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Event
Arnold Schoenberg: Sensuality & Decay
Claudia Friedlander, Soprano
Matthew Tuell, Tenor
Lloyd Arriola, piano
Drei Klavierstücke 1894
8 Lieder Opus 6
Das Buch der hangenden Garten
Franz Schreker, Der ferne Klang, final duet
Drei Klavierstücke 1894
Arnold Schoenberg composed these three lush, romantic pieces for solo piano at the age of 20. Our program begins with the first piece; the second and third will serve as interludes between the works for voice and piano to cleanse our aural palates and as a reminder of the tonal world from which Schoenberg is now drifting away.
8 Lieder Opus 6 (19031905)
Schoenberg's early output focused almost entirely on the German Lied, and it was in his works for voice and piano that his compositional language slowly evolved away from from tonal harmonies. The Opus 6 songs are still structured around key centers but clearly anticipate the erosion of tonality. The texts, by eight different poets, are darkly erotic, evidence of Schoenberg's appreciation of material expressing psychological states.
Das Buch der hängenden Gärten (The Book of the Hanging Gardens) Opus 15 (19081909)
It would be difficult to improve on Allen Shawn's description of this work in his book Arnold Schoenberg's Journey: "With the fifteen songs that comprise Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, Schoenberg's music finally made the leap, although in a remarkably subtle and intimate way, to a world without tonal resolution. This stunningly beautiful cycle occupies a special place in the history of twentieth-century music and of song literature, yet is seldom performed." The poems by Stefan George trace an intense but doomed love affair from first meeting through long-awaited consummation and finally abandonment.
Franz Schreker, Der ferne Klang (The Distant Sound) (1910), final duet
The music Franz Schreker stretches tonal harmony to its very limits without ever relinquishing them, incorporating elements of Expressionism into a more traditional Romantic musical vocabulary. Composed between 1901 and 1910, Der ferne Klang is contemporary with the two Schoenberg song cycles, and a similar free-form decadence is palpable in the beautiful duet that concludes the opera, bringing us full-circle back to familiar harmonies that flirt dangerously with instability without ever quite succumbing.
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LocationBroadway Presbyterian Church
601 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10025
United States
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| Minimum Age: 10 |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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