Four Centuries of Great Music September 14, 2024 Celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Arnold Schoenberg

In celebration of the anniversaries of composers births in the month of September on this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music, I am using the entire episode to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg which was yesterday, September 13th.  Schoenberg had a major impact on 20th century music both as a composer and as the developer of 12-tone or serial music.  As a educator at primarily the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) he trained a large number of composers who later became faculty who were acolytes of the 12-tone system of composition.  As an unforeseen consequence, academic music became so serialist dominant through as late as the 1980s, that all other music was shunned and condemned  as old style and archaic.  It has only been in the last 30 or so years that academic music has opened up to accept all forms of music and all forms of academic music have blossomed.

Today we will be exploring several pieces that are listed among Arnold Schoenberg’s important works.  We open with one of his most performed pieces Verklärte Nacht, his Opus 4 written in 1899 and is in a more late romantic style than many of his works.

Arnold Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (Arr. For String Orchestra By Schoenberg - 1943 Revised Version)
Herbert von Karajan & Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht; Pelléas und Mélisande, Op. 5
Deutsche Grammophon

The next work on this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music celebrating the sesquicentennial of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg is his Violin Concerto, Op. 36.  Schoenberg had escaped Nazi Germany in 1933 and began teaching at UCLA. This was completed in 1936 during his brief return to tonality.  It is in 3 movements

Arnold Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36_ I. Poco Allegro
Arnold Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36_ II. Andante grazioso
Arnold Schoenberg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36_ III. Finale. Allegro
Hilary Hahn, violin; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen
Schoenberg: Violin Concerto; Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Deutsche Grammophon

We are opening this second hour of today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music celebrating the sesquicentennial of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg with his A Survivor from Warsaw scored for narrator, men's chorus and orchestra.  It was written in  1948 as a tribute to Holocaust victims. The main narration is written in Sprechgesang style, between speaking and singing without a distinct pitch in the solo vocal line.

Arnold Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw
Frankfort Singakademie, Hans Zender, Roland Hermann, Saarbrucken Radio Orchestra
Schoenberg: A Survivor from Warsaw; 5 Orchestral Pieces; Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielszene;  Messiaen: Hymne au Saint-Sacrement
CPO Records

We are closing today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music celebrating the sesquicentennial of the birth of Arnold Schoenberg with his symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5, completed in February 1903.

Arnold Schoenberg: Pelléas und Mélisande, Op. 5
PAAVO JÄRVI & FRANKFURT RADIO SYMPHONY
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE - SCHOENBERG, FAURÉ
Alpha Records