Music you've known about but never heard until recently

[ahinton]

Definitely try other works by Schonberg. I started with Gurrelieder and now have five recordings of the work. Pelleas and Melisande is beautiful too. There are works like Verklarte Nacht which make gentle introductions to the harder pieces. Naxos have issued some brilliant recodings conducted by the wonderful Robert Craft which provide an inexpensive way into this fascinating composer. I am currently in love with Craft's recording of Schonberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra . This work was premiered by Henry Wood at the Proms. Craft makes it sound lush and beautiful even though it is one of the tougher nuts. For utter delight Schonberg's arrangements of other people's works are well worth hearing: his orchestral version of Brahms's Clarinet Quartet is a gem of scintillating orchestration. Then he did the opposite thing by reducing Strauss Waltzes, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen [Songs of a Wayfarer] and Das Lied von der Erde to chamber works so that they stood better chances of being performed: these are very faithful to the spirit of the original works. He was a pupil of Mahler's.

My experience is that his more difficult music grows on you. Try a little now and again. Fortunately many recordings mix the works so a romantic piece comes with a tough cookie. Then there are his friends, Webern and Berg. Both have a romantic side and all of Webern's music is very short.

There's been some wonderful music written about in this thread, much of which means a very great deal to me. It might nevertheless be worth noting that Berg's piece about why Schönberg's music was (thought to be) so hard to understand centres on the D minor String Quartet! - as well it might, given that it is a work of immense complexity as well as powerful immediacy. By the way, by "Brahms's Clarinet Quartet" I think that you mean Brahms's Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25; Brahms never wrote a clarinet quartet in any case! The Schönberg arrangement is certainly not to everyone's taste, but I love it!

[Pabmusic]

One discovery in the last two years has been Andrew Davis's direction of Berg's Lulu from Glyndbourne (DVD, that is ). I had never paid this piece much attention (though I love Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle) but this performance changed that.

[gradus]

Finzi's Dies Natalis. Ravishingly beautiful and deeply moving - how on earth have i managed to miss this?

[pmartel]

???!!!

Great job you've got, pmarty!

I'd second all the "pointers" to Verklärte Nachte, the First String Quartet, and Pelleas & Melisande: once you've got "into" these works, it's easy to hear the First Chamber Symphony and the Second String Quartet. And then the Five Orchestral Pieces (and Chris' recommendation of the Craft recording is one I "second" with the greatest of enthusiasm!) And then ... and then ... and then ... (Arnie is one of the greatest composers whose work reflects the very best and very worst of human experience in the 20th Century, one of my "special favourites", in case I hadn't made that clear!)

And what a good "thread"! Three years ago I bought a boxed set of Schütz's Pasiontide Music on offer in the Radio Times. I'd known of the works since a teenager, but was totally unprepared for the utterly captivating Music: it completely held my attention.

Best Wishes.

Thanks, it helps maintain my sanity as I do phone tech support in a call center for cable tv in Canada.

I just keep the computer on at low volume, no one hears it but me

last year I was at work while listening to the Bayreuth Festival. I think I drove my co-workers crazy

[Serial_Apologist]

This thread is so uplifting!

Apologies to all and sundry for hogging the limelight with my particular spin on Schoenberg, but I really felt he deserved a fair crack of the whip after for so long being marginalised on R3.

[Curalach]

May I suggest Hilary Hahn's recording of the Violin Concerto, considered by Stravinsky to be one of the best violin concertos, and he was not exactly Schoenberg's greatest fan.

Having first heard the Schoenberg Violin Concerto at its UK premiere in Glasgow over 50 years ago I never quite connected with it until I heard Hilary Hahn's revelatory performance on disc. It is a wonderful recording.
On Saturday last, my wife and I were introduced to Hilary by Stéphane Denève after a concert which included her performance of Prokofiev 1 (still available on iPlayer). It was a delight to meet her and to be able to tell her how much she had opened my mind to a work I had known but never fully appreciated. Neither she nor Stéphane were aware that the (R)SNO had played at the UK premiere with Wolfgang Marschner and Alex Gibson.

[cloughie]

This thread is so uplifting!

Apologies to all and sundry for hogging the limelight with my particular spin on Schoenberg, but I really felt he deserved a fair crack of the whip after for so long being marginalised on R3.

Seems as though being marginalised by R3 gives cult status - recent examples Tippett, Delius on these boards - anyone else?

[teamsaint]

some great food for thought here,and some great suggestions of ways to progress through his music.

I have still do get around to much of the Schoenberg repertoire, but i can echo the sentiments that if you choose, or are presented with, the right piece, it's no problem to start to enjoy.

On my list of "to buy/do" is Webern. I always enjoy listening to his stuff. if nothing else, it demands attention to every note, and for me always has a cathartic effect.

I recently bought the Berg Violin concerto, and oddly, have yet to really connect with it. That is probably down to the fact that doing 70 MPH on the A303 isn't always the best listening environment for the "2nd Viennese school !!"

Oh, and as others have suggested, I have yet to hear ANY Schoenberg arrangement that isn't amazingly good.
Brain the size of a planet !!

[jayne lee wilson]

Shame that some of Schoenberg's most original and attractive music from the 1920s is almost completely ignored now - probably because of the unusual instrumental combinations: The Serenade, for 7 Instruments (including guitar & marimba) plus bass voice, and the oddly-named Septet-Suite for 3 clarinets, string trio and piano. Beautiful, melodic and dancing scores, gentle and jagged by turns which anyone adventuring into AS should get into sooner than the usual more obvious & scintillating recommendations might suggest.

Personally I find the compendium known as Gurrelieder a bit of a sprawl now; for me the essence of Schoenberg is in the later chamber works, where that so Viennese, so original voice finds fullest expression, after the great, synthesising and innovative statements of Verklarte Nacht, the First 2 Quartets, Pieces Op.16, Gurrelieder and so on had made their spectacular mark.
Then alongside the Septets and Quartets you find the rapprochement with the great classical forms - Variations Op.31, Violin and Piano Concertos.

A richly inexhaustible catalogue. Might his time actually lie ahead, when the world tires of the instantly accessible and rapidly consumable?
Or perhaps we're all just fighting a rearguard here.

[teamsaint]

Shame that some of Schoenberg's most original and attractive music from the 1920s is almost completely ignored now - probably because of the unusual instrumental combinations: The Serenade, for 7 Instruments (including guitar & marimba) plus bass voice, and the oddly-named Septet-Suite for 3 clarinets, string trio and piano. Beautiful, melodic and dancing scores, gentle and jagged by turns which anyone adventuring into AS should get into sooner than the usual more obvious & spectacular recommendations might suggest.

Personally I find the compendium known as Gurrelieder a bit of a sprawl now; for me the essence of Schoenberg is in the later chamber works, where that so Viennese, so original voice finds fullest expression, after the great, synthesising and innovative statements of Verklarte Nacht, the First 2 Quartets, Pieces Op.16, Gurrelieder and so on had made their spectacular mark.
Then alongside the Septets and Quartets you find the rapprochement with the great classical forms - Variations Op.31, Violin and Piano Concertos.

A richly inexhaustible catalogue. Might his time actually lie ahead, when the world tires of the instantly accessible and rapidly consumable?
Perhaps we're all just fighting a rearguard here.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/30/contemporary-classical-music-finds-audience

This article suggests that the times may be a changing !
100 years on, but so it goes !!

Part of the problem with this music, as in fact with much "Classical" music, is that demands time and attention that can be hard to give or find in the modern world.it often rewards effort, but there is so much effortless entertainment and distraction around, musical and otherwise............effort isn't very much in fashion !!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Shame that some of Schoenberg's most original and attractive music from the 1920s is almost completely ignored now - probably because of the unusual instrumental combinations: The Serenade, for 7 Instruments (including guitar & marimba) plus bass voice, and the oddly-named Septet-Suite for 3 clarinets, string trio and piano. Beautiful, melodic and dancing scores, gentle and jagged by turns which anyone adventuring into AS should get into sooner than the usual more obvious & spectacular recommendations might suggest.

AFAIK, the composer simply called Op 29 Suite for Seven Instruments to distinguish it from the Op 25 Suite for Piano. Absolutely right: glorious works all three, the Serenade given a particularly fine performance on another Naxos/Craft CD. The "Septet/Suite" giving Babbitt the "line-up" for his wonderful Septet But Equal, heard on Pre-Hear last Saturday.

Milton Babbitt! Now there's another composer well worth getting to know (rather than just "know about"!): little hope from the Beeb ('tho' Philomel is a forthcoming "Hear & Now 50") but plenty to whet the appetite on youTube etc.

Best Wishes.

[teamsaint]

this any good please, you experts?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simon-Rattle-Second-Viennese-School/dp/B003TYOAAU/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328125497&sr=1-3

And this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Berg-Webern-String-Quartets/dp/B001MUJSXW/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328125684&sr=1-2

gets great reviews.... any thoughts?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Both excellent bargains. Rattle is a little too smooth for my usual taste (milk chocolate to Craft's dark) but the Music can take this approach, and I quite enjoy it from time-to-time. The Gurrelieder is particularly fine.

The La Salle's recordings are second only to the Ardittis in this repertoire*, and have their own "take" on the Music that I regularly want to hear and hear again.

Best Wishes.

EDIT* = "in my opinion", of course: others prefer the La Salles to the Ardittis (and, indeed, to anyone else!)

[Bryn]

this any good please, you experts?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simon-Rattle-Second-Viennese-School/dp/B003TYOAAU/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328125497&sr=1-3

And this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Berg-Webern-String-Quartets/dp/B001MUJSXW/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328125684&sr=1-2

gets great reviews.... any thoughts?

Both well worth getting, especially the LaSalle Quartet's survey.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, great bargains both. Can't go wrong there.

The New Vienna Quartet's Schoenberg-only set on a Philips Duo strikes me as a little more incisive and immediate than the LaSalles, and if cost is no object the most lushly recorded and lovingly played Quartet cycle is The Leipzig Quartet on MDG Gold, extravagantly spread over separate discs. Sonically this is remarkable - truly impressive, more spacious and dynamic than most quartet recordings. Glad I bought it when I had the cash!

Of (very) special historical interest is the mono Juilliard Cycle from 1950-52, on United Archives, which surprises the purchaser with its grooved mini-LP design on the label side and - uniquely in my experience - shiny jet black on the other!
This valuable, richly sonorous set also includes the Berg Lyric Suite and Op.3 Quartet, and Webern's Op.5 Movements.

this any good please, you experts?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simon-Rattle-Second-Viennese-School/dp/B003TYOAAU/ref=sr_1_3?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328125497&sr=1-3

And this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Schoenberg-Berg-Webern-String-Quartets/dp/B001MUJSXW/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1328125684&sr=1-2

gets great reviews.... any thoughts?