String Sextet: SCHOENBERG - Verklärte Nacht

ARNOLD SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht
Marié Rossano, violin
Abi Fayette, violin
Zsche Chuang Rimbo Wong, viola
Yoshihiko Nakano, viola
Jean Kim, cello
Zachary Mowitz, cello
Performed on Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Field Concert Hall, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia
Arnold Schoenberg is known as the founder of “serialism,” a radical approach to composing that he invented in the 1920s after years of experimenting with a musical vocabulary of expanded dissonance. Serialism-also known as “twelve-tone,” “dodecaphonic,” and (reductively) “atonal” music-prescribed that a composer begin each piece with a twelve-note row of pitches from the chromatic scale (all of the notes in an octave) and with the stipulation that none of the notes be repeated until all others have been heard. The effect of this technique was to subvert any feeling of a harmonic “home base” or sense of key-and the resulting music has been a source of division among musicians and audiences ever since. Regardless of seeming to open the door to the avant-garde, Schoenberg always called himself a “Romantic” composer; and the entry point to that Romanticism is clear when playing his serial music, which still calls for long and expressive lines to be properly conveyed.  
The roots of his musical heritage are found in an early string sextet in a single movement, called “Transfigured Night.” Here Schoenberg is still fully invested in the late-German Romantic musical language of composers he revered: Brahms, Wagner, and Strauss. The music, of glorious beauty, captures the intense emotions of two lovers and the complexities of sex and commitment. Its dizzying assortment of motives and short melodies indicate different characters, feelings, and interactions.
The piece follows the narrative of a poem by Richard Dehmel. Walking in the woods, a woman confesses to her male lover that she is pregnant with the child of another man. Her partner tells her that the moonlight will transform the baby into his own, and he will consider it forever more his child. This was daring subject matter in 1900, and the performance was an early scandal (of many to come) for Schoenberg. The piece’s exquisite counterpoint and expressive Romanticism has made it a favorite of audiences ever since, and one of the more frequently performed works for Curtis On Tour. Years later Schoenberg arranged the piece for string orchestra, but the chamber version wins the day for its clarity and earnest intent.
-David Ludwig 
Learn more about this work: • String Sextet, Intro: ...
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[@Dodecatone]

Bravo! Sleek and beautiful performance

[@bencarterviola]

really, really excellent

[@amjan]

Great job!