Verklärte Nacht Works for Piano Trio Osiris Trio

ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG / KARL WEIGL Verklärte Nacht Works for Piano Trio Osiris Trio 1 ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG / KARL WEIGL Verklärte Nacht Works for Piano Trio Osiris Trio Ellen Corver piano Peter Brunt violin Larissa Groeneveld cello ARNOLD SCHÖNBERG (1874-1951) In September 1899, Arnold history. Schönberg’s starting point [1] Verklärte Nacht op. 4 (1899) 31:46 Schönberg was on vacation in the was one of the poems from Dehmel’s Arranged for piano trio by Eduard Steuermann Austrian village of Payerbach am Weib und Welt cycle, which raised Semmering with his friend, Alexander a furore following its publication in KARL WEIGL (1881-1949) von Zemlinsky, and Alexander’s sister 1896: conservative critics found the Piano Trio (1938-39) Mathilde. Schönberg was head over poems to be erotic, immoral and even [2] Allegro moderato 9:47 heels in love with Mathilde (they blasphemous. [3] Andante 8:27 were married 2 years later) and had [4] Allegro molto 5:09 also fallen completely under the Schönberg had already composed spell of the work of the German poet some songs to poems by Dehmel in Richard Dehmel – famous but at 1897, but it was not until 1899 – his total time 55:10 the same time highly controversial, ‘Dehmel year’ – that he felt fully up fêted by some and vilified by others. to the task of setting the violent Schönberg’s own development as emotions of this poetry to music in a a composer was rapid indeed, as convincing way: as well as Verklärte he successfully transformed the Nacht, he set about working on eight influences of Brahms and Wagner songs based on Dehmel’s poems. into his own personal, convincing The sextet was completed at the synthesis. The monumental result end of September and revised in of all this was his string sextet October, at which point Zemlinsky Verklärte Nacht, written in just a attempted to persuade the Vienna few weeks (some of this during the Tonkünstlerverein to programme vacation in Payerbach), which may the work. One year previously, well be the first piece of explicitly Schönberg’s String Quartet in D programmatic chamber music in Major had been performed to acclaim 4 5 there, but it was a different story Musikverein in Vienna. Even then, the With a very heavy heart, the You have brought this glow into for Verklärte Nacht. The appraisal poem was still so controversial that woman confesses to the man: me and made me like a child committee categorically rejected the the audience was not provided with 2. “Ich trag ein Kind, und nit von myself.” work, with one of the jury members the text in the programmes, despite Dir. Ich geh in Sünde neben Dir” 5. The narrative concludes. They commenting that it sounded as Schönberg’s explicit request! (“I am with child, but it is not continue walking, now however if someone had wiped his sleeve yours. I walk in sin beside you”) “through the lofty, clear night”. across the still wet ink on the pages So this is the colourful history of – “i despaired of happiness, and The night has been transformed of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde! Verklärte Nacht. Of course, this yet I still felt a grievous longing from sombre and ominous Another critic was even more explicit: begs the questions: “Just what sort for life’s fullness, for a mother’s to glowing and dazzling, there is a very dissonant ninth chord of composition is it then?” “What joys and duties; and so I sinned, thus symbolising the blissful in bar 42 – Ab-C-Eb-Gb-Bb with the is the poem about and what does and so I yieled, shuddering, my transformation experienced by ninth (Bb) in the bass – something the title mean?” ‘Verklären’ (‘to sexto embrace a stranger, and the woman and her child who that was absolutely forbidden in transfigure’) literally means ‘to glorify’, even thought myself blessed. before the 4th verse was still the contemporary rules of harmony. ‘to surround with a supernal glow’ or Now life has taken its revenge, burdened with her sin. Nowadays, we can barely imagine ‘to cause to radiate with well-being’; and I have met you, met you.” that a work might be rejected when one relates it to Dehmel’s poem, 3. The narrative continues: they (Schönberg published an explanatory note because of a ‘wrong’ chord, but there it might also mean ‘transforming into walk on, still illuminated by the in 1950, in which he described the “bare, was undoubtedly more going on an ideal state of supreme bliss’. The moon. Then the man speaks: cold woodland grove” as “a park” and “a behind the rejection of Schönberg’s poem consists of five verses, whose 4. “Das Kind, das Du empfangen stranger” as “my lawful spouse”!) sextet: the controversial poem and contents may be summarised thus: hast, sei Deiner Seele keine Last” the harmony – sometimes teetering (“Do not let the child you have The way the composer sets this poem on the edges of tonality – were 1. A narrator outlines the situation: conceived burden your soul”) to music is masterful and supremely definitely contributory factors. The in the moonlight a man and a – “Be assured, I accept this child expressive. He follows the text as if premiere finally took place on 18 woman are walking “through as though it were mine. See how it were a Wagnerian opera, with its March 1902, in the Small Hall of the a bare, cold woodland grove.” brightly the universe is glowing! associated leitmotifs and their various 6 7 transformations. The themes are are reprised but in a much gentler lessons with Arnold Schönberg. World War II. Schönberg died in explicitly linked to the lines of the form, sounding more like a joyous jig He took part in the premiere of 1951 and it is unlikely that he and poem, and Schönberg occasionally or an elegiac lullaby. They are, as it Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Steuermann had any significant takes this so far that the lines of the were, transfigured … The overall tonal became the resident pianist in the contact while they were living in the German poem appear to fit exactly structure is a further manifestation of composer’s ‘Association for Private USA, with Steuermann based in New with some of the themes, as if he this process: we may regard D major Musical Performances’ in 1918. In York and Schönberg in Los Angeles. were writing a song or an operatic (the main key for verses 4 and 5) as 1938, the political climate in Vienna The first printed edition did not aria. One telling example of this is the the transfigured version of D minor having deteriorated in the mid-1930s, appear until 1979. motif that corresponds to the German (the main key for verses 1 and 2). he emigrated to the USA, five years text “Ich trag ein Kind, und nit von dir” after Schönberg. Once there, he With this history in mind, it is (I am with child, but it is not yours), Masterpieces such as Verklärte established a career as a concert probably impossible to say what which can be sung perfectly to the Nacht tend to invite arrangement for pianist, composer and piano teacher; Schönberg himself would have rhythm ! other ensembles as well. Schönberg among his pupils was Alfred Brendel. thought of the arrangement. In any himself arranged a version for string He died in New York in 1964. event, ‘our’ view of the arrangement Time and again, Schönberg’s music orchestra in 1917, while the 1932 is nothing but positive: it has become is so expressive that the listener arrangement for piano trio by Eduard The arrangement of Verklärte Nacht a genuine piano trio, with of course a genuinely has the feeling of being Steuermann also provides pianists was completed in 1932, as a birthday fiendishly difficult piano part – what part of an opera, with principals with an opportunity to play this gift for Alice Moller, a Viennese else could it be, given that the piano acting the parts and exchanging wonderful piece. Steuermann was patroness of the arts and a pupil of often has to ‘cover’ for no fewer than their dialogue. The process of born in 1892, of Polish extraction. both Schönberg and Steuermann. It four string parts? The violin part thematic transformation is also clearly By an early age, he had established is highly doubtful that Schönberg coincides almost entirely with the 1st perceptible: for verses 4 and 5, a himself as a highly competent pianist. himself ever saw the arrangement. violin part of the sextet, while the number of themes from verses 1 and He moved to Vienna in 1912, at the Alice kept the manuscript when cello also takes in some elements 2, which were originally overwrought recommendation of his teacher Steuermann left for the USA, only of the viola and 2nd violin parts. The and spiced with sharp dissonances, Feruccio Busoni, to take composition returning it to him after the end of arrangement is highly creative, with 8 9 a fascinating transmutation of the during the 1930s. Until then, he had precisely from this hectic period. He despite the symphonic allure, shimmering sound of the sextet into a lived and worked in Vienna, the city had embarked on its composition in partly because Weigl frequently brilliant, rippling piano texture. With of his birth. He died on 11 August the spring of 1938, completing it a incorporates developmental aspects an arrangement such as this, there 1949 in New York. While still very year later in the USA. The score shows in his recapitulations.

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