Schoenberg - Gurrelieder -
Schoenberg's melodic, tonal Wagnerian masterpiece Gurrelieder calls for one of the largest
... more
orchestras ever assembled on one concert platform, including 25 woodwind, 25 brass, 11 percussion, three four-part male voice choirs and a mixed eight-part choir; Simon Rattle fondly remembers it as the "biggest score in Liverpool's Music Library". In the interview with him included in the liner notes, he also adds: "although 400 people are involved, Gurrelieder is in fact the world's largest string quartet". In music of sumptuous beauty it tells the story of a king, Waldemar, whose beautiful young mistress Tove is murdered by his wife. Waldemar joins a terrifying night-time ride of skeletons and corpses while railing against God. But although the themes and sound-world are Wagnerian, Rattle treats the score like Strauss--using a light, even ironically Mozartian, touch. The effect is overwhelmingly powerful, and the work's climaxes (the skeletons' "Wild hunt", and the massive "Hymn to the sun at the end") are all the more spine-tingling for the careful restraint and generally quick tempi that have gone before. The singers couldn't be bettered; tenor Thomas Moser has a rich baritone range perfect for the demanding role of Waldemar, the king whose lover is foully murdered, and Karita Mattila is both creamy and intense as the lover in question. Philip Langridge and Anne Sofie von Otter are also on top form. Stunning.--Warwick Thompson
Schoenberg - Gurrelieder
Schoenberg's melodic, tonal Wagnerian masterpiece Gurrelieder calls for one of the largest
... more
orchestras ever assembled on one concert platform, including 25 woodwind, 25 brass, 11 percussion, three four-part male voice choirs and a mixed eight-part choir; Simon Rattle fondly remembers it as the "biggest score in Liverpool's Music Library". In the interview with him included in the liner notes, he also adds: "although 400 people are involved, Gurrelieder is in fact the world's largest string quartet". In music of sumptuous beauty it tells the story of a king, Waldemar, whose beautiful young mistress Tove is murdered by his wife. Waldemar joins a terrifying night-time ride of skeletons and corpses while railing against God. But although the themes and sound-world are Wagnerian, Rattle treats the score like Strauss--using a light, even ironically Mozartian, touch. The effect is overwhelmingly powerful, and the work's climaxes (the skeletons' "Wild hunt", and the massive "Hymn to the sun at the end") are all the more spine-tingling for the careful restraint and generally quick tempi that have gone before. The singers couldn't be bettered; tenor Thomas Moser has a rich baritone range perfect for the demanding role of Waldemar, the king whose lover is foully murdered, and Karita Mattila is both creamy and intense as the lover in question. Philip Langridge and Anne Sofie von Otter are also on top form. Stunning.--Warwick Thompson
Composer: Arnold (Franz Walther) Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
Main Performer: David Arnold (Baritone); James McCracken (Tenor); Jessye Norman (Soprano); Kim Scown (Tenor); Tatiana Troyanos (Mezzo soprano)
Orchestra / Ensemble(s): Tanglewood Festival Chorus; Boston Symphony Orchestra; Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Date of Release: 15/11/1999
Label / Distributor: Duo / Universal Manufacturing and Logistics
Pieces in Set: 2
Genre(s): Vocal and choral, Orchestral
SPAR Code: ADD
EAN: 28946404027
Catalogue Number: 464
Work 1
Work Title: Gurrelieder
Excerpt(s): 1. Orchestral Interlude 2. Song of the Wood-Dove
Composer: Arnold (Franz Walther) Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
Genre: Vocal & Choral
Date Written: 1900-03 Revised 1910-11
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
Orchestra / Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra / Ensemble: Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Main Performer: David Arnold (Baritone), James McCracken (Tenor), Jessye Norman (Soprano), Kim Scown (Tenor), Tatiana Troyanos (Mezzo soprano), Werner Klemperer (Narrator)
Opera Part(s): David Arnold, James McCracken, Jessye Norman, Kim Scown, Tatiana Troyanos, Werner Klemperer
Work 2
Work Title: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Excerpt(s): 1. Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Composer: Arnold (Franz Walther) Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
Genre: Orchestral
Date Written: 1906 rev 1922
Conductor: Seiji Ozawa
Orchestra / Ensemble: Boston Symphony Orchestra
Work 3
Work Title: Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38
Excerpt(s): 1. Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38
Composer: Arnold (Franz Walther) Schoenberg (1874 - 1951)
Genre: Orchestral
Date Written: 1906-39
Conductor: Eliahu Inbal
Orchestra / Ensemble: Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
Advantages: You will hear a landmark in music history Disadvantages: Can be frightening for those only used to Bach
...Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), is best known for his ground-breaking and hugely influential music for ballet. Indeed, 'The Rite of Spring' or 'Le Sacre du Printemps' is perhaps the best example of Stravinsky's challenging and provocative interpretation of the 'Brave New World'.
'The Rite' was premiered in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris (1913), and it all started well as a seemingly innocent bassoon melody floated out from the orchestral pit. What was to follow, however, was to shock and enrage the unprepared Parisian audience: pagan content, ritual sacrifice, wild choreography, savage and hugely unconventional music. This moment is a milestone in music history, and heralded (along with Schoenberg) a transformation in music: whilst once thought of as horrific, Stravinsky's music is now admired and is still perpetually influential...
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Advantages: Great music is always an advantage... Disadvantages: Great music don't have it
...thick author.
Today, that can listen their with the clear of mind from prejudices, we have to recognize their greatness "absolute" without forgetting they open the road to so much back music.
You are enough to think about Schoenberg, the inventor of the so-called dodecafonia (new method to compose music proposed around 1915), that appreciated him and as great teacher showed him; to Berg that more times he quotes, in his writings, Mahler declaring how much it musically owed him, etc.
The Symphony that I have a preference for, but saying this I feel a hold to the stomach for the "blame" that I do to the others, it is the Seventh one and particularly the two enchanting, "strange" Nachtmusiken that they constitute the traditional slow Time and the other one of it, the "Scherzo".
Here, all plays indeed, as if it came from another world...
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Advantages: One to tick off on your list Disadvantages: Not got much of a tune to it! (but that's the point)
...a good idea'.
KONTAKT lasts approximately twenty five minutes, and is about as brutal an assault on the auditory senses as one is as likely to encounter!
I suspect there were few people in the audience who would have been able to tell when the piece ended, except perhaps when the house lights went up!
I've heard Stockhausen's work compared to the sound of a grand piano being thrown down a flight of stairs; I would suggest this was grossly unfair - to pianos!
The man's legacy is truly tremendous - many musicians in the avant-garde claim him to be a major influence, these include Pink Floyd, Bjork, Aphex Twin, and he was admired by the Beatles.
There's a definite continuity from the Second Viennese school (Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern et all) and Stickhausen, and in turn, he provides the link to experimental work...
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helpful 02.05.2005
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