Zubin Mehta

Track Listings

1. Grave

2. Poco Adagio

3. Adagio

4. Adagio (molto tranquillo)

5. Chamber Symphony Op. 9

Editorial Reviews
Album Description

Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951)

Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) Op. 4
Arrangement for String Orchestra by the Composer 1943

Chamber Symphony Op. 9 for 15 Solo Instruments

The Bavarian State Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, director

"All music, everything created by man has a skeleton, a blood circulation, and a nervous system. I would like to see my music understood as a sincere and intelligent person, who comes to us and says something which he feels deeply and which is meaningful to us all."
This appeal for living art comes from someone who was often regarded only in a theoretical way: Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951). It has always been incredible that a self taught composer, of all people, should break away from the major-minor key system, and that a Jewish cobbler’s son from the 2nd Vienna precinct, who had to learn about sonata form from a dictionary, should in the first third of the century redefine the meaning of music composition.
The key words – effective to this day – which are connected to the phenomenon called Schönberg are purely theoretical ones: Emancipation of dissonance, Atonality, Twelve tone row. They are even more familiar than the compositions of a man who was concerned with just one thing: making music. The present recording contains the "Verklärte Nacht" (Transfigured night) after a poem by Richard Dehmel dating from 1899, ( in the revised version for string orchestra from 1943) and the Chamber Symphony Nr 1, Op. 9 from 1906. Both works have entered the repertoire as exceptions from the rule. Perhaps also because they date form the first, tonal period of the composer’s work; 1897 and 1907.

At that time he was still adhering to tradition, and did not reject people’s listening habits the way he was to do later with such plan and pleasure. That is not to say that his first works did not bewilder his contemporaries. Even his fourth work "Verklärte Nacht" (which he considered to be his first fully legitimate work) bore unmistakable signs of innovation, of the will to experiment, of the breaks with taboo which were to come.

The score was the product of intense summer verve. In the summer of 1899 the 24 year old Schönberg had retreated with his friend and teacher Alexander Zemlinsky to Payerbach, south of Vienna. There he fell in love with his teacher’s sister, Mathilde Zemlinsky, and in a fit of inspiration set the poem "Verklärte Nacht" to music within three weeks.
It had been written by the Jugendstil author and poet Richard Dehmel from Berlin (1863 – 1920) who also was not averse to confrontation with the bourgeois establishment. The fact that he is now all but forgotten is not important. His writing, so full of sexuality, encouraged the rebellious young man and scandalised the bourgeoisie to such an extent that he was taken to court, where he was forbidden from printing some of his writings. "Verklärte Nacht’ (Transfigured Night) begins the cycle of poems called "Zwei Menschen. Roman in Romanzen". 36 poems each made up of 36 verses, all of which depict forms of physical (bodily) and spiritual union. The introduction describes the dialogue of a couple in a heroic landscape: the woman confesses to her lover that she is pregnant by another man. He forgives her however, and accepts the child as his own.

Even in his choice of text Schönberg reveals himself to be progressive: unlike Richard Strauss in his ten symphonic poems for example, he did not choose an accepted text from the past, but shocking contemporary poetry.

Even the style of orchestration was new: instead of using a whole orchestra, as would have been the case with Strauss, he scored the work for string sextet. His use of harmony was also stupefying, for Schönberg indicated important passages with the use of inverted dominant seventh chords. This sort of harmonic progression was generally held to be anathema, since it rendered tonality unclear. But it was f

SCHÖNBERG: Verklärte Nacht / Chamber Symphony / Bavarian State / Zubin Mehta, Music, Arnold Schönberg, Zubin Mehta, The Bavarian State Orchestra

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SCHÖNBERG: Verklärte Nacht / Chamber Symphony / Bavarian State / Zubin Mehta

Manufacturer: Farao Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0002W08MG
Release Date: 2004-08-14

Tracks:

Grave
Poco Adagio
Adagio
Adagio (molto tranquillo)
Chamber Symphony Op. 9

Album Description

Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951)

Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) Op. 4
Arrangement for String Orchestra by the Composer 1943

Chamber Symphony Op. 9 for 15 Solo Instruments

The Bavarian State Orchestra
Zubin Mehta, director

"All music, everything created by man has a skeleton, a blood circulation, and a nervous system. I would like to see my music understood as a sincere and intelligent person, who comes to us and says something which he feels deeply and which is meaningful to us all."
This appeal for living art comes from someone who was often regarded only in a theoretical way: Arnold Schönberg (1874 - 1951). It has always been incredible that a self taught composer, of all people, should break away from the major-minor key system, and that a Jewish cobbler's son from the 2nd Vienna precinct, who had to learn about sonata form from a dictionary, should in the first third of the century redefine the meaning of music composition.
The key words - effective to this day - which are connected to the phenomenon called Schönberg are purely theoretical ones: Emancipation of dissonance, Atonality, Twelve tone row. They are even more familiar than the compositions of a man who was concerned with just one thing: making music. The present recording contains the "Verklärte Nacht" (Transfigured night) after a poem by Richard Dehmel dating from 1899, ( in the revised version for string orchestra from 1943) and the Chamber Symphony Nr 1, Op. 9 from 1906. Both works have entered the repertoire as exceptions from the rule. Perhaps also because they date form the first, tonal period of the composer's work; 1897 and 1907.

At that time he was still adhering to tradition, and did not reject people's listening habits the way he was to do later with such plan and pleasure. That is not to say that his first works did not bewilder his contemporaries. Even his fourth work "Verklärte Nacht" (which he considered to be his first fully legitimate work) bore unmistakable signs of innovation, of the will to experiment, of the breaks with taboo which were to come.

The score was the product of intense summer verve. In the summer of 1899 the 24 year old Schönberg had retreated with his friend and teacher Alexander Zemlinsky to Payerbach, south of Vienna. There he fell in love with his teacher's sister, Mathilde Zemlinsky, and in a fit of inspiration set the poem "Verklärte Nacht" to music within three weeks.
It had been written by the Jugendstil author and poet Richard Dehmel from Berlin (1863 - 1920) who also was not averse to confrontation with the bourgeois establishment. The fact that he is now all but forgotten is not important. His writing, so full of sexuality, encouraged the rebellious young man and scandalised the bourgeoisie to such an extent that he was taken to court, where he was forbidden from printing some of his writings. "Verklärte Nacht' (Transfigured Night) begins the cycle of poems called "Zwei Menschen. Roman in Romanzen". 36 poems each made up of 36 verses, all of which depict forms of physical (bodily) and spiritual union. The introduction describes the dialogue of a couple in a heroic landscape: the woman confesses to her lover that she is pregnant by another man. He forgives her however, and accepts the child as his own.

Track Listings: