The Schönberg Cycle: String Sextet Op. 4 (Verklärte Nacht)

In a series of specially-staged performances, The Schoenberg Quartet – Janneke van der Meer (violin), Wim de Jong (violin), Henk Guittart (viola) and Viola de Hoog (cello) – perform Schoenberg’s complete works for strings. The recordings benefit from the creative use of visual techniques, and the intimate camerawork, focus on detail and superb sound quality which studio conditions facilitate. The quartet is joined by Arleen Augér (soprano) for the String Quartet No. 2, and by Jan-Erik van Regteren Altena (viola) and Taco Kooistra (cello) for Verklärte Nacht.

String Quartet in D

27′

String Quartet No. 1 in D minor Op. 7

46′

String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor Op. 10

33′

String Quartet No. 3 Op. 30

33′

String Quartet No. 4 Op. 37

36′

String Sextet Op. 4 (Verklärte Nacht)

31′

String Trio Op. 45

21′

A 52-minute companion documentary is available to accompany these performances.

In this documentary, made to accompany The Schoenberg Cycle, the Schoenberg Quartet is seen preparing for their performance of the cycle in Los Angeles in 1989. Their tutor is the violist Eugene Lehner, a member of the former Kolisch Quartet, which, in ist day, worked extensively with Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Bartók, premiering many of their works. Ronald, Lawrence and Nuria Nono Schoenberg, as well as staff at The Schoenberg Institute contribute to this fascinating film.

Zubin Mehta conducts Pierrot Lunaire

Arnold Schönberg was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and the “father” of musical Modernism. “Brilliant idea, just my kind of thing,” he noted in his diary, after hearing of the actress Albertine Zehme’s plans to set poems from Albert Giraud’s Pierrot lunaire to music. Each of the 21 miniatures has its own sound colour by the instruments employed: flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello. Under the among them Mojca Erdmann, Daniel and Michael Barenboim, perform in the concentrated studio-like atmosphere of the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

Christian Thielemann conducts Schönberg and Strauss

More than 140 concerts and a multitude of celebrated recordings connect Christian Thielemann with the traditional Viennese orchestra. The live recording of his debut on the podium at the Vienna Musikverein almost 23 years ago promptly became a reference recording. On the programme then as now: Richard Strauss’ monumental Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony). This work, often regarded as the final and climax of the “symphonic poem” genre, is juxtaposed with Arnold Schönberg’s probably most famous tonal composition, the orchestral version of the string sextet Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night). “A truly persuasive performance.” (The New York Times)

Salzburg Festival 2020: Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

“Fluid, but without hectic, Barenboim let the endless melody blossom, strength and tenderness were no opposites. Emmanuel Pahud from the Berliner Philharmoniker played the flute […] and was not the only celebrity in the orchestra: in addition to Barenboim’s son Michael as concertmaster and Kian Soltani as solo cellist, the conductor and pianist Lahav Shani, the successor of Zubin Mehta at the head of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, was on the double bass” Die Presse. PROGRAM Wagner: Siegfried Idyll for Chamber Orchestra; Schönberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9; Boulez: Mémoriale (…explosante-fixe… Originel) for solo flute and eight instruments; Beethoven: Große Fuge, Op. 133 (Version by Daniel Barenboim, 2020)

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Salzburg – Concert

The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. The project, says Barenboim, brings together these young people “not so that they forget or hide their differences, but so that they can understand them.” He adds that “making music together gives us the best opportunity to learn to live with one another.” The concerts presented here were recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras residency. The ensemble “proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic ‘top dogs’ from Vienna or Berlin” (Munich’s Abendzeitung). Among the highlights of the concerts are Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” K. 297b, which gives four young soloists a chance to dazzle, and Igor Stravinsky’s “L’histoire du soldat,” an airy piece with a demanding percussion part. Songs and chamber music, including Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, showcase the individual talents of the young players. The major orchestral concert comprises a Beethoven overture, an intricate and multi-layered piece by Schoenberg, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pathétique,” in which Barenboim pulls out all the stops and coaxes rarely heard instrumental lines and accents from the depth of his ensemble.

Popelka conducts Schönberg

“Schönberg is one of my heroes”, conductor Petr Popelka said in an interview (Der Standard) – and you can really hear his dedication to the composer as he leads the well-oiled machine of 400 musicians, consisting of the Wiener Symphoniker, three choirs and 5 soloists in their interpretation of Gurre-Lieder: “Perfectly organised, always striving for a balance between pointillist precision, a sense of the grotesque and romantic emphasis” (Die Presse). The soloists shone, above all Vera-Lotte Boecker as a “youthfully blossoming Tove with a bright, secure high register” (Die Prse) PROGRAM: Schönberg: Gurre-Lieder

Bryn Terfel – Bad Boys

Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel is a towering figure in today’s musical world – both physically and artistically. Whether in the opera house or on the recital stage, he blends his powerful, versatile voice with commanding stage presence. Since bass-baritones are usually the “bad boys” in opera, the Welsh singer has put together a program that portrays a gallery of rogues and villains, the “demonic misfits and malcontents of this wonderful music” (Bryn Terfel). The concert features Terfel in a number of demonic roles, including two Satans (one by Gounod and one by Boito), a murderous barber (Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd), a swaggering drug dealer (Gershwin’s Sporting Life) and much more. He is accompanied in this program – recorded at Cardiff’s St. David’s Hall in his native Wales – by the Sinfonia Cymru under Gareth Jones.

BBC Proms 2017: Rattle conducts Schönberg’s Gurre Lieder

Sir Simon Rattle starts his tenure as the London Symphony Orchestra’s new Music Director with a concert at the prestigious BBC Proms – 40 years after his first appearance with the LSO, in October 1977 at the age of 22. The Royal Albert Hall’s cavernous space provides the perfect surroundings for this supersize scale performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. The force of over five hundred voices from the London Symphony Chorus, the CBSO Chorus, and Orfeó Català meet the LSO and a superb lineup of soloists, led by Rattle, putting on “a brilliantly blazing show” (The Daily Telegraph). Their BBC Proms performance is “an intoxicating embrace of the gigantic ebb and flow of Schoenberg’s score … an ecstatic celebration!” (The Guardian)

Eschenbach conducts Schönberg & Brahms

To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, conductor Christoph Eschenbach conducts Arnold Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” and Johannes Brahms’ “A German Requiem”, with the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic and Choir as well as soloists Michael Nagy and Aleksandra Zamojska. Both works carry a profound emotional depth and humanistic message. Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw” is one of the most significant compositions by this leading avant-garde artist of the early 20th century. And of his “German Requiem”, Brahms once said that he “would gladly omit the word ‘German’ and simply use ‘Human,’” emphasizing his desire for it to be seen as a “human requiem”. PROGRAM Schönberg: A Survivor from Warsaw; Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem