Review: The ULTIMATE Mahler--er, Schoenberg--Box
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- Опубліковано 14 сер 2021
- OK, Mahler sells, but I'm not being entirely deceptive with the title of this video. Evidently Schoenberg sells too, since this 11-CD box is still available at time of filming (8/21)--and rightly so. If you're looking to take the plunge, this inexpensive and well-made set offers the perfect place to start. As I explain in the talk, the key to enjoying Schoenberg's very special musical world is not to dip a toe (or an ear) in gingerly, but rather to immerse yourself with a certain pugilistic gusto. Don't be timid. Give the music a chance, but like what you like and feel free to hate what you don't. The result might just surprise you. It worked for me, and I suspect it will work for you too.
Milton Babbitt was a guest lecturer in my music theory class in 1972 at the University of California, Davis. He talked about Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra op. 31 and Pierrot Lunaire. It opened the eyes and ears of this undergraduate and I’ve listened to Schoenberg’s music everyday since-almost 60 years.
Your video is much appreciated.
Lucky you! I would love to have met Milton Babbitt.
Since we're on the subject of the Second Viennese School, I (and many others, I'm sure) would love a survey of the best recordings Webern and (especially) Berg's works, similar to the one you did on Scriabin. Both have relatively small bodies of work that seem well-suited to cramming it all in one video.
Some absolutely beautiful works: String Quartet no 2: Die Jakobsleiter: Die Gluckliche Hand: Five Orchestral Pieces: Erwartung: Four Orchestral Songs op 22: Kol Nidre. Modern Psalms op 50. Apart from anything, Schoenberg was a tremendously gifted orchestrator - one of the greatest IMO. Oh, and the marvellous 2nd Chamber Symphony (the 1st isn't too shabby either...)
Wow! I find it fascinating that so many of you find Verklarte Nacht difficult and challenging. I think it’s one of the most haunting and seductive works in the entire classical repertoire (the string orchestra version). The first time I heard the Karajan recording on DG, I was hooked. Then I heard Levine and the BSO perform it live and it was absolutely thrilling. It’s Schoenberg’s most accessible work IMHO and I can never get enough of the lushness of the strings. The piece never sounds like sludge the way Brahms can. If I’m in the mood for something challenging and difficult, I put on Bartok quartets, which are among the ugliest and unpleasant chamber pieces in existence. But, I’ll keep on listening!
Thanks Dave for the advocacy. So much good, and often rather beautiful music in there. R.e. The Quintet, I recall listening to the Naxos recording (there’s a good Naxos box which might be available too) on my first visit to Vienna on my CD Walkman, which dates it a bit! But it was a fun disorientating experience on my way to the Schoenberg museum there which is, hands down, the best composer memorial in the city. They haven’t done very well by most of the other people, sadly.
Dave, many thanks for this and many other videos, which often send me off to new musical adventures. After hearing this, I took in the Serenade, Op. 24. Great piece! Look forward to buying the Boulez set.
Thank you for this great talk! I've been listening to Schoenberg for years now and love his music. Exactly the fact that every piece is so different from any other is what I love. But the wind quintet.. still gives me trouble to get through.
My first exposure to his music was in college in our concert choir when the director chose Friede Auf Erden. I remember collectively we all groaned when we saw his name and resisted learning it but little by little we chipped away at the piece and by the time the performance came around all of a sudden it clicked and it became not only one of our favorite pieces of the concert but I would say, to this day , it is one of my top five favorite choral works
that piece is gorgeous! Love it. Initially considered near impossible to sing which i assume why there's also a version with orchestra.
I've never really known much music from Schoenberg except his Theme and Variations for wind band and his transcription of the Brahms Piano Quintet which I both absolutely love. Soooo this is definitely something that has come at a good time for me to find out more about him. Thanks as always, Mr. Hurwitz
Dave, you hit the nail on the head - you get out of Schoenberg what you put into it. It is never easy.
I totally agree - his transitional tonal pieces like Transfigured Night and the First String Quartet are VERY difficult to listen to and very taxing. The First Chamber Symphony does everything the First Quartet does in one third the time, and is frankly a much better piece - that's the best introduction to tonal Schoenberg, I think.
I forget where I read about it, but the poet Stefan George was one of the icons of the Second Vienna School guys, and they set lots of his poetry. George said he put barbed wire around his poetry to "keep out the uninitiated", and Schoenberg does the same with his music.
Thanks for this - a very fair assessment of Schoenberg. Funny enough I've never had a fear of his works (or for that matter any of the so-called Second Viennese School) because I've always been prepared to meet them halfway. You have to sit down and give them your attention - listening with half an ear just isn't going to work. True
some works I found more immediately appealing (the 5 Orchestral Pieces Op.16 for example just bowled me over - the propolsive restless energy in Premonitions or the erie stillness in Things Past is wonderful) others took longer (the Chamber Symphony No.1 and the Violin Concerto). Ultimately though what's interesting (and this goes for Berg and Webern too) is for all it's seemingly unconventional and often disonnant surface, how routed it all is in the Germanic tradition and also how much of it owes a debt to Mahler (some of the bleak spareness in parts of Das Lied von der Erde or the 9th Symphony for example). Anyway it's music that is rewarding if you're prepared to engage with it.
Thank you for this and other recent videos on Schoenberg! I totally fell in love with Verklarte Nacht ever since I watched it performed by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra a couple of months ago in a video on UA-cam. Maybe the visuals helped. I had a tough time with the violin concerto - initially - but I've since come around. It's terrific! I have the Hilary Hahn cd with the Schoenberg/Sibelius coupling. Three more Schoenberg disks are on their way. In for a penny, in for a pound!
Thanks, Dave, for this review. Boulez' recordings were the ones which got me into listening to Schoenberg. Indeed, one has to take/make the dedicated time to really LISTEN to his music, so that it can "speak". I remember two staged performances of "Moses und Aaron", given in the space of about two years apart, while I was a wee student in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, in the mid-1980s. The first was done at the Mannheim Staatstheater, under the direction of the late Friedemann Layer. The second was done at Frankfurt Alte Oper (the city's great concert hall), in a very effective and visually stunning semi-staged production, with (if memory serves me correctly) Michael Gielen at the helm. Needless to say, both productions ran only a few times, and were immediately sold out to packed houses, with audiences traveling from all over Germany to attend them. In both instances, there was the palpable sense of A Great And Special Occasion - rightly so.
When it comes to box sets, the majors tend to do a single run of 1000 to 2500 units. Once the units are sold, that’s it. And that’s why an unpopular set like the Boulez Schoenberg will hang around forever while more popular fare sells out quickly and disappears. There are those exceptions - like Szell’s Beethoven set on Sony - that generate enough sales on an ongoing basis to justify keeping the title active. The exception that proves the rule.
I forgot to add that the most enlightening recording I’ve heard of Pierrot Lunaire is the Nonesuch recording with Jan DeGaetani.
David, please do a video of the recorded versions of this masterpiece.
Very good talk! Greetings from The Netherlands!
A fascinating and informative intro to Schoenberg and a helpful review of the Boulez/Sony bargain box. You are a good salesman, Dave. I don't have a lot of Schoenberg in my collection (the Karajan recordings, a couple of pieces in the Solti/Chicago box, and Ozawa's Gurrelieder. And several versions of Verklaerte Nacht--of course. That's about it Now, thanks to your prompting, I realize I need to get to know this often vilified composer. Not that I mind atonality--Berg's free version thereof has always spoken to me, and if I'm in the mood, I can take Webern as well as late Stravinsky. But I've always thought of Schoenberg as rather sterile and academic. With the assistance of this inexpensive box, I can reconsider his music. During your presentation I did recall Stravinsky's pity putdown of his dodecaphonic contemporary: "Too much like Brahms, but not as interesting." Well, Stravinsky could be snarky, couldn't he?
People often don't know that he was one of the most rigorous and complex theorists of the 20th century. When I read his writings, I noticed how his treatises are as dense, detailed, and challenging as his music, with thorough explanation of his technique and philosophy behind what he does in a long-winded manner. It proved to me that he was not a revolutionary just to be vulgar or edgy.
I want to say that this is one of your very best talks. I'd agree about Schoenberg (challenging and worthwhile!) and with your assessment of all the works, except maybe Verklärte Nacht, which I do find beautiful, if slightly overlong. To me, Pelleas und Melisande is almost impenetrable. I've heard it many times and still can't get much out of it. Otherwise the concertos, yes, wonderful pieces, Pierrot Lunaire, The Suite, Serenade, 5 Pieces for Orch, love 'em all.
Dave, love the home page and find it incredibly useful.
The home page is my first stop when I want to listen to a piece even if I am familiar with multiple versions. Feel like Mendelssohn String Quartets today? Lets check Hurwitz and the comments to see what others like and maybe I find performances I'm not familiar with. You don't have everything (yet !) but usually a great start. I start my day with today's new video!. Also, as a fellow recovering member of "Audiophiles Anonymous", I appreciated your comments on the quality of recordings. If it is truly poor or truly excellent or dry or lacking bass you call it out, and we move along, to the quality of the performance. Please continue to call out the quality of a recording, both good and bad when necessary. Otherwise I'll continue to assume the sonics are just fine. As for Mr. Schoenberg? A bit of a gamey dish to my taste, but I'm feeling pretty open minded this morning so I will take some on my morning walk. Thanks for the channel!
Thanks for referring to your website, I didn't know about that yet and it'll be a great help in finding what I am looking for
Happy to help!
I love Schoenberg's facility for setting texts to music. There's a nice collection of his complete songs on Capriccio - with obligatory beautiful woman on the cover! - which demonstrates what a fine Lieder composer he was. Well worth checking out, especially for those who are somewhat wary of Schoenberg in general.
It really is an excellent release! Some of his early songs are really beautiful in an unexpected way. Same with Berg, but this shows you Schoenberg was at it too.
According to Schoenberg himself, when he was writing songs, which account for about half of his output before the First World War, he often let the first few lines of a poem spark his imagination, then he would compose the whole song based on that initial impression, fitting in the rest of the words later. It's hard for me to imagine how that would work in practice, though.
Mahler apparently did the same thing in the first movement of the eighth symphony
Gracias David por tus videos.
Saludos desde Uruguay.
Muchas grácias!
wow! You are so right. I had a similar experience with Scharwenka Piano Concerto. I found it so unappealing/difficult with some modern recording I cannot remember. Then I listened to Earl Wild and the heavens open. His phrasing and sensitivity was something I had never experienced before.
Soon after finding your channel, I had a look at your home page - it must be said that your organization of videos should cause all other channels to cower in shame.
Outstanding rendition of the wind quintet, by the way!
Dorati's recording of the 5 pieces for orchestra is a personal favourite and was the work that sold me on Schoenberg's music.
The "wacka wacka wacka" in particular expressed angst and defiance.
@@elizabethj8510 If you're left wanting more, a truly haunting excerpt from Shostakovich's 14th can be heard at the end of the ideal Shostakovich symphonies video.
@@elliotdavies3555 Thanks! Dave Hurwitz's interpretations should be analyzed for salient influences. My vote goes to Spike Jones and His City Slickers.
Agreed, the playliists are super helpful!
This brings to mind the day, many moons ago, when I was walking down the street minding my own business and was struck on the head by a CD of Schoenberg's wind quintet , thrown from a window several stories above. Never did find out who threw it.
My understanding is that most copies of that CD wound up on the streets of our major cities. I didn't hear of any fatalities. For the record, I threw mine into a grass-filled courtyard that was closed to the public.
@@DavesClassicalGuide The Aliens will find it then. Lord knows what they'll make of us...
@@DavesClassicalGuide If only more people were as conscientious as you about throwing their Schoenberg CDs out the window the world would be a far better place.
The theme of the variations in the Suite op. 29 is the beautiful german folk song "Ännchen von Tharau". And it's much fun, what he makes out of it. Not what you might expect.
Very much agreed on your summary of the challenge of Schoenberg's music. Michael Tilson Thomas once said "Berg makes a turn to the audience"; Schoenberg never really does and he makes a point of it.
You inspired me to listen again to Verlarte Nacht for string sextet which I have with the Hollywood String Qt. and I enjoyed it, but then I already liked the orchestral version. I have to confess I own some Xenakis conducted by Boulez too! Shame that box set from Detritus is not available here 😅
Fantastic introduction to Schoenberg, and Claudia Cassidy has gone up in my estimation after you mentioning her perceptive review of the 'Serenade'. A small point in the scheme of things, but I believe AS's first complete dodecaphonic work was the Suite op.25 for solo piano as opposed to the Wind Quintet which i've also always found a tough nut to crack.
Thanks. I think I said serial work in classical forms, for something like that. I agree about Op. 25.
@@DavesClassicalGuide confusing sentence on my part- the tough nut to crack being the wind quintet. I'm with you on this. I'm actually rather fond of the Suite op.25. A certain manic quality to it, especially the concluding Gigue.
Craft's recording of AS's Variations for Orchestra was the one that alerted me to the music behind the dodecaphony. I remember hearing the mandolin make its entrance, and wondered "what's that doing here?" That was what turned it for me.
The wind players at the first performance of the Quintet found it so difficult that Webern had to conduct them, and the performance took about forty five minutes.
Webern I adored with zero effort the first time I heard him (I think it was the Karajan DG double-CD with all the orchestral Webern stuff on it), I'd crawl a mile to see a good performance of Wozzeck, but Schoenberg still eludes me.
I have the Gielen GUSTAV MAHLER set, so I may as well get his Schoenberg set to go along with Boulez.
Webern was supposedly the most “severe” of the three. I find Webern the most approachable, then Schoenberg, then Berg. Berg’s music frustrates me the most as I find my mind wandering during works like his chamber concerto and his piano sonata - I just can’t stay in the piece with a lot of Berg’s works (I can though with some like Wozzeck and the violin concerto).
Outside of Glenn Gould and Karajan's Schoenberg recordings the Boulez recordings were my introduction to many of his other works. Some I like, some I don't. I think it was worth spending a little time with him though.
Hi Dave. I’m enjoying this b ox. I’m not a newcomer to Schoenberg but much of this music is new to me.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on Frank Zappa’s orchestral music (some of which Boulez recorded). Worthy of a chat maybe?
I like him. He had very high standards.
Seconding that notion!
Dave, you mentioned how the slightest whisper of 'Mahler' in the title will draw in the views... On that note, I'd wondered if you'd consider doing a review on Mahler box sets comprised of different conductors and/or orchestras. There's
- the Mahler Feest box set
- the Naxos cycle (mostly by Antoni Wit)
- the RCO Live box (DVD/Bluray)
- the BR Klassik set
- the Telarc box (which I know you've already covered)
- the Brilliant Classics cycle (with a weird mix of different generations of recordings)
- the Profil box (made up of recordings I think you've mostly covered)
- the DG Complete Edition (and the *vomit* 'People's Edition, which I think you've mentioned)
- the Warner/EMI 150th Anniversary Edition (I can't recall if you've covered this)
- the 2021 Berliner Philharmoniker set (which I gather you don't like, but it would be good to hear your specific criticism on each symphony in that cycle)
That's *at least* a four hour video right there, and millions of views guaranteed.
Drove by Schoenberg's Brentwood home a few days ago. (It's still in his family). He lived across the street from Shirley Temple. Also the same street as the infamous former- OJ Simpson residence. L.A. is weird.
So a call for help here...I'm trying to hunt down an English translation for Erwartung and can't find one anywhere. Does someone have a link to a site where the libretto can be found? Thanks!
I find it fascinating that Schoenberg jumped into the Pelleas et Melisande competition early last century.
In case you missed it, David did a video on Pelleas and Melisande by 4 different composers.
@@Don-md6wn I did not miss it.
And decisively won!
Where can we buy Classics Today shirts?
If you haven't got one then you should have a 'merch' page.
We are working on it--should be live in a few weeks. Stay tuned!
Schoenberg is still available because of the 100 copies created of the box set in 2013, many are still unsold. I have had this box set since December 2014. I work up the courage to listen to it about once every 18 months. The courage goes away after 15 minutes of listening to it. I have heard maybe 3 CDs of the 11. What can be expected of us "music consumers"? I am in one of those rare moods as I write this. I am playing CD 2. I have heard "tonal" music of Schoenberg that I thought was fair to ok. I want my collection to be a wide coverage. I will not have more than a couple, maybe three performances of any given work (of anything). That is why this set is part of my collection. But I am struggling.
I had the pleasure of hearing James Levine conduct the Boston Symphony and his Schoenberg/Beethoven juxtaposition series which was quite fascinating. But they were such different composers that I heard little connection. I suspect it was more a strategy on Jimmy's part to pull what would have been an otherwise reluctant audience in to the hall to force feed them the Schoenberg... My first experience of great thrill of listening to Schoenberg after Verklarte Nacht was oddly enough during a series of dental visits when I would sit in the parking lot beforehand listening to the Boulez/Uchida recording of the Piano Concerto which alas is not in the boxed set under discussion. It is a challenging but strangely beautiful piece. The dental visits were much less pleasant. Thank you for challenging us today!
I would have found the dental vist much more pleasant!
It's an old strategy--First Viennese School with the Second. Remember Dohnanyi's series of Mozart symphonies coupled with Webern. Silly, but there it is!
@@DavesClassicalGuide I heard Rattle conduct the Orchestal Pieces of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern without a break at the Proms some years back. A formula for musical indigestion.
Good evening Mr. Hurwitz. Since it’s Passover, how about a video on Schoenberg’s MOSES UND ARON, if that work is of any interest to you? Thanks
It is, but not because it's Passover.
Boulez did some great things here such as with the BBCSO, Singers, Ensemble Intercontemporain. The sound on the cds seems far better than on the original LPs, it all sounds great.
The box has no words. What to do ? The contents of the box can be bought, some as indivudual cds, some as 2 cd sets and they have English translations; some other recordings also have the words in English translation. Not all cds in the box are word settings so don't have texts anyway.
The box is full of distinctive performances. Boulez' Sony Moses and Aaron is tremendous as is Kol Nidre. His Gurrelieder is very good.
Whilst Kol Nidre is in English and a Survivor from Warsaw is mostly in English the 2 cds that contains them are needed for the texts of the other 10 choral works they contain.
The Boulez Schoenberg big textless box could be a great starting point and some other recordings can be found to get some of the words eg Solti Moses and Aron, Rattle Gurrelieder, Erwartung. It is good to have more than one version of these highly interesting works.
Boulez recorded the concertos and Pelleas and Melissnde on Erato or DG.
David, what do you think about Robert Craft's recordings on Naxos. Are they as good as Boulez's?
Often better.
It's a shame that the piano concerto is not in the box. Well worth checking out and there are plenty of good recordings. It was the piece that first "opened my ears" to Schoenberg.
Yes. But as you know Boulez did it much later with Mitsuko Uchida and that’s still around. Evidently they had a shared love for Schoenberg and it shows!
I admit that I have yet to come to grips with Schoenberg. I started with "Verklärte Nacht" back in my college days and found it incomprehensibly dense, and this may have turned me off. Since then, I've gotten to know more of his music and gotten to like a lot of it, particularly the chamber works, including the Sextet and Serenade. I never much cared for "Pierrot lunaire" finding it a bit too lurid for my semi-prudish tastes, and I have yet to take on "Gurre-Lieder" although it's high on my "To Do" (or "To Listen To") list. I did find this box set in one of my streaming services, so I'll give it a listen and see if there's more Schoenberg that I can grow to like.
I still find Schoenberg challenging, but one piece I heard live I found really moving and a perfect marriage of subject to style -- A Survivor in Warsaw.
"From," not "in."
How about Gielen vol. 8? Also available!
Oddly enough, I'm listening to that right now (Pelleas und Melisande, to be precise), and it's a fabulous set.
Yes, it is.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Great talk, by the way!
This is a great box, but it's really too bad that Sony couldn't somehow obtained the rights to include the Boulez recording of Pelleas und Melisande on Erato.
Slightly off-topic, but I saw Boulez conduct Pelléas et Mélisande (Debussy) with Welsh National Opera in the early 1990s. What a memorable experience that was, happily captured on video/DVD.
David, do you think that all composers are sincere and genuine when composing? Obviously what is one man's trash is another's treasure. For the life of me, sometimes I wonder what the hell was he or she thinking or feeling when composing a piece of music. For me if the music inspires, motivates, energizes, and opens the heart, it's successful. What do you think the composers intention is?
I honestly don't think you can answer that question, other than to say that composing takes work, and why do the work if you're not sincere about it?
@@DavesClassicalGuide Right on! Or as we said cynically replied "right arm!" Exactly. Why do the work if you're not sincere? It would be an exercise in futility. Thanks, David.
Dave, delicate question, but how far do you think anti-semitism fed into the denigration of Schoenberg? It’s perhaps the hidden answer to Boulez’ own question in that essay “Schoenberg the unloved”. I highly esteem the music of Berg and Webern but although Webern had some (I think naively) dodgy tendencies ideologically later on, I don’t blame them for the way they tend to get seen as doing better music than their “teacher”.
I do think it's out there--to what degree I have no idea. I think Schoenberg is a much more difficult composer than either of them because he was far more eclectic and his range was so much wider. He was a genuine "questing" spirit You never know what to expect from him, whereas with Berg and Webern you like it or you don't, but it's a much more easily defined idiom. Does that make them better? Depends on your definition.
Yes I agree. And as I recall, Boulez’ essay was about how he preferred Schoenberg’s earlier free atonal and expressionist music to his later serial stuff - which might be one indication as to why his own music loosened up later on! I know there were others but surely Schoenberg, who outlived his students, became the most militantly “Judaic” composer later on?
You inspired me to have another go at the Quintet! Far from me to suggest what you might listen to but there’s a great disc under the Robert Craft umbrella on Naxos that also has the Second Chamber Symphony and Die Glucklicke hand. I’d urge relistening as it’s a work where it’s pretty obvious that making a big division between the second Viennese school and neoclassicism is really daft. It’s echoing the Nachtmusik and serenades of the 18th century (the Mahler reference you made is absolutely spot on) and it (1924) really doesn’t sound so different from Hindemith, even if it’s serial. You can hear "Lulu" coming too, which is in some ways quite "neoclassical." I can even hear the Ligeti horn trio coming from a distance, a great work in similar vein. The horn player of the New York Wind Quintet there is fantastic!
Thanks again.
If you have any interest in getting a new perspective on Verklärte Nacht - the only recording of his works that Schoenberg ever oversaw was The Hollywood Quartet recording of Verklärte Nacht in the original version for sextet. It's significantly different from other recordings of the work. Then again, if you already know it and still hate the piece c'est la vie
Sure I know it. And I still hate the piece. That may change someday, but not because of any one performance. Chromatic sludge is as chromatic sludge invariably sounds. It doesn't get less chromatic. I just need to develop a taste for sludge.
It is a great box set to have, however I find the performance of the First Chamber Symphony, one of my favourite Schönberg pieces, very disappointing.
The performance sounds strangely matter of fact and uninvolved (I heard him do the piece live. Same thing, very forgetable). Which is perplexing considering what a masterpiece it is.
However this is a minor quibble considering what's on offer in this great collection.
It is strange that seventy years after his death there are those who still consider Schönberg's music to be "problematic". IMO he may well be the most important, though maybe not necessarily the greatest, composer of the 20th century; up
there with the very best at any rate.
The Boulez box set of Webern's complete works is also well worth having.
He is problematic. That was his intention, and he succeeded brilliantly.
@@DavesClassicalGuide He certainly did! One of the real greats.
I'm 62. I've been trying to give schoenberg a fair listen for 30 years. I realized I would never like his music, which is ok. Odd because I like much of ives and even some of weber.
I completely agree that Schoenberg really runs hot and cold (kind of like Schumann) - his best works are masterpieces and his worst are horrible. Erwartung is not only my favorite work by Schoenberg but my favorite work from the entire second Viennese school. However, a far worse piece than the Wind Quintet (which I really don’t think is that bad per se - it’s just not among his best works), is, in my opinion, the String Trio. I cannot STAND it and cannot understand how such an excellent and often very inspired composer coughed up such a self-indulgent and demonstratively Mickey Mouse piece. Honestly, it’s just my own sensibilities that repel me from the work as I cannot say there is anything objectively wrong with it. Also, I recognize there are folks who probably love this work, and I mean absolutely no offense to listeners who enjoy it - it is just not for me.
It is a difficult piece. But wasn't he either very ill or recovering from being very ill at the time of composition?
Yeah, he wrote it during the last years of his life when his health was declining. It is considered a masterpiece, but I cannot get into it as it seems to constantly meander abruptly among a huge range of moods and advanced string techniques. I know it’s regarded as a masterpiece, but I am aging into thatvguy who tells the neighbors’ kids to get off his lawn and who turns his nose up at certain masterpieces even when well-performed (and I’m including the big ones: Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Mozart’s 26th Piano Concerto, Bruckner 4, and Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben). He also wrote Survivor from Warsaw during this period (an easy listen by Schoenbergian standards), which is probably the greatest work in the repertoire that includes a narrator, as well as a difficult work, the Fantasy for Violin and Piano. The latter, I think, is a very coherent and well-written piece that I very much enjoy. There is no shortage of excellent output during Schoenberg’s late period, but the String Trio, even after repeated listenings with different performers, sounds to be all over place to me. However, you guys are probably right that I have become too grumpy;)
I’m all for difficult composers like Allan Pettersson, but at this point in my life I don’t think I’ll grow to enjoy Schoenberg. I do rather like the Naxos disc you reviewed some time back of “Schoenberg for people who don’t like Schoenberg,” for example the cello concerto. Beyond that, there’s plenty of music in the big wide world for me to enjoy without the dodecaphonic cacophony.
Oh Alex, it’s never too late lol
@@murraylow4523 It might be true that it's never too late, but when it comes to Schoenberg, it's probably not worth it. I've tried Schoenberg, and every few years I come back to his music and give it another try. But sometimes you just have to recognize that some music simply isn't for you and move on to other things. Like Alex, for me Schoenberg is a dead end. I believed this when I was just starting to get into the classics when I was a teenager in the 1970's. And subsequent exposure in the years since have not changed my mind. That being said, I will probably end up listening to some of the pieces Dave recommends in this video.