’ve been standing there so long, I haven’t been sleeping; I let my thoughts wander: where is my beloved, where has he been for such a long time?”
“Wo ich so lange geblieben bin, Das darf ich dir wohl sagen: Beim Bier und auch beim roten Wein, Bei einem schwarzbraunem Mädelein, Hätt deiner bald vergessen.”
“Where have I been for such a long time? That I should like to tell you: with beer and also red wine, with a brown-haired maiden, quickly forgetting you.”
texts and translations
Es schaut der Mond durchs Fensterlein zum holden, süßen Lieben, Die Nachtigall sang die ganze Nacht. Du schlafselig Mägdelein, nimm dich in Acht! Wo ist dein Herzliebster geblieben?
The moon gazes through the little window, at this tender, sweet love; the nightingale sang the whole night. You sleeply maiden, stay alert! Where is your beloved staying?
“Ablösung im Sommer”
“The Changing of the Guard in Summer”
Kuckuck hat sich zu Tode gefallen An einer grünen Weiden, Kuckuck ist tot! Kuckuck ist tot! Wer soll uns jetzt den Sommer lang Die Zeit und Weil vertreiben?
The cuckoo has fallen to its death On a green willow, The cuckoo is dead! The cuckoo is dead! Who should then the summer long Help us pass the time?
Ei, das soll tun Frau Nachtigall, Die sitzt auf grünem Zweige; [Die kleine, feine Nachtigall, Die liebe, süße Nachtigall!] Sie singt und springt, ist allzeit froh, Wenn andre Vögel schweigen.
Oh, that should be Mrs. Nightingale! She sits on a green branch! [The small, fine nightingale, The lovely, sweet nightingale!] She sings and springs, is always joyous, When other birds are silent!
[Wir warten auf Frau Nachtigall, Die wohnt im grünen Hage, Und wenn der Kukuk zu Ende ist, Dann fängt sie an zu schlagen!]
[We await Mrs. Nightingale, Who lives in a green glen, And when the cuckoo call is at its end, Then does she begin to sing!]
“Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz”
“In Strassburg on the Rampart”
Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz, Da ging mein Trauern an, Das Alphorn hört’ ich drüben wohl anstimmen, Ins Vaterland mußt ich hinüber schwimmen, Das ging nicht an.
In Strassburg on the rampart, there began my troubles: I heard the the alp-horn calling from afar, and decided to swim to my fatherland. That was unacceptable.
texts and translations
Ein Stunde in der Nacht Sie haben mich gebracht; Sie führten mich gleich vor des Hauptmanns Haus, Ach Gott, sie fischten mich im Strome auf, Mit mir ist’s aus.
One hour in the night they captured me; they led me straight to Captain’s house, ah God, they’d fished me right out of the river, and everything’s over for me.
Früh Morgens um zehn Uhr Stellt man mich vor das Regiment; Ich soll da bitten um Pardon, Und ich bekomm doch meinen Lohn, Das weiß ich schon.
The next morning at ten they’ll place me before the regiment; I am supposed to beg for my pardon, and I will receive what’s coming to me, that I know well.
Ihr Brüder allzumal, Heut’ seht ihr mich zum letztenmal; Der Hirtenbub ist nur Schuld daran, Das Alphorn hat mir solches angetan, Das klag ich an.
You, my brothers all, today you’ll see me for the last time; the shepherd boy is alone to blame. The alp-horn did this to me thus I charge it.
Ihr Brüder alle drei, Was ich euch bitt, erschießt mich gleich; Verschont mein junges Leben nicht, Schießt zu, daß das Blut ‘raus spritzt, Das bitt ich Euch.
You, my brothers, all three, This I beg you now: shoot straight at me; Do not spare my young life, but shoot me so the blood splashes out: this I beg you.
O Himmelskönig Herr! Nimm du meine arme Seele dahin, Nimm sie zu dir in den Himmel ein, Laß sie ewig bei dir sein, Und vergiß nicht mein.
O king of heaven, Lord! Take my poor soul away, take it to you in Heaven, let it be with you forever and do not forget me!
texts and translations
“Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen”
“Where the Beautiful Trumpets Blow”
Wer ist denn draußen und wer klopfet an, der mich so leise wecken kann?
Who then is outside and who is knocking, that can so softly awaken me?
Das ist der Herzallerlieble dein, steh’ auf und laß mich zu dir ein! Was soll ich hier nun länger steh’n? Ich seh’ die Morgenröt’ aufgeh’n, die Morgenröt’, zwei helle Stern’. Bei meinem Schatz da wär ich gern’, bei meinem Herzallerlieble.
It is your dearest darling, get up and let me come to you! Why should I go on standing here? I see the red of morn arise, the red of morn, two bright stars. I long to be with my sweetheart! With my dearest darling.
Das Mädchen stand auf und ließ ihn ein; sie heißt ihn auch willkommen sein. Willkommen lieber Knabe mein, so lang hast du gestanden!
The maiden got up and let him in; she bade him welcome, too. Welcome, my dear lad! You have been standing so long!
Sie reicht’ ihm auch die schneeweiße Hand. Von ferne sang die Nachtigall, das Mädchen fängt zu weinen an.
She offered him too her snow-white hand. From far away the nightingale sang, then the maiden began to weep.
Ach weine nicht, du Liebste mein, auf’s Jahr sollst du mein Eigen sein. Mein Eigen sollst du werden gewiß, wie’s Keine sonst auf Erden ist!
Ah, do not weep, beloved mine after a year you will be my own. My own you shall certainly become, as is no other on earth!
O Lieb auf grüner Erden. Ich zieh’ in Krieg auf grüne Haid, die grüne Haide, die ist so weit! Allwo dort die schönen Trompeten blasen, da ist mein Haus, mein Haus von grünem Rasen!
Oh love on the green earth. I’m off to war, on the green heath, the green heath is so far away! Where there the fair trumpets sound, there is my home, my house of green grass!
texts and translations
“Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?”
“Who conceived this song?”
Dort oben am Berg in dem hohen Haus, in dem Haus! Da gucket ein fein’s, lieb’s Mädel heraus! Es ist nicht dort daheime! Es ist des Wirt’s sein Töchterlein! Es wohnet auf grüner Haide!
Up there on the mountain, in the high house, in the house! There peers out a fine, dear maiden! There is not her home! She is the innkeeper’s daughter! She lives on the green heath!
Mein Herzle is’ wundt! Komm’, Schätzle, mach’s g’sund! Dein’ schwarzbraune Äuglein, die hab’n mich verwund’t! Dein rosiger Mund macht Herzen gesund. Macht Jugend verständig, macht Tote lebendig, macht Kranke gesund, ja gesund.
My heart has a wound! Come, sweetheart, make it well! Your dark brown little eyes, they have wounded me! Your rosy mouth makes hearts well. It makes young people rational, brings the dead back to life, makes the ill healthy, yes, healthy.
Wer hat denn das schön, schöne Liedel erdacht? Es haben’s drei Gäns’ über’s Wasser gebracht! Zwei graue und eine weiße! Und wer das Liedel nicht singen kann, dem wollen sie es pfeifen! Ja!
Who then thought up this pretty, pretty little song? Three geese have brought it over the water! Two grey and one white! And whoever cannot sing this little song, to him they will whistle it! Yes!
notes on the program
Solving the Problem of Modern Music In 1918, Arnold Schoenberg was, perhaps, the most criticized and controversial composer in Vienna. In a city of conservative tastes, the ridicule of Schoenberg’s harshly dissonant music, with its deliberate challenge to Viennese musical tradition, had come to be almost a pastime in the press. Schoenberg was not alone. Many composers from all national backgrounds faced similar contempt and were increasingly excluded from day-to-day concert activities. Live performances of new music were met with aggressive heckling, and the concert-turned-riot was a common occurrence. Obviously, this was a serious problem for Schoenberg and other contemporary composers, who saw their music as the next step in musical progress and wanted it to be heard and appreciated by universal audiences. Schoenberg was determined to find a solution. In 1918, he announced the formation of the Society for Private Musical Performances, which lasted for three seasons until disbanding for financial reasons in 1921. The purpose of the Society was to present a wide variety of modern music in an environment free from the oppressive criticism of the press and unappreciative crowds – hence the Society for Private Musical Performances. Attendance was open only to members on a subscription basis. The Society was not the first of its kind. Schoenberg had been involved in a similar group called the Society for Creative Musicians, founded in 1904 with Gustav Mahler, the esteemed composer, conductor, and invaluable mentor to Schoenberg. The 1904 Society, however, was a relative failure and lasted less than a
year. It nevertheless planted a seed in Schoenberg’s mind, one that gestated for fourteen years. These years between 1904 and 1918 saw the end of the First World War, the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy, the resulting lack of funding for the arts, and an ever-increasing conservatism in the Viennese press and audience – all of which led to an even more desperate situation for modern music. For Schoenberg, the answer was less about giving composers a safe space than it was about educating an audience. In founding the Society for Private Musical Performances, Schoenberg hoped that a select audience would come to understand and eventually enjoy new music. The goal of education was thus a pillar in the ideology of the Society. In November 1918, Alban Berg, one of Schoenberg’s students and an enthusiastic contributor to the Society’s activities, published its objectives in a Prospectus, which was distributed to potential audience members. In laying out the conditions for membership and outlining the means by which the Society would educate “artists and friends of art,” the Prospectus presented a number of ideas that were new, not only to Vienna, but also to the musical world. Central to the mission was the commitment to present “as perfect a representation of modern music as possible.” Rehearsals were stricter and more frequent than had been the norm up to that time. This idea stemmed from Mahler who, though he had passed away in 1911, was a godfather figure to the Society. As a conductor of the Vienna Court Opera, Mahler had established an unprecedented standard of meticulous rehearsal, one that disappeared
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soon after his passing. For Schoenberg, the complexities of new music demanded his mentor’s rehearsal techniques. He deliberately sought out young performers who would tolerate the frequent rehearsals and sign on to the quest for perfection. They were often happy to work for the Society, not only for musical reasons, but also because many musicians were barely surviving in postwar Vienna. The Society’s performances were precise and of extremely high quality compared to those of most contemporary musical groups. Schoenberg’s performers set the standard for all subsequent new music ensembles. Many, for example the pianists Rudolf Serkin and Eduard Steuermann, and the violinist Rudolf Kolisch, went on to enjoy exceptional careers of their own. For Schoenberg, the commitment to accurate performances was an educational necessity. The thought was that the more precise a representation of a piece, the more likely the audience would understand and appreciate it. For the same reason, it was also important for the Society to perform pieces as many times as possible. Some works even had multiple performances on a single concert. Once again, it was thought that the audience would better understand a piece after listening to it more than once. As well, the performers would become increasingly conversant with the technical difficulties posed by new works. Such notions were entirely new to the concert world. Another pioneering idea was the complete exclusion of any and all members of the press. Only paying members of the Society were allowed to attend, and this was strictly regulated. The reasoning behind this was
obvious – all too often disparaging reviews from Vienna’s conservative critics had threatened the livelihood of Schoenberg and like-minded composers. While these composers may have been seeking some refuge in a society of kindred individuals, they were also intent on establishing an environment where their music could be understood without any outside influence. Similarly, applause was completely prohibited, along with any other “expressions of approval, of displeasure and of gratitude.” The reason behind this statute was also clear. Heckling and outspoken disapproval during performances of modern music was a common and disheartening occurrence. The Society’s objective was not only to avoid such disturbances, but to allow individual audience members to respond to the music without prejudice. Schoenberg was himself responsible for choosing the repertoire, something which he did with broad perspective and an open mind. Composers from all over Europe, not just from Austria and Germany, were included and many, for example Maurice Ravel, were invited to attend in person. The openness of the Society is remarked upon in the Prospectus: “In the selection of works for performance, no specific style is preferred … the total spectrum of modern music is to be represented.” While works by members of Schoenberg’s circle — Anton Webern, Alban Berg, and Schoenberg himself — were often heard, other composers represented included Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Erik Satie from France; Igor Stravinsky and Alexander Scriabin from Russia; Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály from Hungary; and lesser-known figures from Poland, Yugoslavia, Italy, and the Netherlands.
notes on the program
More traditional composers were also featured on the Society’s programs, for example Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and, of course, Mahler. The Society was about to perform an arrangement of Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony when it disbanded in 1921. Again, for Schoenberg, performing older, accepted music from the repertoire of German-speaking composers was a matter of education. It was important to illustrate the development of music up to and including that of the modern era. In the Spring of 1921, as it was on the verge of bankruptcy, the Society presented a second series of concerts, Series B, exclusively featuring traditional repertoire in the hope of raising money. This series saw performances of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, and an entire concert was devoted to Austria’s best known music, the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr. The concerts of Series B were not normal events for the Society in that they were open to the general public. As a last-ditch effort to change the Society’s economic fortunes, they were ultimately unsuccessful. The Society disbanded just after five Series B concerts. Schoenberg was, without dispute, the president of the Society, a position that occupied him to such a degree that he did not complete a single major score between 1918 and 1921 while the Society was in operation. His students, Webern and Berg, were of equal rank as, musical coaches and lecturers. A number of the performers, Eduard Steuermann in particular, helped prepare for the performances and helped in various administrative capacities. Short pre-performance talks were an important part of the Society’s
evenings, offering a way to give the audience a better understanding of a composer’s intent. Given that the Society presented more than three hundred works over three seasons, with almost fifty composers represented, all while introducing an innovative etiquette, the Society must be regarded as a successful endeavor. That Schoenberg, his fellow organizers, and the subscribers survived the debilitating economic circumstances of postwar Austria with no public support for as long as they did speaks to their passion and commitment to providing an education in modern music. The extent to which they succeeded in their educational objectives remains open to question. Schoenberg was not focused on educating the masses; for financial reasons he targeted an elite audience – the same audience that might have attended more upscale events at the State Opera or the Musikverein. Nevertheless, the Society marked an important moment in the history of twentiethcentury music. It served as a prototype for contemporary musical organizations around the world. The innovations in rehearsal technique and especially the insistence on accuracy of rhythm and pitch have become the norm in contemporary concert life. Perhaps most importantly, the Society served as a model for future musicians in educating the public toward a more fulfilling appreciation of contemporary music. There can be no doubt that the dedication of Schoenberg and his colleagues to promoting modern music has had a lasting impact on music to this day. —Aaron Israel Levin ’19MM
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The Society for Private Musical Performances Director: Arnold Schoenberg Vienna, November 1921 An excerpt from the 1921 edition of Alban Berg’s Prospectus The Society, founded by Arnold Schoenberg in November 1918, has this purpose: to give artists and friends of art a real and precise knowledge of modern music. It is by no means the purpose of the Society to make propaganda for a certain artistic direction or to be useful to the authors performed, but to serve the members exclusively by establishing clarity instead of the hitherto obscure and problematical relationship to modern music. Thus, it is not a Society for composers, but only for the audience. If joy and pleasure in some of the performed works are awakened, thus encouraging author and work, then this must be considered to be a side effect. But, in the planning of programs, no attention can be paid to this, nor can the opposite always be avoided because our purpose is restricted to giving as perfect a representation of modern music as possible. For the administration of the Society, the following principles are critical: 1. In the selection of works for performance, no specific style is preferred. From Mahler and [Richard] Strauss to the very youngest, the total spectrum of modern music is to be represented, that is, everything that has either a name or physiognomy or character. In general, the Society endeavors to offer its members only the kind of works that reveal the production of a composer at its most characteristic and for the time being, if possible, the most engaging side.
For this reason, there will be considered — in addition to songs — piano pieces, chamber music, smaller choral works, and orchestral works. These, while the Society does not presently have the means to perform them in their original cast, can, for the time being, be reproduced only as arrangements for chamber orchestra (string quintet, piano, harmonium, flute, clarinet, etc.) or in specially adapted piano arrangements for four to eight hands. 2. The preparation of works occurs with the care and thoroughness not to be found in today’s concert life where, in general, one has to make the best of an a priori fixed and always insufficient number of rehearsals. One must go along with this; whereas the number of rehearsals in the Society is always determined by the goal of achieving utmost clarity and fulfillment. As far as the author’s intentions are concerned, unless the ground rules of a good performance are fulfilled, namely, clarity and precision, the works cannot and must not be performed in the Society. 3. The performance of works studied in this manner occurs in the weekly “Evenings” of the Society which are the equivalent of formal concerts. In this current season, from the middle of September, 1921 until the middle of June, 1922, the concerts will take place every Monday evening in the Festival Hall of Engineers and Architects, I., Eschenbachgasse. The establishment of weekly meetings makes it possible, on the one hand, to cover an unusually large repertory within a short time; on the other hand, the Society commands, in this manner, further ways and means to perform music with a view to complete comprehension, namely:
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4. By frequent repetition. Every work is not performed just once, but is repeated in different concerts, in general, two to four times, until it can be fully understood. 5. The same goal will be pursued in introductory discussions of the works performed. 6. The performances themselves are removed from the corrupting influence of publicity. Members of the Society are not encouraged to sit in judgment. On the contrary, it would be desirable to get rid of the habit of too rapidly forming judgments, so that the chief aim of the Society can be achieved: understanding. At Society evenings: a) the performances are not public in every respect. Guests are excluded (with the exception of those living abroad). Reviews of the performances in newspapers as well as all publicity for the works or artists is not permitted. b) At the performances, expressions of approval, of displeasure and of gratitude are not permitted. The only success that the author can have is the one that ought to be the most important for him — that he can make himself understood. c) The performers are primarily of the kind that have placed themselves at the disposal of the Society — out of interest to the cause. Through strict selection, mere virtuosity is excluded as are musicians for whom the performed work is not the primary purpose.
So far, (31 October 1921), altogether 151 works have been performed. Of these, only once performed 52 works; 52 more have been once repeated; 40 works have been twice repeated; 29 works three times repeated; 16 works four times repeated; 9 works seven times repeated; one work has been performed eight times. Acceptance of new members occurs one hour before each concert of the Society at the evening box office, or during concert time in the secretary’s office. The member commits himself for one year, starting with the month in which he joins. The members dues are scaled into 7 classes according to the chosen class of seating. This procedure is suited to the inclination of the members to choose a category of seating in accordance with their personal financial status. This presupposes that more affluent members choose one of the first four categories, because the last three classes must remain reserved for members of no means. Membership can be paid once or in installments. – Translated by Judith Karin Meibach
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gustav mahler Five Songs From Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1887–1899) “Who will take care of Schoenberg now?” Gustav Mahler asked his wife, Alma, shortly before he died. Mahler had adopted Schoenberg as a protégé and, after hearing the older composer’s Third Symphony, the young Schoenberg considered Mahler a genius to the point where he spoke of him as a saint. In 1904, when Schoenberg, with his teacher Alexander Zemlinksy, established the Society of Creative Musicians for the promotion of new music, Mahler was elected Honorary President. As director of the Court Opera, he was a powerful ally who arranged for the Vienna Philharmonic to perform on the Society’s concerts. Though the 1904 organization was short lived, presenting only two orchestral and three chamber music concerts before disbanding, it served as a prototype for the 1918 Society for Private Musical Performances. Mahler, though he had passed away seven years earlier, continued to serve as a motivator and inspiration to the members of the new Society. His music, including many of his songs, featured prominently in the Society’s programs. Mahler chose the texts for the songs on this evening’s program from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a three-volume collection of anonymous German folk poems and songs edited and published by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano in 1808. Collectively, the poems present an idealized, though often dark picture of German peasant life that struck a chord with many nineteenth-century poets and
musicians. Mahler composed twelve orchestral songs on texts from the collection and arranged nine of them for piano and voice. His choice of texts covered a broad range of subjects and emotions, from love to tragic tales of starving children and soldiers condemned to death. Mahler encountered these texts growing up in Iglau in Bohemia. At the time, many Bohemian and Moravian Jewish families strove to assimilate themselves into educated middle class society by studying German classic and folk literature, with the result that they were often ostracized by their Czechspeaking countrymen. Mahler took “Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald” from volume three of Des Knaben Wunderhorn where it was published with the title “Waldvögelein” (“Little Forest Bird”). The poem has three characters: a maiden, a man, and a narrator. The maiden sings the first two stanzas as she joyously walks through the green wood. As she listens to the beautiful sounds of the birds, she asks the nightingale to sing by her lover’s house to tell him “just come when it’s dark, when no one is in the street.” In the last two lines of the third stanza, the narrator introduces the man. The last stanza is sung entirely by the narrator. The poem for “Ablösung im Sommer” is also found in volume three of Des Knaben Wunderhorn under the title “Ablösung” (“Changing of the Guard”). In setting the text, Mahler differentiated the calls of the cuckoo (the bird of spring) and the beautiful song of the nightingale (bird of summer). The former was known as the bird of spring due to its prolific singing at
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that time of year. In his book Common Cuckoo, Arthur L. Thompson says that cuckoos seem to have perfect pitch and sing in or near the key of C. He also says that, in early spring, cuckoo calls are made up of descending minor thirds. The interval changes to a major third or even a perfect fourth as spring turns into summer. The change is reflected in Mahler’s song by the ambiguity between A minor and C major. As we hear in “Kuckuck ist todt! Kuckuck ist todt!” (“The Cuckoo is Dead!”), Mahler imitates the cuckoo’s call with the interval of perfect fourth as well as the minor third. The nightingale, the bird of summer, enters with a key change from E minor to A major. The descending chromatic sixteenths that add tension at the end of the first stanza now become a diatonic descending line. The cuckoo creeps back in with its distinct triplet motif in the third stanza. At the end of the song, the piano returns to its earlier motif of the cuckoo with descending chromatic sixteenth notes, and the call, now exclusively in perfect fourths, leads to the final open fifth rooted on A. The haunting poem “Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz” is found in volume one of Des Knaben Wunderhorn under the title “Der Schweizer” (“The Swiss Boy”). The poem dates from at least the seventeeth century in Strassburg, the center of a dispute between the French and the Germans. At the time, impoverished young Swiss peasants were forced to fight as mercenaries. The Swiss boy hears the alphorn and naively follows the sound to his fatherland, where he is captured and sentenced to death for desertion. Starting in F minor, the piano plays a melody that refers to the horn-call. Mahler writes in
the beginning, “Im Volkston, ohne Sentimentalität, äusserst rythmisch” (“in folk style, without sentimentality, extremely rhythmic”), “wie ein Schalmei” (“like a shawm”). The shawm was a German military band instrument. Perhaps Mahler intends us to understand that the homesick boy heard the military instrument and thought it was an alphorn. By the end of the second line of the first stanza, the piano plays perfect fifths, a definite horn call with a sudden modulation into a sweet F major as the boy dreams about his fatherland. As he finishes dreaming, the key makes a sudden shift into F minor, and the boy screams his regret as he snaps back to reality. In marching songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Mahler often brought back memories of growing up near a barracks in his childhood home. “Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen” opens with the call of faraway trumpets. The song tells the story of a fallen soldier’s ghost that comes back to his beloved. Mahler distinguishes the characters clearly as the soldier sings in an ethereal waltz-like 3/4 meter – passages reminiscent of the wanderer’s visions of his beloved in Schubert’s “Die Winterreise” (“The Winter’s Journey”). These military songs may have had a special resonance with the members of the Society for Private Musical Performances in 1918. Many, including Schoenberg himself, had just returned from the trenches of World War I. In contrast, “Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?” is humorous, describing a boy’s admiration for an innkeeper’s daughter who lives on a green meadow. As soon as he realizes he can only admire his beauty
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from a distance, his mood changes. The middle section of the song drops a step lower as we learn his heart is sore, and he has been wounded. The upbeat beginning reappears, bringing us to a cheerful ending. —Sophiko Simsive ’18MM & Sam Um ’17MM ’18MMA anton bruckner Symphony No. 7 in A Major (1881–83) Essential to Arnold Schoenberg’s understanding of Austro-German music was the notion of a lineage, a legacy of Germanic composers that has its roots in the works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, those framers of the classical style known as the First Viennese School. This very palpable musical heritage that, for Schoenberg, represented the “German musical hegemony,” had been split in two in late nineteenth century Vienna by the divisive music critic Eduard Hanslick. Writing for the Neue Freie Presse, Hanslick championed the music of Johannes Brahms and other composers of “absolute” music — that is, without programmatic imagery — whom he saw as defenders of the great Viennese musical tradition. Conversely, Hanslick published scathing indictments of the aesthetic school of Richard Wagner and his “Music of the Future,” which the critic disparaged for its extra-musical associations. Through his crusade against program music, Hanslick effectively created a divide between what was perceived as “old” and “new” music in his conservative Vienna, a rift whose aftershocks would plague progressive composers for years to come, and indeed, are still evident today.
Wagner’s death in 1883, like Beethoven’s a half-century earlier, was a watershed moment for European artistic and intellectual worlds. For contemporary composers, it raised questions of legacy: where exactly did Wagner fit into the Germanic musical tradition (as a successor or an aggressor?), and where would that tradition go from here? Were his larger-than-life, chromatically soaked Gesamtkunstwerke the turning point or terminus for German romanticism? Anton Bruckner, Wagner’s friend and admirer, was at work on his Seventh Symphony when he learned of the older composer’s passing in February 1883. He wrote the poignant chorale in the Wagner Tubas at the end of sublime Adagio as a tribute after hearing the news. Bruckner later confessed about the symphony’s second movement, “I really did write the Adagio about the Great One’s death. Partly in anticipation, partly as Trauermusik for the actual catastrophe.” Bruckner’s nods to Wagner don’t stop there; the symphony quotes several Wagnerian leitmotifs, and some veiled structural connections to Beethoven’s “Eroica” and Liszt’s “Faust” Symphony could even suggest a program for the symphony as a whole depicting the death of the hero Wagner, the Faustian innovator of harmony. But, as the music theorist Timothy Jackson has suggested, it is the symphony’s Finale that offers the most concrete and compelling evidence for insight into Bruckner’s tribute to Wagner, as well as Bruckner’s estimation of his own place in the Germanic musical lineage. The exposition of this unusual sonata-form movement presents three themes in three distinct key areas: a snappy, impish figure in E major modeled
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after the opening theme of the first movement; a poised but sensitive chorale in A flat major; and a grotesque variation of the lighthearted opening motive, this time set to A minor in fortissimo. Most interesting about Bruckner’s elusive form in this movement is his treatment of the recapitulation, where he brings the themes back in reverse order and in the “wrong” keys: B minor for the third group, followed by the second group in C major, and finally the triumph of E major with the return of the first group. Bruckner did not pioneer this peculiar form; rather, his use of the reverse recapitulation structure puts him in the company of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms, and other masters of the venerated Germanic musical legacy who also deployed the same form. Scholars have since termed this formal device the “tragic” reverse recapitulation, and some evocative titles from the repertoire of pieces organized in that fashion lend support for that interpretation (Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 in E minor, “TrauerSinfonie”; Brahms’ Tragic Overture; Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, “Tragische,” among others). To suggest that Bruckner expressly sought to build tragedy into his symphony by reversing the recapitulation of the finale would be presumptuous, but the existence of these works and Bruckner’s documented knowledge of some of them suggest a rhetorical precedent for the affect he was looking for on the occasion of Wagner’s death. In the context of the classical education system that produced composers of this era, “tragedy” as a rhetorical concept doesn’t mean just doom and gloom; it
stems from Greek dramatic theory and the Aristotelian idea of peripety, the tragedy inherent in the subversion or reversal of expectations, be they narrative or tonalformal. In Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, for example, Idomeneo rashly promises Neptune to sacrifice the first living creature he sees in exchange for safe passage home from the Trojan War. When that fateful first encounter turns out to be his own son, the tragedy lies not just in the prospect of infanticide, but in the tragic reversal of expectations. As James Hepokoski has suggested, for composers conditioned by the time-honored, Germanic tradition of sonata form, a violation of a normative structure represented a tragic deformation. Sure enough, the famous quartet from Idomaneo, Act III, depicting the height of the characters’ suffering, follows the same tragic reverse recapitulation structure. The distinction between overtly tragic expressive content and inherent tragedy of structure is important because the exultant E major coda of Bruckner’s Finale may seem mismatched with a form that has traditionally been used to express despair. Indeed, Bruckner’s ending is unique in this regard, but this seeming contradiction actually serves his tribute to Wagner. When, in the final bars of the symphony, the Finale’s first theme returns atop echoes of its first movement ancestor, it is easy to imagine this coda as a musical representation of Wagner’s legacy resonating for eternity after his death. In this reading, Bruckner’s Finale projects a dichotomous program: a tragic lament of Wagner’s death coupled with a triumphant eulogy celebrating his arrival in heaven and the longevity of his legacy
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on earth. Ascribing extra-musical meaning when it is not explicitly stated can be misguided and misleading, but, as Timothy Jackson observed, in the context of the Germanic musical heritage, the tonalformal interactions in Bruckner’s Finale surely imply a programmatic rhetoric even without imposing a whole narrative. Of course the Society for Private Musical Perfomances did not have the orchestral resources to perform a large romantic symphony as it was originally scored. Instead Schoenberg and his students made arrangements for chamber ensemble of major works such as Debussy’s Prelude on the Afternoon of a Faun, Mahler’s First Symphony and Song of the Earth, and Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. Schoenberg supervised his students, Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein, and Karl Rankl, who made the Bruckner arrangement in 1921. Unfortunately, the Society disbanded before they were able to hear the fruits of their labor. Reducing Bruckner’s score to string quintet, clarinet, horn, piano four-hands, harmonium, and timpani — a far cry from the original, robust, Wagnerian orchestration — may seem counterintuitive. But, for what it lacks in grandeur and decibels, the chamber version offers a neoclassical transparency that allows us to hear the music’s intricate tonal-formal relationships. Surely this was by design; the cerebral Schoenberg, with his newlyminted twelve-tone compositional system, must have been attracted to Bruckner’s calculated approach to composing and his music’s highly organized architecture below the surface. In fact, Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony even reveals some
early forerunners of the kind of interval manipulation that would become a hallmark of Schoenberg’s dodecaphonic style. Not only do the themes appear in reverse order in the last movement’s recapitulation, but the intervalic relationships between the tonal areas of the exposition are literally retrograded in the recapitulation (E—A-flat—A minor in the exposition, transformed to B minor—C major—E major in the recapitulation). The Finale also features passages in which inversions of the movement’s first two themes are superimposed. For a composer so often reductively compartmentalized as “late romantic,” it is striking to unearth these seeds of modernism in Bruckner’s music. Moreover, it is no wonder that Schoenberg felt a kinship with Bruckner, who had also suffered terribly at the hands of the conservative Viennese press. —Graeme Steele Johnson ’17MM ’18MMA
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upcoming yale in new york concerts This year’s Yale in New York series features music from Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances. Reflections from the Second Viennese School The second concert in the series features Webern’s arrangement of Schoenberg’s innovative Chamber Symphony No. 1 and music by Johann Strauss II, with violinist Wendy Sharp and pianist Melvin Chen December 11 Morse Recital Hall | Monday | 4:30 pm free admission January 28 Weill Recital Hall | Sunday | 7:30 pm Tickets $25 at carnegiehall.org
Impressions on the French Tradition The final concert in the series features Debussy’s Proses lyriques and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Ravel’s String Quartet, with mezzo-soprano Janna Baty and the Rolston String Quartet December 15 Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 4:30 pm free admission March 4 Weill Recital Hall | Sunday | 7:30 pm Tickets $25 at carnegiehall.org
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