Search - Arnold Schoenberg, Robert Craft, Philharmonia Orchestra of London :: Schoenberg: Violin Concerto; A Survivor from Warsaw

A Plangent Potpourri of Late Schönberg...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 01/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

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This disc represents a grab bag of late Schönberg (with the exception of the Third Period Violin Concerto) featuring politically and religiously motivated works.



The Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte (for reciter and piano quintet) is one of Schönberg's finest and most inspired pieces.

It is of course an anti-authoritarian poem.



(Perhaps it should be added here that Schönberg nearly always worked with great inspiration, and most of his works are of a very high quality with only a couple of pieces in his complete oeuvre falling somewhat below the bar.)



The remarkable work of A Survivor from Warsaw is utterly unique in art-music, and no one but Schönberg could have written it (in terms of ethos, technique, and space-time).



The hideous subject of genocide would in lesser hands result in a catastrophe of art; but in the hands of a genius who was a consummate technical master of an art-form (this being a very rare thing), the result in this case is a shocking and stunning tour de force of an aesthetic frisson.

The orchestration of this piece is inconceivably superb.



Crystalline orchestral technique is also a prime feature of Schönberg's rarely heard Genesis Prelude wherein he attempts to express the week of Creation.



The short choral works Op. 50a-b were written during Schönberg's terminal illness.

Their dissonances are difficult to endure, their form of vocalisation is painful to hear, and their appeal is not universal.

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Schoenberg Violin Concerto Op.36/Sibelius Violin Concerto Op.47

Berg: Violin Concerto; Schoenberg: Piano Concerto; Violin Concerto



Schoenberg: Ein Uberlebender Aus Warschau; Webern: Orchesterwerke - Claudio Abbado

Schoenberg: Five Orchestra Pieces, Survivor from Warsaw



Schoenberg - Pierrot lunaire ~ Herzgewächse ~ Ode to Napoleon / Schäfer, Pittman-Jennings, Ensemble InterContempolain, Boulez

Schoenberg: Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte/Webern: String Trio/Quartet Rondo/Piano Quintet



The Genesis Suite

Genesis Suite



Schoenberg (Master Musicians Series)

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