Robert Blocker, Dean
ya le in new yor k
Reflections from the Second Viennese School Music from Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances
David Shifrin, Artistic Director Monday, December 11, 2017 • 4:30 pm Morse Recital Hall Sunday, January 28, 2018 • 7:30 pm Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
yale in new york
Reflections from the Second Viennese School December 11, 2017 • Morse Recital Hall January 28, 2018 • Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Johann Strauss II 1825–1899 arr. Arnold Schoenberg
Rosen aus dem Süden (Roses from the South), Op. 388 Lagunen-Walzer (Lagoon Waltz), Op. 411 Wendy Sharp, violin F Laura Park, violin S Márta Hortobágyi Lambert, viola S Samuel DeCaprio, cello S Yevgeny Yontov, piano A S Hilda Huang, harmonium S
Arnold Schoenberg 1874–1951 arr. Anton Webern
Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 9 Leo Sussman, flute S Elisha Willinger, clarinet S Rachel Ostler, violin S Eric Adamshick, cello A S Melvin Chen, piano F intermission
yale school of music
Strauss arr. Anton Webern
Schatz-Walzer (Treasure Waltz), Op. 418
Strauss arr. Alban Berg
Wein, Weib und Gesang (Wine, Women and Song), Op. 333 Wendy Sharp, violin F Laura Park, violin S Mรกrta Hortobรกgyi Lambert, viola S Samuel DeCaprio, cello S Yevgeny Yontov, piano A S Hilda Huang, harmonium S
Strauss arr. Arnold Schoenberg
Kaiser-Walzer (Emperor Waltz), Op. 437 Leo Sussman, flute S Elisha Willinger, clarinet S Wendy Sharp, violin F Laura Park, violin S Mรกrta Hortobรกgyi Lambert, viola S Samuel DeCaprio, cello S Yevgeny Yontov, piano A S S
Yale School of Music student Yale School of Music alumnus F Yale School of Music faculty A
As a courtesy to the performers and audience, please silence all electronic devices. Please do not leave the hall during selections. Photography or recording of any kind is prohibited.
Artist Profiles
Yale School of Music Established in 1894, the Yale School of Music maintains a position of international leadership in the training of performers and composers. A professional graduate school and the only school of music in the Ivy League, the Yale School of Music observes a highly selective admissions process, admitting approximately 200 students who come from the finest American and international conservatories and universities to study with a distinguished faculty. The School of Music has one of the highest international profiles at Yale: approximately forty percent of students come from countries outside the United States, and the School engages globally in partnerships with leading conservatories, festivals, and opera companies. Alumni of the Yale School of Music hold major positions throughout the music world. Yale graduates perform with and conduct preeminent American and international orchestras, and voice alumni earn renown in professional opera companies. Reflecting the School’s strong chamber music program, many graduates have founded or joined prominent chamber ensembles. Yale composition alumni enjoy noted success, with continual premieres of new music. Along with artistic accomplishment, Yale School of Music graduates provide strong leadership in guiding the course of numerous academic and cultural institutions. The Yale School of Music awards the doctor of musical arts, master of musical arts, and master of music degrees, as well as the artist diploma and the certificate in performance. There is also a five-year
B.A./M.M. program for undergraduates in Yale College. » music.yale.edu Wendy Sharp ’82 ba, violin Award-winning violinist Wendy Sharp performs frequently as a recitalist and a chamber musician. In demand as a teacher and chamber music coach, Ms. Sharp is currently the director of chamber music and a member of the violin faculty at the Yale School of Music. Ms. Sharp was the first violinist and a founding member of the Franciscan String Quartet, winner of the first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Press and City of Evian prizes at the Evian International Competition. She attended Yale University, graduating summa cum laude with distinction in music and received her master of music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Ms. Sharp was a member of the California Summer Music faculty for 21 years and also taught at Mannes, Dartmouth College, and the San Francisco Conservatory. She has participated in the Aspen, Tanglewood, Chamber Music West, Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music, BrittenPears, and Music Academy of the West festivals. Ms. Sharp is also a member of the board of Chamber Music America and a fellow of Berkeley College at Yale. Laura Park ’18mm, violin Laura Park, praised for “extraordinary maturity, interpretive insight, passion, [and] nuance,” has been featured as a soloist with such orchestras as the Houston
Artist Profiles
Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica Di Ploiesti Romania, Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra, and Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Additional highlights of her career include appearances on the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Concert Series, From the Top, and Young Steinway Concert Series. Park has been a laureate of many competitions, including the Lipizer International Violin Competition, Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition, Ima Hogg Competition, and Stulberg International String Competition. An active chamber musician, Park holds gold medals from the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, St. Paul String Quartet Competition, and Rembrandt Chamber Players Competition. A recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Ida Kavafian, Park currently attends the Yale School of Music, studying with Ani Kavafian. Márta Hortobágyi Lambert ’19mm, viola Márta Hortobágyi Lambert began her musical studies on piano and violin and, at age 14, developed a love for viola. A passionate educator and advocate for the arts, Márta has held teaching positions at The Juilliard School as a mentor for the Juilliard Pre-College and a teaching assistant for ear training. She currently teaches children at Queens Pre-College in New York City and in the Yale School of Music’s Music in Schools Initiative. Márta’s passion for chamber music has created opportunities for her to perform in the Wednesdays at One series at Alice Tully Hall. Márta has attended a number
of chamber music festivals, including Prussia Cove, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival-Winter Workshop, Yellow Barn-Young Artist Program, Heifetz International, Astona International, and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival, where she helped create the Blue Hill String Quartet. Márta studied with Ara Gregorian and Melissa Reardon at East Carolina University, with Hsin-Yun Huang and Misha Amory at The Juilliard School, and currently studies with Steven Tenenbom at the Yale School of Music, where she is a master of music degree candidate. Samuel DeCaprio ’18mma, cello A versatile performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire, cellist Samuel DeCaprio has been a top prizewinner at the Arlington Young Artist, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Young Artist, Musical Club of Hartford, UConn Concerto, William C. Byrd Young Artist, Windham Regional Arts Council, and the Yale School of Music Chamber Music competitions. He has made concerto appearances with the Capstone, University of Connecticut, and Willimantic Symphony Orchestras, and has participated in numerous music festivals, including Aspen, Domaine Forget, IMS Prussia Cove, Kneisel Hall, Meadowmount, Orford Arts Centre, Pinchas Zukerman Young Artist’s Program, SoundFest Quartet Institute, and Three Bridges. Mr. DeCaprio is currently a master of musical arts candidate under the tutelage of Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music. Mr. DeCaprio currently plays a G. Lucchi bow, a generous donation from the Maestro Foundation.
Artist Profiles
Yevgeny Yontov ’14mm ’20dma, piano A finalist and recipient of the Prize for Best Performance of Chamber Music at the 2017 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Yevgeny Yontov has established himself as one of the most promising Israeli pianists of his generation. Other international top prizes include the gold medal at the Wideman International Piano Competition in Louisiana, as well as additional prizes at competitions such as the Bösendorfer International Piano Competition, the Olga Kern International Piano Competition, and the Citta di Pinerolo International Piano Competition. A founding member of the icarus Quartet, a two piano and two percussion chamber group, and artistic director of The Second Movement chamber concert series in New Haven, Connecticut, Yevgeny holds chamber music close to his heart. He has played as a chamber musician in Israel, Europe, the United States, Canada, and South America, in venues that include Carnegie Hall in New York and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Solo engagements include those with numerous orchestras across the United States and all major Israeli orchestras. Yevgeny has also performed on Israeli national TV and recorded for Israeli, U.S., Portuguese, and Spanish radio stations. His debut CD, Schubert: Piano Variations, was released on Naxos Records in 2017. Yevgeny began his musical studies at the age of 6 with Adela Umansky, and later received his bachelor of music degree,
summa cum laude, from the BuchmannMehta School of Music at Tel-Aviv University, where he studied with Professor Arie Vardi. He then moved to the United States to study with Professor Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music, where he received his master of music degree and is currently pursuing his doctor of musical arts degree. Hilda Huang ’17bs ’19mm, harmonium Pianist Hilda Huang came to international attention after being awarded first prize at the 2014 Leipzig International Bach Competition. Her performances of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven have been hailed for achieving “philosophical depths” (West-Allgemeine Zeitung) and for possessing an “alluring extroversion” (New York Concert Review). She has been praised for a “mind that can multi-task and ears that can ... ‘multi-listen’” (San Francisco Examiner). Huang has appeared in recital at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, at BASF Ludwigshafen, and at both the Leipzig and Montréal Bach festivals as part of the Steinway Prizewinners’ Concert Network. In 2016, she was a Protégé Project young artist at Chamber Music Northwest, and, in 2017, a Steans Fellow at the Ravinia Festival. Huang studies with Melvin Chen at the Yale School of Music, in pursuit of her master of music degree. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 2017, receiving a bachelor of science in chemistry with distinction. She is a 2013 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts.
Artist Profiles
Leo Sussman ’18mm, flute Flutist Leo Sussman strives to build community by sharing his passion for musical engagement, inspiring listeners with both new and familiar sounds. Recent appearances include a concerto performance with the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, new music concerts at National Sawdust and Electronic Music Midwest, and summers at the Norfolk, Bowdoin, and Banff Centre chamber music festivals. Committed to delivering meaningful performances in spaces where music is seldom heard, Leo has presented interactive programs at community venues in four states. Also a dedicated educator, he is a teaching artist in the New Haven Public Schools and maintains a private studio. Leo studies with Ransom Wilson as a master of music candidate at Yale School of Music. He holds undergraduate degrees in flute and physics from Lawrence University, where he studied with Erin Lesser. » leosussman.com Elisha Willinger ’18mm, clarinet Clarinetist Elisha Willinger is currently in his second year at the Yale School of Music as a master of music candidate. He holds a bachelor of music from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and an artist diploma from the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School in Toronto. He has appeared as assistant principal and E-flat clarinetist with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, second clarinetist of the Kentucky Symphony, and has been invited to perform as a guest musician with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
He has been a participant at the Sarasota, Aspen, Norfolk, and Banff festivals, the National Orchestral Institute, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. He won the 2017 Yale Chamber Music Society Competition and was a winner of the 2012 Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition. Born in Taiwan, he was raised in Florida and began to study clarinet at the age of 10. His major teachers include David Shifrin at the Yale School of Music and Joaquin Valdepeñas. Rachel Ostler ’18mma, violin Twenty-three-year-old violinist Rachel Ostler is the winner of the Aspen Concerto Competition, the Culver City Young Artist Competition, and the Rio Hondo Competition. Rachel gave her solo debut at age 12, performing with the Coral Gables Orchestra on the WLRN Public Television series American Ideal. Other solo highlights include performances with the ACA Orchestra at the Aspen Music Festival, Rio Hondo Symphony, Utah Philharmonic, Ludwig Symphony Orchestra, and the Alhambra Orchestra. Rachel has appeared on the Colburn Chamber Music Society series and at the Sarasota Music Festival, collaborating with artists Augustin Hadelich, Scott St. John, Charles Weatherbee, and James Dunham. Rachel’s appearances in the upcoming season include performances of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the
Artist Profiles
Culver City Symphony and the Korngold Violin Concerto with the American Youth Symphony, among others. A recent graduate of the Colburn Conservatory of Music, Rachel is a master of musical arts candidate at the Yale School of Music, where she studies with Ani Kavafian. Eric Adamshick ’17mm ’18mma, cello Eric Adamshick earned bachelor’s degrees in both violoncello performance and musical composition/theory at Boston University (2014), and recently earned a master of music degree in violoncello performance at the Yale School of Music (2017) under the instruction of renowned cellist Aldo Parisot. He is currently pursuing his master of musical arts degree at Yale. An avid chamber cellist, Eric works with an expansive range of ensembles and repertoire with a specialization in new music and string quartets. This past summer, Eric participated in the Norfolk New Music Workshop at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, working extensively with new composers under the direction of Martin Bresnick and Lisa Moore. This led to an international performance of works by Martin Bresnick, David Lang, Charles Ives, and others with the Norfolk New Music Ensemble at the Ciclo de Música Contemporánea in Oviedo, Spain. He has worked with members of the Muir Quartet, the Brentano Quartet, David Shifrin, Ani Kavafian, Boris Berman, and Michael Friedmann, as well as composers Joan Tower, Martin Bresnick, and Olga Neuwirth.
Melvin Chen ’91bs, piano A native of Tennessee, pianist Melvin Chen is recognized as an important artist, having received acclaim for performances throughout the United States and abroad. As a soloist and chamber musician Mr. Chen has performed at major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Boston’s Jordan Hall, in addition to other appearances throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia. Mr. Chen’s performances have been featured on radio and television stations around the globe, including KBS television and radio in Korea, NHK television in Japan, and NPR in the United States. Solo recordings include performances of Beethoven’s “Diabelli” Variations on the Bridge label, praised as “a classic” by the American Record Guide, and a recording of Joan Tower’s piano music on the Naxos label. Recordings of the Shostakovich piano sonatas and Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice were released in 2007. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Mr. Chen has collaborated with such artists as Ida Kavafian, David Shifrin, Pamela Frank, Peter Wiley, and with the Shanghai, Tokyo, Miami, Penderecki, and Miró quartets. He has performed at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Bard Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire, among numerous others.
Artist Profiles
Mr. Chen completed a doctorate in chemistry at Harvard University and also holds a double master’s degree from The Juilliard School in piano and violin. Previously, he attended Yale University, receiving a bachelor of science degree in chemistry and physics, and also studied with Boris Berman, Paul Kantor, and Ida Kavafian. Mr. Chen was previously on the piano faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, where he was also associate director. He is a member of the Yale School of Music piano faculty, Deputy Dean of the School, and Director of the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
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The Society for Private Musical Performances Director: Arnold Schoenberg Vienna, November 1921 An excerpt from the 1921 edition of Alban Berg’s Prospectus The Society, founded by Arnold Schoenberg in November 1918, has this purpose: to give artists and friends of art a real and precise knowledge of modern music. It is by no means the purpose of the Society to make propaganda for a certain artistic direction or to be useful to the authors performed, but to serve the members exclusively by establishing clarity instead of the hitherto obscure and problematical relationship to modern music. Thus, it is not a Society for composers, but only for the audience. If joy and pleasure in some of the performed works are awakened, thus encouraging author and work, then this must be considered to be a side effect. But, in the planning of programs, no attention can be paid to this, nor can the opposite always be avoided because our purpose is restricted to giving as perfect a representation of modern music as possible. For the administration of the Society, the following principles are critical: 1. In the selection of works for performance, no specific style is preferred. From Mahler and [Richard] Strauss to the very youngest, the total spectrum of modern music is to be represented, that is, everything that has either a name or physiognomy or character. In general, the Society endeavors to offer its members only the kind of works that reveal the production of a composer at its most characteristic and for the time being, if possible, the most engaging side.
For this reason, there will be considered — in addition to songs — piano pieces, chamber music, smaller choral works, and orchestral works. These, while the Society does not presently have the means to perform them in their original cast, can, for the time being, be reproduced only as arrangements for chamber orchestra (string quintet, piano, harmonium, flute, clarinet, etc.) or in specially adapted piano arrangements for four to eight hands. 2. The preparation of works occurs with the care and thoroughness not to be found in today’s concert life where, in general, one has to make the best of an a priori fixed and always insufficient number of rehearsals. One must go along with this; whereas the number of rehearsals in the Society is always determined by the goal of achieving utmost clarity and fulfillment. As far as the author’s intentions are concerned, unless the ground rules of a good performance are fulfilled, namely, clarity and precision, the works cannot and must not be performed in the Society. 3. The performance of works studied in this manner occurs in the weekly “Evenings” of the Society which are the equivalent of formal concerts. In this current season, from the middle of September, 1921 until the middle of June, 1922, the concerts will take place every Monday evening in the Festival Hall of Engineers and Architects, I., Eschenbachgasse. The establishment of weekly meetings makes it possible, on the one hand, to cover an unusually large repertory within a short time; on the other hand, the Society commands, in this manner, further ways and means to perform music with a view to complete comprehension, namely:
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4. By frequent repetition. Every work is not performed just once, but is repeated in different concerts, in general, two to four times, until it can be fully understood. 5. The same goal will be pursued in introductory discussions of the works performed. 6. The performances themselves are removed from the corrupting influence of publicity. Members of the Society are not encouraged to sit in judgment. On the contrary, it would be desirable to get rid of the habit of too rapidly forming judgments, so that the chief aim of the Society can be achieved: understanding. At Society evenings: a) The performances are not public in every respect. Guests are excluded (with the exception of those living abroad). Reviews of the performances in newspapers as well as all publicity for the works or artists is not permitted. b) At the performances, expressions of approval, of displeasure and of gratitude are not permitted. The only success that the author can have is the one that ought to be the most important for him — that he can make himself understood. c) The performers are primarily of the kind that have placed themselves at the disposal of the Society — out of interest to the cause. Through strict selection, mere virtuosity is excluded as are musicians for whom the performed work is not the primary purpose. So far, (31 October 1921), altogether 151 works have been performed. Of these,
only once performed 52 works; 52 more have been once repeated; 40 works have been twice repeated; 29 works three times repeated; 16 works four times repeated; 9 works seven times repeated; one work has been performed eight times. Acceptance of new members occurs one hour before each concert of the Society at the evening box office, or during concert time in the secretary’s office. The member commits himself for one year, starting with the month in which he joins. The members’ dues are scaled into 7 classes according to the chosen class of seating. This procedure is suited to the inclination of the members to choose a category of seating in accordance with their personal financial status. This presupposes that more affluent members choose one of the first four categories, because the last three classes must remain reserved for members of no means. Membership can be paid once or in installments. – Translated by Judith Karin Meibach
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johann strauss II Op. 388, arr. Schoenberg Op. 411, arr. Schoenberg Op. 418, arr. Webern Op. 333 , arr. Berg Op. 437, arr. Schoenberg The Strauss family dynasty, begun by Johann Strauss (1804–1849) and carried on by his sons Josef (1827–1870), Johann II (1825–1899), and Eduard (1835–1916) had a near monopoly on the composition and performance of waltz music in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Vienna. After his father’s death, Johann Strauss II in particular was able to use the family connections and his own prodigious talent to raise sufficient funding to attract superb performers to his orchestra and turn his compositions into a great commercial success. When the growing popularity of Offenbach’s operettas threatened local German nationalist sensibilities, Viennese impresarios looked to Johann Strauss II to provide suitable Austrian alternatives. His waltz-laden operettas such as Die Fledermaus and Wiener Blut became so popular that he had his own opera house, the Theater an der Wien. As both popular and “classical” music, the waltz has an unusual position in Viennese musical history. The orchestral waltz came into vogue in the ballroom during the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815. The delegates, who were supposed to be redefining European boundaries after the Napoleonic wars, literally danced the nights away to waltzes by Johann Strauss I and Joseph Lanner (1801–1843). Unlike many other forms that were cultivated in the nineteenth century, the waltz was not a descendant of an established concert
form such as the sonata or symphony. During the eighteenth century, the waltz was a peasant dance. The immediate predecessors of Strauss’ and Lanner’s works were piano pieces in four- and eight-measure phrases that relatively well-to-do Viennese families played at home. Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert all wrote such waltzes, though many remained unpublished as they were intended for private use. When Karl Maria von Weber composed what is generally regarded as the first concert waltz, Invitation to the Dance, in 1819, the style had been woven already into the upper-class social fabric of the city. Today, Johann Strauss II is remembered fondly as the “Waltz King” for his remarkable output of more than 800 dance pieces, the majority of them waltzes. His exceptional marketing and compositional skills ensured that his latest inventions quickly became popular convention. His major contribution to the genre was to crystallize not only its form, but also its dancing style, both of which in turn fashioned public taste and further increased demand for the waltz experience. His mature waltzes usually begin with a slow introduction, often in duple meter. The introduction provided couples the opportunity to locate the partner specified on their dance card and assume their starting positions. The ensuing dance (in 3/4 time of course) contains between four and seven individual waltz sections at various tempi. Each of these sections has a distinct quality and is often separated from the adjacent sections by a transition that gives the dancers time to reposition or exchange partners. The dance concludes with a jubilant, celebratory coda. The infinite variety of tunes,
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introductions, transitions, and codas, each with its own flavor of aristocratic elegance, salacious sensuality, and shameless fun, gives Strauss’ waltzes their beloved, inexhaustible charm. Many of Strauss’ well-known waltzes were commissioned by or dedicated to individuals or organizations. Some he composed for special occasions. Of the works on this evening’s program, he wrote the Emperor’s Waltz in 1888 to mark the fortieth anniversary of Austrian Emperor Franz Josef’s accession to the throne. He composed Wine, Women and Song in 1869 for the Viennese Men’s Choral Association and dedicated it to the association’s honorary chorus-master, Johann Herbeck. The title encapsulates the spirit of the entire Viennese waltz craze as it trumpets the breakdown among the aristocracy and upper middle class of traditional social conventions in favor of those human experiences celebrated in the medieval German adage, “Who loves not wine, women, and song remains a fool his whole life long.” Nothing relieved the troubles of a crumbling empire like a waltz and a glass of champagne. At times, the Strauss brothers maintained their monopoly by repurposing themes from Johann II’s popular operettas. Eduard conducted the Strauss orchestra in the first performance of Roses from the South (themes from The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief ) on November 7, 1880, in Vienna’s great concert hall, the Musikverein. Eduard also conducted the premier of the Lagoon Waltz, drawn from A Night in Venice, in the Musikverein in 1883. The Treasure Waltz, with its ever-popular themes from The Gypsy Baron, was published in 1885.
The dance music of Johann Strauss II came to be heard well beyond the ballrooms of the Viennese aristocracy and middle class – on concert hall stages as well as in cafes and popular locales including his own outdoor wine garden. Beyond the city limits, Strauss and his waltzes came to symbolize Viennese and Austrian identity as they became fixtures of both the international concert repertory and popular culture. Wine, Women and Song is still played on every New Year’s Concert broadcast from the Vienna Musikverein — the most watched television program in the world year after year. Strauss’ most famous work, the Blue Danube Waltz, is one of the most recognized works of classical music, referenced in American popular culture, for example, in Stanley Kubrick’s avant-garde 2001: A Space Odyssey and in a 2017 Land Rover television commercial. It is so representative of Viennese character that it is an unofficial Viennese anthem. The popularity of the Strauss waltzes no doubt led Schoenberg to include them on a Society for Private Musical Performances Series B concert. Series B was designed to raise desperately needed money for the avant-garde programs of Series A. Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern arranged all the Strauss works on this evening’s program for a concert on May 21, 1921. After World War I, as in the nineteenth century, Strauss and his waltzes were not affected by the partisan musical press that took sides over almost every other nineteenthcentury composer. By 1920, for a Viennese society struggling with its political identity after the fall of the Hapsburg Empire, Strauss and his music had become a symbol of a bygone golden age. Where
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opinion was sharply divided on how to preserve, sustain or reinvent Vienna’s musical legacy in a time of political and social upheaval, Strauss’ waltzes appealed to almost everyone. The genius of Strauss’ irresistible and graceful tunefulness cannot be denied. Perhaps because they trigger an innate human desire to dance, his waltzes remain as attractive today as they were during Schoenberg’s time. In Strauss’ day, Wagner and Brahms, antagonists in everything else, had both pursued the composer’s friendship and admired his music. The extraordinary craft and undeniable beauty of his music moved even the most irascible of Vienna’s music critics, Eduard Hanslick, to proclaim, upon learning of Strauss’s death, that “the most original Viennese Genius has gone.” – Hilda Huang & YoungKyoung Lee arnold schoenberg Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 9, arr. Webern Schoenberg completed his Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major, Op. 9, in July 1906, while he was vacationing in Bavaria. It had taken only a few months to compose. The composer conducted the premiere himself in 1907 with the Rosé Quartet and a wind ensemble from the Vienna Court Opera. Schoenberg hoped to establish himself with this new composition, but when it was repeated in 1913 at the Vienna Concert Society, it was greeted with catcalls and hisses from angry audience members. The so-called Skandalkonzert (scandal concert) resulted in an eruption of violence, and critics wrote acerbic, negative reviews of the work.
In the interim, Schoenberg’s publisher, Emil Hertzka, had introduced him to a man named Hugo Heller who, in 1910, organized an exhibit of Schoenberg’s paintings to assist the composer financially. Among the buyers at that exhibition was the composer’s musical patron, Gustav Mahler. The friendly association with Heller led to another project in 1918 — a performance of Chamber Symphony No. 1 after a series of 10 rehearsals that were open to the public. The rehearsals and concert met with an enthusiastic response and came to serve as a pilot project informing the future practices of the Society for Private Musical Performances. The piece was subsequently performed three times in January, February, and April of 1921 on the Society’s programs. Chamber Symphony No. 1, which Schoenberg called his “first attempt to create a chamber orchestra,” is considered the last work of his post-Romantic period. About 20 minutes in length, it is performed as one continuous movement, though it is divided into five sections – the first is a sonata form; the second a scherzo; the third functions as a develop-ment; the fourth is an adagio, and the fifth serves as the finale. The first section presents most of the material for the entire symphony. At the outset, the piano introduces a rising fourth motive that is taken up by the clarinet accompanied by quartal and whole-tone harmony. This motive is presented horizontally in the cello in the Webern arrangement performed on this evening’s program. Schoenberg described the opening as “fashioned out of a stormy, upward surging theme; the fourth chords are spread over
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the whole work and leave their mark on everything that occurs.” The scherzo features two different themes — the first is presented in imitative entrances at the interval of a third, and the second has a dotted 2/4 rhythm. The third part of the symphony is a contrapuntal development with elements of fugue, canon, and stretto. The fourth section begins in a slow Langsam with rising fourths in cello harmonics and muted strings followed by a new expressive theme in the violin. The finale recapitulates the thematic material which is extended, fragmented, or repeated in variation before an exciting and conclusive coda in E major. Following successful performances of Pierrot Lunaire in 1921 in Prague and Vienna, Schoenberg searched for additional music to fill the remainder of a chamber music program. Eventually, on April 21, 1925, he asked his student Anton Webern to make the arrangement of Chamber Symphony No. 1 that is performed on this evening’s program. Webern’s arrangement captures the beautiful clarity, balance, and lush mixture of sonorities. It received its first performance in 1925 in Barcelona. In 1935, Schoenberg also completed a version for full orchestra. – Elisha Willinger
Upcoming Yale in New York Concerts This year’s Yale in New York series features music from Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances. Impressions on the French Tradition The final concert in the series features Debussy’s Proses lyriques and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Ravel’s String Quartet, with faculty mezzo-soprano Janna Baty, faculty harpist June Han, and the Rolston String Quartet, the School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence December 15 Morse Recital Hall | Friday | 4:30 pm free admission March 4 Weill Recital Hall | Sunday | 7:30 pm Tickets $25 at carnegiehall.org
concert programs & box office Krista Johnson, Kate Gonzales, Michael Zuber-Zander communications Katie Kelley, David Brensilver operations Tara Deming, Chris Melillo piano curators Barbara Renner, Robert Crowson, Brian Daley, William Harold media production Matthew LeFevre, Travis Wurges
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If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors. Robert Blocker, Dean