Schoenberg in Hollywood

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
You've got to love this disc just for its cover, a "colorized" black-and-white photograph which shows the composer in tennis shoes, wearing an implausibly pink short-sleeve shirt, playing ping pong. The message here is sun and fun in southern California, and the music that goes with it, dating from Schoenberg's years of residence in Los Angeles (1934-1951), scarcely sounds like it's the work of the man who wrote Verklarte Nacht and Pierrot lunaire and then gave us the 12-tone system. That is precisely the point. Schoenberg's horizons opened considerably following his forced emigration to the United States, partly by necessity (it seems no one was commissioning 12-tone works back in the 1930s and '40s, and Schoenberg had to eat), and partly out of what the liner notes refer to as the composer's "latent desire" to write pleasant, i.e. tonal, music. Schoenberg nonetheless took pains to minimize the importance of these essays and to preempt any suggestion that they marked a renunciation of his thornier style. Consequently, during the half-century since they were written, they have come to be doubly deprecated--as works of Schoenberg among those who dislike his music, and as bastard offspring in the eyes of the faithful. Alas, the Suite for String Orchestra really is pretty dreadful, and the Theme and Variations, Op. 43b, not much better. But both these pieces receive sympathetic readings from John Mauceri and his Berlin-based forces, as does the more widely-known Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38, a hybrid begun in 1906 and finished in 1939. The recorded sound, from two different venues, is first-rate. --Ted Libbey

Tracks:

Mamma Mia!: Our Last Summer - Paul Clarkston
Hair: Good Morning Starshine - Annable Leventon
The Phantom Of The Opera: All I Ask Of You - Sarah Brightman
Sweeney Todd: Not While I'm Around - Vanessa Williams
The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas: Good Old Girl - Henderson Forsythe
The Fantasticks: Try To Remember - Jerry Orbach
Pippin: Love Song - John Rubinstein
Aspects Of Love: Love Changes Everything - Michael Ball
Big River: You Oughta Be Here With Me - Patti Cohenour
The King And I: I Have Dreamed - Peabo Bryson
Les Miserables: I Dreamed A Dream - Randy Graff
Evita: High Flying Adored - Mandy Patinkin
Babes In Arms: My Funny Valentine - Julie Andrews
Kiss Of The Spider Woman: Dear One - Howard McGillin
By Jeeves: Half A Moment - Emily Loesser
Call Me Madam: You're Just In Love - Dick Haymes

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding Collection of Love Songs.......2007-06-22

I have to quickly disagree with those who are looking for more songs crammed in to what is such a breathtaking album of Broadway love songs. The rendition of the songs on this album and the Broadway singers selected for each piece, just are so beautifully recorded and make chills go through me. Whoever created this album, knew exactly what they were doing. This CD is full of nostalgia and artists who know how a song should be sung. They are certainly not making noise as on some Broadway CD's, but they have created an album that will go down in history for some of us who have longed to see such muscials come back to life in a way....that sadly has become a memory.

It is in need of 1 more musical........2005-05-29

I think they need to consider putting one more musical on this CD. This musical would have to be Wicked. What about As Long As Your Mine (from Wicked of course)? I think I would like this CD better if they could put Wicked on it. But of course this may not be true for everyone because obviously my favorite musical of all time is Wicked.

Not enough songs..........2004-10-20

Okay, so I have yet to hear this CD but already I have a quip: Why are there only 16 songs on this CD when the original Broadway's Greatest Love Songs had 20. They're cheating customers out of 4 songs! Also, why doesn't this include any songs from Aida, Triumph of Love, Beauty and the Beast, R&H's Cinderella, The Lion King, or Wicked! And please, "Our Last Summer" from Mamma Mia? Don't get me wrong, I love Mamma Mia, but that is NOT a love song.

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht; Schubert: Quintet

Average customer rating:

One of the two best recordings of Schubert's greatest opus
Vigorous Schubert

Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht; Schubert: Quintet

Manufacturer: Testament UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Sextets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

The Hollywood String Quartet Plays Prokofiev, Hindemith, Walton
The Hollywood String Quartet
The Hollywood String Quartet
The Hollywood String Quartet Plays Kodály, Smetana & Dvorák
Leos Janácek: Cunning Little Vixen (Suite) / Sinfonietta / Schluck & Jau / Jealousy (Original Prelude) / Kát'a Kabanová (Overture & Interludes) / Taras Bulba / Sárka (Overture) - Sir Charles Mackerras / Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

ASIN: B000003XID
Release Date: 1994-02-01

Tracks:

Sehr Langsam (Stanza 1)
Etwas Bewegter (Stanza 2)
Schwer Betont (Stanza 3)
Sehr Breit Und Langsam (Stanza 4)
Sehr Ruhig (Stanza 5)
Allegro Ma Non Troppo
Adagio
Scherzo (Presto) & Trio (Andante Sostenuto)
Allegretto

Customer Reviews:

One of the two best recordings of Schubert's greatest opus.......1999-03-08

George Steiner is said to have called the Schubert quintet proof of the existence of God. While I'm not sure I would go that far, it is certainly one of the greatest pieces of chamber music ever written. In judging recordings, I strongly favor interpretation over sound. Thus the two performances of this great piece which I favor most strongly are this magnificent one by the Hollywood String Quartet and another outstanding one by Casals et al on Sony, originally recorded at Prades in 1952. These two recordings represent the fruits of a golden age of chamber music whose depth and sweetness is hard to find today. For any listener who prefers performance and interpretation and is willing to accept a mono recording from the 50's, I assure you there will be rewards in either of these CD's. By the way, the Schoenberg is also excellent.

Vigorous Schubert.......1998-10-26

This is an enthusiastic and vigorously played version. The Hollywood players obviously lived with this piece for some time before recording it--they capture all the nuances of Schubert's writing. The Schubert is complemented with a superb Verklaerte Nacht for which Schoenberg himself was moved to write the liner notes after hearing the Hollywood's performance. The recorded sound is no better than good--a little thin, but it captures the quartet's enthusiasm.

Average customer rating:

Not so degernerate Schoenberg.
Tonal Schoenberg

Schoenberg in Hollywood

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Ignace Strasfogel: Piano Music
Wolpe: Zeus und Elida Op5a; Schöne Geschichten Op5b
Tanz Grotesk (Dance Grotesques)
Eisler: The Hollywood Songbook
Kálmán: Die Herzogin von Chigago

ASIN: B0000042E5
Release Date: 1997-06-10

Tracks:

Suit For String Orchestra In G: I. Ouverture
Suit For String Orchestra In G: II. Adagio
Suit For String Orchestra In G: III. Menuet And Trio
Suit For String Orchestra In G: IV. Gavotte
Suit For String Orchestra In G: V. Gigue
Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op.38: I. Adagio
Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op.38: II. Con Fuoco
Theme and Variations, Op. 43b

Amazon.com

You've got to love this disc just for its cover, a "colorized" black-and-white photograph which shows the composer in tennis shoes, wearing an implausibly pink short-sleeve shirt, playing ping pong. The message here is sun and fun in southern California, and the music that goes with it, dating from Schoenberg's years of residence in Los Angeles (1934-1951), scarcely sounds like it's the work of the man who wrote Verklarte Nacht and Pierrot lunaire and then gave us the 12-tone system. That is precisely the point. Schoenberg's horizons opened considerably following his forced emigration to the United States, partly by necessity (it seems no one was commissioning 12-tone works back in the 1930s and '40s, and Schoenberg had to eat), and partly out of what the liner notes refer to as the composer's "latent desire" to write pleasant, i.e. tonal, music. Schoenberg nonetheless took pains to minimize the importance of these essays and to preempt any suggestion that they marked a renunciation of his thornier style. Consequently, during the half-century since they were written, they have come to be doubly deprecated--as works of Schoenberg among those who dislike his music, and as bastard offspring in the eyes of the faithful. Alas, the Suite for String Orchestra really is pretty dreadful, and the Theme and Variations, Op. 43b, not much better. But both these pieces receive sympathetic readings from John Mauceri and his Berlin-based forces, as does the more widely-known Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38, a hybrid begun in 1906 and finished in 1939. The recorded sound, from two different venues, is first-rate. --Ted Libbey

Customer Reviews:

Not so degernerate Schoenberg........2006-09-22

'Schoenberg in Hollywood' with two late 'tonal' works from the pioneer of atonal composition will probably disappoint any listener like me who trolls the less well travelled corners of musical works in search of the delightfully unusual. On top of Schoenberg's reputation for a ground breaker in compositional theory, this recording is being issued as part of London's Entartete Musik, or, music considered degenerate by the Third Reich. As these are both relatively late works and as both were composed 'in exile' in America, I doubt Herr Goebbels ever even heard them, much less issued any edicts against their performance. They are certainly less provocative than the great renditions of Berlin Cabaret songs by Ute Lemper issued in this same London series.

To my ear, these pieces are relatively ordinary mid-20th century orchestral works, a bit better than your standard movie music, but not up to Schoenberg's best, or Stravinsky's best, or Berg's best, or Bartok's best, etc.

Tonal Schoenberg.......2000-03-22

The recordings on this CD are additional proof of what a multifaceted individual Arnold Schoenberg was ( artist, poet, teacher, composer and a table tennis player! ). Every new work I hear by Schoenberg reveals a new aspect of the composer for me. This is the tonal side of Schoenberg. Although the works here are tonal, they are not easy listening. They are complex and require a lot of virtuosity from the orchestra and attention from the listener. However, I prefer his atonal works because they are more profound.

Average customer rating:

Urban Cabaret

Manufacturer: Neuma
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000005VX6
Release Date: 1995-12-13

Amazon.com

An evocative series of cabaret songs by the notorious Viennese modernist Schoenberg and the celebrated theatrical team of Hans Eisler and Bertolt Brecht. The disc is titled Urban Cabaret, signifying, of course, the incipient terror of 1920s and 1930s Berlin that lurked behind the genre's decadent camp; but the soprano, Maria Tegzes, is never heavy-handed. These wry and felt performances illustrate both the playful levity of Schoenberg's music--usually ignored--and Eisler's careful artistry. --Joshua Cody

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Hit the City [CD-single] [Import]

Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4; Symphony No. 3

Just Do Me Right

Classic Early Solos (1934-1937)

It Was the Best of Times [Import]

R&B Music: 2 Nite

Morning, Noon, & Night

Korf: Symphony No.2/Davidovsky: Divertimento/Wright: Night Scenes

Funky Wacho [Limited Edition] [Import]

Middle Class White Boy

Forbidden Fruit