Discovering Music: Erwartung

[Flosshilde]

I went to the recording of this at the City Halls. It will be well worth listening to when it is broadcast, but unfortunately listeners won't be able to see the compellingly dramatic performance of Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet as 'The Woman'. Hear it, yes, but her physical performance was quite incredible.

[Serial_Apologist]

I went to the recording of this at the City Halls. It will be well worth listening to when it is broadcast, but unfortunately listeners won't be able to see the compellingly dramatic performance of Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet as 'The Woman'. Hear it, yes, but her physical performance was quite incredible.

Thanks Floss

One of my favourites of Schoenberg, though it took a long time to get to terms with it. It still astonishes that AS composed it in 1909, and in 2 weeks?? - some of the sounds in it anticipating electronic music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks Floss

One of my favourites of Schoenberg, though it took a long time to get to terms with it. It still astonishes that AS composed it in 1909, and in 2 weeks?? - some of the sounds in it anticipating electronic music.

Anyone know when it's going to be broadcast? And which orchestra/conductor?

[Flosshilde]

It was the BBC Scottish Symphony, conducted by Matthias Pintscher. The BBCSSO website just says 'for future broadcast.

Oops - I've just had a look to see if there is any info on the broadcast date on the Radio 3 website, & realised that the programme is called Discovering Music, not Talking About ... Still no broadcast date, though.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Pintscher is doing a bit of work with the BBCSSO: this coming Sunday lunchtime there's a broadcast of a concert they gave of one of his own works together with pieces by Mendelssohn, Schumann & Brahms. Finger's crossed that Erwartung will follow soon.

Best Wishes.

[Flosshilde]

Yes - he's their first 'Artist-in-Association' - I don't know what that entails, but he's doing a fair bit of conducting & they are also programming quite a bit of his music.

[french frank]

Thread title edited at Floss's request to clarify the programme under discussion.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thread title edited at Floss's request to clarify the programme under discussion.

Thanks to you both.

[french frank]

A bit more information here, but it looks as if there's no transmission date as yet.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

How was Stephen Johnson's presentation, flossie? He did a very good DM on the second Quartet a few years ago, but his obsevations about Schönberg are often frequently peppered with silly comments about the Serial works and the "flaws" (as he perceives them) in the man himself. His grotesque "discussion" of Berg's Lyric Suite spent more time on Schönberg's first marriage, attempting to prove that Berg's work was actually by Barbara Cartland!

Correction: Berg's Chamber Concerto was the puported work, not the Lyric Suite. Not that the work figured much in the programme - he could've been talking about the Hokey-Cokey for all the relevance Johnson's comments had.

[Flosshilde]

I'm afraid my memory is so poor that I can't remember the details, but he started off (briefly) talking about Verklärte Nacht & its connections to Tristan und Isolde. For Erwartung he referred to the intelectual & artistic ferment of Vienna at the time, & especially the development of psychoanalysis. He also talked a bit about the author of the libretto, Marie Pappenheim, who shares a surname with Bertha Pappenheim, the patient of Freud's who formed the basis of his study of hysteria; apparently it has not been possible to identify any connection, but Stephen Johnson talked about the feeling of hysteria in Erwartung. I found it interesting, although some might find the psychoanalytic connections a bit forced. The musical examples were used to demonstrate the agitation & fear of 'The Woman', and imagery of, for example, moonlight.

Of course, when you listen to the programme you'll probably think I was at the recording of an entirely different one

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, floss!