In Vienna’s Leopoldstadt, 150 years ago today, was born one of the 20th century’s defining figures, Arnold Schoenberg. The Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin is paying homage with an all-Schoenberg program this evening by the Boulez Ensemble, with Zubin Mehta conducting the Chamber Symphony, Op. 9, and Pierre lunaire (with Mojca Erdmann as the “reciter”) — the latter having been first performed in 1912 just a few km from the Boulez Saal.
Here’s my program essay (you can find my colleague Wolfgang Stähr’s excellent contribution in German here):
It was exactly 150 years ago, on September 13, that Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg was born in Vienna. (His birthday fell on a Sunday in 1874, though the triskaidekaphobia-stricken composer did die on Friday 13th nearly 77 years later.) Yet even from this distance in time, Schoenberg’s name continues to strike its own superstitious fear among those conditioned to reject his music even without listening to it.
With Mitsuko Uchida as Music Director, this year’s Ojai Music Festival from 6-9 June promises an intriguing mix of Mozart piano concertos, early Modernist masterpieces (with a focus on Arnold Schoenberg), and pieces by contemporary composers who hold special significance for her. I had the privilege once again of writing the program notes, which are available here.
Visit OMF’s homepage for livestreams and replays of the concerts here.
On 9 June 1921, Prague’s State Opera hosted the Czech premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s early masterpiece Gurre-Lieder, based on a 14th-century Danish legend. For the first time in 102 years, the State Opera will again present the work on Tuesday, 20 June 2023 at 19:00 Prague time. Details here.
Schoenberg’s mammoth score calls for a small army: almost 250 singers and instrumentalists will be on hand, including the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, with Petr Popelka conducting.
This is a co-production between the National Theatre Opera and the State Opera, Musica non grata, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Norwegian Radio Orchestra. Performed in the German original, with Czech surtitles. Part of the Musica non grata project, the program will contribute to the celebrations marking the centenary of Czech Radio.
“The inclusion of the Gurre-Lieder in the Musica non grata cycle and its return to the State Opera is entirely logical, as it was at this very venue, formerly the Neues deutsches Theater, where, on 9 June 1921, the masterpiece received its Czech premiere, conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky, one of Musica non grata’s central figures,“ said Per Boye Hansen, Artistic Director of the National Theatre Opera and the State Opera. Arnold Schoenberg worked on the monumental cantata on and off for 11 years, starting in 1900 and finishing in 1911. The Gurre-Lieder was first performed on 23 February 1913 in Vienna under the baton of Franz Schreker. It is based on Jens Peter Jacobsen’s 1868 poem cycle Gurresange, inspired by the medieval Danish legend, set at the Gurre Castle, telling the tragic love story of King Waldemar and his mistress Tove Lille (Little Tove), murdered by Queen Helvig. The grief-stricken King curses God and is consequently condemned to fly for ever with his dead minions through the night sky, seeking his beloved Tove, who has transfigured through the magnificence of Nature. Schoenberg’s cantata features some 35 leading motifs depicting not only the main characters but also natural phenomena (sunset, sunrise, galloping horses, etc.) and a variety of emotional states (desire, affection, fear, mourning, etc.). Noteworthy too is the fact that in the Gurre-Lieder Schoenberg employed for the very first time the Sprechgesang, a “spoken singing” technique. “I find it immensely exciting that at the time when Schoenberg shocked the world with Pierrot lunaire, ushering in a brand-new musical-aesthetic style, in the Gurre-Lieder he brought to bear to great acclaim for the last time the Late-Romantic idiom of the early 20th century,” Per Boye Hansen added.
Stellar Czech and foreign singers will appear at the State Opera. The solo parts in the Gurre-Lieder have been assigned to artists of such renown as Michael Weinius, a regular guest at the Wiener and Bayerische Staatopers; the Grammy Award winner Dietrich Henschel; the German soprano Susanne Bernhard; the Norwegian baritone Yngve Søberg, a finalist of the prestigious International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition; and the Czech mezzo-soprano Štěpánka Pučálková. Schönberg’s gigantic cantata will be performed by a formidable body of almost 250 vocal and instrumental forces, including the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra (SOČR), the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), the Czech Philharmonic ChoirBrno and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Petr Popelka, Music Director of the SOČR and the KORK. “I deem the Gurre-Lieder one of the most marvellous compositions in the history of music, the crowning glory of the entire evolution of tonality, hence I feel greatly honoured to have been afforded the opportunity to conduct a performance of it. I also cherish the fact that, after more than a hundred years, we will bring the Gurre-Lieder back to the venue where it was presented under Alexander Zemlinsky. The SOČR and the KORK are top-notch European orchestras, and I believe that binding together their singular energies will enrich their players musically and personally, giving rise to a truly remarkable experience,” Petr Popelka pointed out.
The performance in Prague of the Gurre-Lieder is a co-production between the National Theatre Opera and the State Opera, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Musica non grata cycle, funded by the Embassy on the Federal Republic of Germany to the Czech Republic. The concert on 20 June at the State Opera will be broadcast live from 7 pm on Czech Radio Vltava and the Norwegian radio channel NRK P2. The evening will be recorded by Czech Television. “Rarely indeed is a work of this magnitude performed in Prague, or anywhere else for that matter. We are talking decades. For the members of the orchestras it may even be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Fortune dealt us a kind hand and, owing to many favourable circumstances, we can perform the famous opus within the celebrations of the centenary of Czech Radio. I believe that the radio and television recordings, as well as the audio document of the concert, will offer music lovers the possibility to acquaint themselves with this extraordinary piece,” Jakub Čížek, Director of the SOČR, added.
Gurre-Lieder 20 June 2023, State Opera, 7 pm Music: Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) Text: Robert Franz Arnold (1872–1938), based on a poem cycle by Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847–1885)
Conductor: Petr Popelka Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra Norwegian Radio Orchestra Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno Chorus master: Petr Fiala Slovak Philharmonic Choir Chorus master: Jozef ChabroňWaldemar: Michael Weinius Tove: Susanne Bernhard Wood Dove: Štěpánka Pučálková Peasant: Yngve Søberg Klaus the Jester: Kevin Conners Speaker: Dietrich Henschel
The conductor Donald Runnicles concluded his tenure with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on the last day of the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival with a performance of Schoenberg’s epic Gurre-Lieder at Usher Hall.
The gargantuan forces needed bring to mind the festival atmosphere Mahler’s Eighth Symphony also evokes. Here’s a sampling of the reviews:
And so this concert summed up the kind of playing that he and this orchestra have developed together – a rich glow at the heart of the strings and a capacity to turn on a dime and power up almighty sounds.
Runnicles is particularly well known for his interpretations of the core Austro-German Romantic repertoire, so Gurrelieder plays to his strengths. Under his baton Schoenberg’s ripe score yields up its influences. There is Wagner in the love music, of course, but also Bruckner in the solemnity of the Wood-Dove, Beethoven in the nature-painting and, of course, Mahler in the scale and structure. That scale could be pretty overpowering at times, and not just in the final, overwhelming greeting to the sun that ends the work. The sweep and surge of the love music was intoxicating, as was the wall of brass and percussion that accompanied the chorus’ romping as the hellish riders. What was most striking, however, was the way Runnicles repeatedly brought out the delicacy of the orchestration.
[Schoenberg’s] mega-cantata Gurrelieder, was the vehicle chosen to whisk us off on such a glorious journey, driven by the massively-inflated forces of the BBC Scottish Synphony Orchestra, a male-dominated Edinburgh Festival Chorus, five soloists and speaker, all under the towering leadership of maestro Donald Runnicles, and formulated by a musical language gathering up the scraps of Wagner, colouring them with whole-tone harmonic treats from Debussy, sweeping up Mahler in its tracks before opening the gates to teasers of the world-changing Schoenberg-to-come.
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 