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Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) followed by increasingly heated development of ideas is a forceful and ironic take on the polka, its trenchant Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 • Suite, Op. 29 from preceding sections. This collapses into a slow rhythm persisting through all manner of unlikely movement that begins by restating the introduction, instrumental combinations and textural ingenuity. A Largely self-taught as a composer, humanity as the unfinished Modern Psalm (1950) soon opening into a highly expressive discourse. What calmer and more thoughtful central section provides was born in on 13th September 1874. In a eloquently enshrines his religious beliefs. Schoenberg acts as a finale draws on aspects from the first and temporary contrast, but the initial activity is developed lifetime that encompassed many innovations, his first died in Los Angeles on 13th July 1951. fourth sections, the music gaining in impetus until at length, leading to a transformed reprise of material significant achievement was to unite the abstract and Of the two pieces here, the First Chamber spilling over into a headlong coda. previously heard. The music seems intent on programmatic tendencies of Brahms and Wagner in the Symphony has long been regarded as one of Written during 1924-6 as a wedding present for maintaining this acerbic manner to the last, which string sextet Verklärte Nacht (1899). The cantata Schoenberg’s most significant works. Like Pelleas und Schoenberg’s second wife Gertrud, the Suite is often makes the more surprising its sudden relaxation into a Gurrelieder, begun in 1900 but completed in 1911, and Melisande and the First which both referred to as ‘Septet’ on account of its being scored for calmer and more inward coda before the final flourish. the symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande (1903) are preceded it, it draws the movements of a Classical seven instruments (three , , viola, cello The third movement, Theme with Variations, takes apotheoses of late-Romantic vastness, after which the symphony into a continuous whole. Here, however, the and piano). One of several chamber works that up the melody Ännchen von Tharau by Friedrich Silcher First String Quartet (1905) and First Chamber musical discourse is compressed into little more than Schoenberg wrote in the mid-1920s, it returns to some (1789-1860), heard initially on , as the basis for Symphony (1906) pursue a more controlled expressive twenty minutes, and the lavish orchestral forces reduced of the problems in instrumental balance associated with four variations which, while never straying far from its intensity. Personal crisis and the tendency of his music to a mere fifteen instruments (comprising eight the First Chamber Symphony, namely the integration of melodic profile, are highly contrasted in themselves. to become more chromatic in manner led to the woodwind, two horns and string quintet). Although not wind and strings in which the piano is both a conciliator The first variation is a brisk rendition of its rhythmic abandonment of tonality in parts of his Second String the first such work of its kind (the long-forgotten Paul and a master of ceremonies. The piece itself abounds in profile, and the second an investigation of the theme’s Quartet (1908) and the song-cycle Das Buch der Juon produced his own Kammersymphonie a year earlier rhythmic vitality, with the dance character of its themes harmonic potential in the guise of a piano . The hängenden Gärten (1909). Highlights from this period for only nine instruments), Schoenberg’s was to attract reflecting its origins in the popular music of its era. third is the longest, the theme unfolding as a leisurely of free expressionism include the Five Orchestral by far the most attention – not least through difficulties Although Schoenberg clearly intended it to be dialogue for the clarinets against strings, Pieces (1909) and the monodrama (1909). that were encountered in performance of balancing its performed as chamber music, the difficulties of before the fourth variation wraps up matters by restoring After the darkly penetrating irony of the melodrama complement of wind and strings so that the music’s coordination while also ensuring a flexibility of most of its initial poise. Pierrot Lunaire (1912), Schoenberg worked for several often intricately-worked textures can readily be ensemble are considerable – so that the majority of The final movement, Gigue, draws not only on the years on the vast unfinished oratorio Der Jakobsleiter preceived. The composer himself attempted to remedy performances have tended to opt for a conductor. dance-type of that name but also on elements of fugue (1917), also working towards a new equality between the this with full orchestral versions of 1922 and 1935, yet The first movement, Overture, resembles a sonata and sonata-form in music where the rhythmic notes of the . The twelve-note method of its essential character can only be appreciated in a movement in which the expected development is impetuousness is at its greatest. There is the expected composition, first employed in the Five Piano Pieces and chamber context. Something Schoenberg’s pupil Anton replaced by a Ländler (an Austrian rural forerunner of sequence of main theme, initially allotted to the the Serenade (both 1923) was to have profound Webern bore in mind when he made his highly effective the Viennese waltz). The brusque opening propels the clarinets, and several contrasting episodes in which the consequences for composition over the next half-century. transcription for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano music through a hectic interplay between the strings come to the fore, with the piano varying its role After writing the classically poised Third String Quartet during 1922-3. instruments, a more hesitant idea is then begun by the accordingly. This ongoing and unflagging energy is (1927) and the scintillating Variations for Orchestra Formally the work is among Schoenberg’s most strings before being taken up by piano and woodwind. only brought to heel by a direct and touching (1928), Schoenberg employed the technique on a large- radical conceptions, its single movement unfolding both After a terse codetta, the Ländler section opens with an recollection of the third variation from the preceding scale in his opera (1932), which was left as a sonata-form and also as several interrelated sections elegant theme that ensures a more equable discourse. movement; a moment of some inwardness that unfinished. Emigrating to the United States in 1933, he that coalesce into a symphonic whole. First, an aspiring The initial energy is only gradually recovered, leading inevitably has to make way for the ebullient coda. wrote the powerful Violin (1936) and the introduction leads to an exposition that also functions as to a full but continually varied reprise and, after a sly Fourth String Quartet (1937), before making ingenious a first movement, its lively main theme interrupted by recall of the Ländler, a decisive coda. use of more tonal elements in the Ode to Napoleon (1941) two more relaxed ideas and an expressive melody that The second movement, Tanzschritte (Dance-steps), Richard Whitehouse and the Piano Concerto (1942). Highlights of his last serves as the ‘second subject’, capped by a resolute years include a String Trio (1946) and A Survivor from codetta. Next an expectant transition into a scherzo, its Warsaw (1947); the latter as much a testament to his lithe energy hardly offset by a nimble ‘trio’ section,

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Photo: José Manuel Cabello Zahir Ensemble www.zahirensemble.com The Zahir Ensemble came into being in Seville in 2005 as a consequence of a meeting of well-known performers established in that city, to whom are added outstanding SCHOENBERG international musicians. Since its beginnings it has sought to bring to the stage not just the major works of the twentieth century (many of them little-performed either Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9 because of their technical difficulties or because of their particular instrumentation) but also various examples from the current avant-garde. The ensemble’s flexibility Suite, Op. 29 enables it to tackle large-scale chamber orchestra scores. Among its activities has been its participation in stage projects such as the Taschenoper Toihaus Festival Zahir Ensemble (Salzburg 2005) at which the Zahir Ensemble gave premières of six contemporary operas from composers including Reinhard Febel and Christian Ofenbauer. The group has also performed at the Eröffnungsfest der Salzburger Juan García Rodríguez Festpiele (Salzburg Festival Inaugural Fiesta) in 2005, Seville City Corporation’s Contemporary Music Cycle (2005 and 2006), the Córdoba City Corporation Contemporary Music Cycle (2006), the Contemporary Music Cycle in the Central Theatre in Seville (2007 and 2008), the Granada Contemporary Music Encounter (2007- 2009), the Artes no Camiño Festival in Lugo (2008), the University of Music “F. Chopin” in Warsaw (2009), and elsewhere. It was selected by the INAEM in 2008 as one of the ensembles to receive subsidies for the promotion of contemporary music in Spain.

Juan García Rodríguez Born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in Cádiz (1974), Juan García Rodríguez graduated in piano from the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Seville, after which he continued his training at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg on a scholarship from the Regional Government of Andalusia. There, with Peter Lang and Karl Wagner, he furthered his piano studies, studying harpsichord with Elisabeth Chojnacka. He also graduated with maximum honours in Composition (Reinhard Febel), Choral Conducting (Karl Kamper) and Orchestral Conducting (Dennis Russell Davies and Jorge Rotter), receiving the degree of Magister Artium. He has worked with the Orchestra of the Mozarteum University, Brucknerorchester-Linz, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, the Paris Opéra Orchestra, the AEO Barenboim-Said Orchestra, the Presjovem Orchestra, the Vienna Tonkünstler Ensemble, the Acrobat Ensemble and others. Conductor and founder of the Zahir Ensemble and Musical Director of the Salzburg Taschenopern Festival, he was appointed Assistant Conductor at the National Opéra in Paris (Bastille) in 2008.

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