Brano: Arnold schoenberg
TV 34315
PIERROT LUNAIRE, Op. 21
MARIE THBRÈSB ESCRIBANO, SPEAKER IVAN EROD, PIANO HELMUT RIESSBERGER, FLUTE ROLP EICHLER, CLARINET JOSEF PLICHTA, BASS CLARINET VIKTOR REDTENBACHER, VIOLIN EUGENIE ALTMANNCLOETER,
VIOLA FRIEDRICH HILLER, CELLO
FRIEDRICH CERHA, DIRECTOR
i
/''ine of thè most distinctive milestones on thè long and ^ tortuous road travcled by western music, thè Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg* (18741951) is also one of those unfortunate masterpieces destined to be more often — and more heatedly — discussed than actually listened to. Certainly it is less often performed than any of thè other comparably significant achievements of twentiethcentury composers — Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps of less than a year later, say, or even Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande of a decade earlier. Yet it makes no such sizeable personnel demands, calling for only a single vocalist and no more than five instrumentai ists. Nor is it any harder on tender ears: its dissonances are relatively mild even[...]
[...]nt achievements of twentiethcentury composers — Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps of less than a year later, say, or even Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande of a decade earlier. Yet it makes no such sizeable personnel demands, calling for only a single vocalist and no more than five instrumentai ists. Nor is it any harder on tender ears: its dissonances are relatively mild even by World War I standards, and its idiom is by no means as abstract as Schoenberg’s, and his pupils’, later works in thè twelvetone system — to say nothing of today’s serial, aleatory, computorized, or electronically synthesized music.
This is not to claim, however, that Pierrot Lunaire is not difficult. It is extremely hard to perform well, especially for thè vocalist who has to walk a precarious tightrope bctween recitation and song in Schoenberg’s idiosyncratic Sprechtimme requirements, which every performer interprets somewhat differently despite thè fact that thè score notation specifìes both thè rhythms to be observed and thè pitches to be touched (but never rested upon). For listeners there is thè even greater difficulty of persauding one’s sensibili ties (moral as well as aesthetic) to accept, or at least tolerate, thè work’s corrosive concentration of cynicism, sardonicism, and perversity.
Fortunately, though, presentday listeners have two great advantages over those of some years ago. They can hear not a pcrhaps casually[...]
[...]tration of cynicism, sardonicism, and perversity.
Fortunately, though, presentday listeners have two great advantages over those of some years ago. They can hear not a pcrhaps casually prepared concert performance but one recorded after long and exacting rehearsals. And they know now that this is not thè “music of thè future” it was once feared to be, but a derisively mocking farewell to thè world of musical romanticism which had engaged Schoenberg so deeply in his earlier Verkldrte Nacht and GurreLieder. And we recognize it as a wholly unique, quite incomparable creation. Whether we consider it a sterile (yet fearsomely powerful) exercise of “counterpoint in convulsions,” or a lonely masterpiece of ironie fantasy and magisterial craftsmanship, it is something no one deeply concemed with music can afford not to know — and to know well by thè repetitive hearings and undisturbed study that only recordings can provide.
piERROT Lunaire is a setting “to tones” assigned to a * female voice (Sprechstimme) and a small instrumentai ensembl[...]
[...]is something no one deeply concemed with music can afford not to know — and to know well by thè repetitive hearings and undisturbed study that only recordings can provide.
piERROT Lunaire is a setting “to tones” assigned to a * female voice (Sprechstimme) and a small instrumentai ensemble of 21 (“thrice seven’*) poems, each of three short stanzas. The se were originally written in French by thè Belgian poet Albert Giraud (pseud. of Albert Kayenberg, 18601929), published under thè overall title of Pierrot Lunaire in 1884 when “Giraud” was only twentyfour, and here translated into German by thè poet and dramatist Otto Erich Hartleben, 18641905. The score calls for flute (intcrchangeablc at times with piccolo), clarìnet (bass
Originally Schònberg, and stili sospelled in Germanspeaking countries. The composer himself sanctioned thè spelling “Schoenberg” after he carne to thè United States in 1933.
Side I — 23:15 Min.
Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Beginning)
Part I (12:10 Min.)
Part II (11:00 Min.)
Side 2 — 11:22 Min.
Arnold Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 (Conclusioni
Part III
clarìnet), violin (viola), ’cello, and piano, but many of thè settings demand no more than three or four of these, while only a single instrument is demanded in No. 7 and only two in No. 9. The instruments often are heard alone as well as with thè Sprechstimme, and even in thè latter case they supply no mere àccompaniment in thè usuai sense of thè term — rather a quasiautonomous mosaic of a myriad minute, abstract, tonai details.
Al though thè work gives thè impression (as noted by Cecil Gray) that thè settings were composed “with lig[...]
[...]ts often are heard alone as well as with thè Sprechstimme, and even in thè latter case they supply no mere àccompaniment in thè usuai sense of thè term — rather a quasiautonomous mosaic of a myriad minute, abstract, tonai details.
Al though thè work gives thè impression (as noted by Cecil Gray) that thè settings were composed “with lightning rapidity and absolute sureness of touch in a continuous, unflagging jet of whitehot inspiration,” Schoenberg actually took some 163 days. He began it (probably at thè suggestion of thè actress Albertine Zehme, to whom thè score is dedicated) on 30 March 1912 and completed it on 9 September. He gave it thè opus number 21, which not only echoes thè “thrice seven” number of Giraud poems but may have had a private signifìcance as symbolizing a musical comingofage for thè composer himself.
The first public performance took place in Berlin — after no less than 40 rehearsals — on 16 October 1912, with thè soloist, Mme. Zehme, clad in pierrot costume, alone in view on thè stage, while thè instrumental[...]
[...] “thrice seven” number of Giraud poems but may have had a private signifìcance as symbolizing a musical comingofage for thè composer himself.
The first public performance took place in Berlin — after no less than 40 rehearsals — on 16 October 1912, with thè soloist, Mme. Zehme, clad in pierrot costume, alone in view on thè stage, while thè instrumentalists were conccaled by a se ree n. In contrast with later performances, and indeed most Schoenberg premières, “there was relativcly little hissing.” But as one reads farther in thè criticai reports of thè occasion (cited in Nicholas Slonimsky’s invaluable chronicle of Music Since 1900), one soon comes to what must have been a characterìstic reaction of orthodox musiclovers: thè distinguished conductor, composer, and critic Otto Taubmann cried with agonized sincerity, “If this is thè music of thè future, then I pray my Creator not to let me live to hear it again!” (It is not known whether his prayer was answered. Bom in 1859, Herr Taubmann lived on until 1929.)
(Record Side I) Pari I,[...]
[...]n, piano, later with piccolo and 'cello. Pierrot plaintively bemoans his pangs of homesickness.
No. 16. Gemeinheit (Outrage): Ziemlich rasch: 27 bare; piccolo, clarìnet, violin, cello, and piano. The “outrage” is Pierrot’s callously drilling into Cassander’s bald head so that it will serve as a pipe for smoking Turkish tobacco.
No. 17. Parodie (Parody): (metronomic tempo snecification only): 32 bare; piccolo, clarìnet. viola, and piano. Moonbeams mockingly imitate thè gleaming pins in thè gray hair of one of Pierrots elderly lovera. N.B. The music features a doubly inverted canon between viola and clarìnet. and voice and piccolo.
No. 18. Der Mondfleck (The Moonspot)" Sehr rasche: 19 bara; piccolo, clarìnet, violin, ’cello, and piano. Wipe and rub as he will, thè white fleck of moonlight on Pierrot’s black jacket prove* to be ineradicable. N.B. The music features further examples of contrapuntai virtuosity: first in a doublé canon between clarìnet and piccolo, and between violin and ’cello: then in a cancrizans (crablike. or retrograde motion) form of thè canon.
No. 19. Serenade: Sehr langsamer Walzer: 53 bare: ’cello and piano, later flute. clarìnet, and violin. When Cassander ohierts to Pierro»'s scraping away with a grotesquely long bow on his viola (not 'cello!), Pierrot grabs him and draws thè bow across Cassaner's bald head.
No. 20; Heimfahrt (Journey Home): Leicht bewegt: 30 bare; flute, clarìnet. violin, cello, and pia[...]
[...]de: Sehr langsamer Walzer: 53 bare: ’cello and piano, later flute. clarìnet, and violin. When Cassander ohierts to Pierro»'s scraping away with a grotesquely long bow on his viola (not 'cello!), Pierrot grabs him and draws thè bow across Cassaner's bald head.
No. 20; Heimfahrt (Journey Home): Leicht bewegt: 30 bare; flute, clarìnet. violin, cello, and piano. A barcarole of Pierrot’s safling homeward to Bergamo — in a waterlily craft with a moonbeam rudder.
_ No. 21. O alter Duft (O Olden Fragrance): Bewegt: 30 bars; flute/ piccolo, clarinet/bass clarìnet, violin/viola. ’cello. and piano. Apostrophe to thè intoxicating fragrance of lengendary olden times.
Notes by R. D. DARRELL
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