NEWS AND IMUSIKNFORMATION FROM UNIVERSAL EDITIOBLATTERN 4 Umberto Eco on LuCIANO BERIO MORTON “American Sublime” FELDMAN ARNOLD 100th anniversary of the “scandal concert” SCHÖnbERG JAY “Metamorphosis of sound” SCHWARTZ Kim Kowalke on KURT WEILL JANUARY SUNDAY 14; 18:00 Sunday 28; 18:00 • OMAGGIO A BERIO IV OMAGGIO A BERIO VII FRIDAY 18; 21:30 ANDREA LUCCHESINI piano REMIX ENSEMBLE CASA DA MÚSICA OMAGGIO A BERIO I Programme: Jonathan Stockhammer conductor ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO PORTO CASA DA MÚSICA Luciano Berio: 2 Encores: Brin, Leaf Programme: Christoph König conductor Luciano Berio: 2 Encores: Erdenklavier, Luciano Berio: Tempi Concertati Programme: Wasserklavier Luciano Berio: 4 Dédicaces Luciano Berio: 1 Encore: Luftklavier Luciano Berio: 1 Encore: Feuerklavier SATURDAY 19; 18:00 JUNE OMAGGIO A BERIO II FRIDAY 26; 21:00 • REMIX ENSEMBLE CASA DA MÚSICA OMAGGIO A BERIO V TUESDAY 11; 21:00 Peter Rundel conductor 1st part OMAGGIO A BERIO VIII Lise Milne voice REMIX ENSEMBLE CASA DA MÚSICA REMIX ENSEMBLE CASA DA MÚSICA Programme: Jonathan Stockhammer conductor Emilio Pomàrico conductor Luciano Berio: Recital for Cathy Jonathan Ayerst piano Stephanie Wagner flute Programme: Programme: Luciano Berio: Points on the curve to find… Luciano Berio: Serenata for flute 2nd part and 14 instruments ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO PORTO CASA DA MÚSICA APRIL THEATRE OF VOICES • Lothar Zagrosek conductor SATURDAY 13; 18:00 Programme: OMAGGIO A BERIO III Luciano Berio: Sinfonia OCTOBER ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO PORTO CASA DA MÚSICA • Olari Elts conductor SATURDAY 19; 18:00 Programme: SATURDAY 27; 18:00 OMAGGIO A BERIO IX Luciano Berio/Franz Schubert: Rendering OMAGGIO A BERIO VI ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA DO PORTO CASA DA MÚSICA CORO CASA DA MÚSICA Jonathan Stockhammer conductor Paul Hillier conductor Aldo Salvetti oboe Programme: Programme: Luciano Berio: E si fussi pisci, Luciano Berio: Chemins IV Cries of London MECENAS ORQUESTRA SINFÓNICA MECENAS CASA DA MÚSICA APOIO INSTITUCIONAL MECENAS PRINCIPAL CASA DA MÚSICA DO PORTO CASA DA MÚSICA November 2012 Musikblätter 4 Dear music lovers, 27 May 2013 marks the 10th anniversary of Luciano Berio’s death. His friend Umberto Eco remembers him: “I would have liked to reminisce about many episodes in those days that now seem heroic, when in 1956 Schönberg was jeered at La Scala and when in 1963, at the Piccola Scala, certain gentlemen in dinner jackets, outraged by Passaggio by Berio and Sanguineti, stood up indignantly shouting ‘centre-left!’ Instead I will speak in particular about Berio during his years at the RAI’s Musical Phonology Studio.” According to Eco, Berio was interested in “the poetics of an open work of art extending beyond the historically somewhat provisional framework of artwork in motion” – that also contributed to his ranking. 31 March 2013: the 100th anniversary of the so-called “scandal concert” conducted by Arnold Schönberg and which, for many reasons, amounted to a caesura in European concert life. It was not merely a question of how an audience treated the performers – it was about partisanship at a crossroads of musical history. In an interview for this issue, Nuria Schoenberg Nono bemoans 1 the fact that aesthetic confrontations have become “vapid” today; she is also keeping in mind that her father is a match for the contextual dimension of the confrontations. Only the polemic underhandedness was dispensable; the latent anti-Semitism, openly articulated at a later date, was scandalous. Musicologist Christoph Becher examines the “scandal concert” from the perspective of historical context. Alex Ross is the music critic for the New Yorker and the author of the highly regarded book The Rest Is Noise; he takes a look at Morton Feldman in an extensive article. Ross quotes Feldman: “What are our morals in music? Our moral in music is 19th-century German music, isn’t it? I do think about that, and I do think about the fact that I want to be the fi rst great composer who is Jewish.” We also present another composer, Jay Schwartz, whose roots are likewise in the USA. As he says in the interview, “I believe that the listener is rewarded for enduring the metamorphosis of sound and thematic material he has helped to consummate.” In the second part of the large-scale Mahagonny interview, Kim Kowalke, president of the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, refers to the question of different versions: “There is no defi nitive version of Mahagonny and there will probably never be two productions which will be identical in terms of the musical text. Choices must be made too often; there are too many options.” The Musikblätter no longer contain a full concert calendar. You can fi nd a complete up-to-date list of all performances at www.universaledition.com/performances. We hope you will enjoy this issue. Your UE Promotion Team [email protected] Contents Luciano Berio 4 Morton Feldman 16 Arnold Schönberg 24 1 Editorial FOCUS LuCIANO BERIO 4 “Those Studio Days” by Umberto Eco 2 MORTON FELDMAN 16 “American Sublime” by Alex Ross FOCUS ARNOLD SCHÖnbERG 26 Interview with Nuria Schoenberg Nono “He knew who he was.” by Wolfgang Schaufler 30 “When the audience turned its back on new music” by Christoph Becher November 2012 Musikblätter 4 © AleXander Schlee; Barbara MOnk-Feldman; DE Parua/ArnOld SchÖnberG Center, Wien; UniVersal EditiON/Eric Marinitsch; COurtesY OF Kurt Weill FOundatiON FOR Music, New YOrk Contributions: Eric Marinitsch, Jonathan Irons, Pia Toifl, Bettina Tiefenbrunner, Eva Maria Barwart, Johannes Feigl, Sarah LailaStandke, Bálint András Varga, Kerstin Schwager and Norman Ryan ∙Corporate Publishing: Egger &Lerch, Vienna, www.egger-lerch.at ∙ Universal Edition Vienna, ∙Austria: A-1010 Boesendorferstrasse +43-1-337 23-0, Tel 12, Fax +43-1-337 23-400 Tel +1-212-461-6940, Fax +1-212-870-4565 ∙www.universaledition.com Fax +1-212-870-4565 +1-212-461-6940, Tel ∙[email protected] USA: European American Music Distributors LLC, 254 West Street, 31st Floor, New 15th Chief Editor: Wolfgang SchauflerCoordination ∙ (service pages, advertising, photos): Angelika Dworak ∙ UK: 48 Great Marlborough Street, London 7BB, +44-20-7292-9168, W1F Tel Fax +44-20-7292-9165 Jay SchwartzJay A discussion questions of performance of practice IMPRESSUM »Musikblätter 4« (November 2012–May 2013) 34 Interview: “Metamorphosis sound” of Printing: REMAprint, Vienna ∙DVR: 1160 0836702 34 36 Interview with Kim Kowalke 64 Birthdays and Anniversaries 58 New D CDs, “ O by Eric Marinitsch Eric by 62 New62 Releases JAY by Normanby Ryan ff to Mahagonny” 42 UE42 Update K LISTI U S RT RT CHWARTZ W N V Ds and Books Kurt Weill GS EILL 36 Y ork, N Y 10001-2813 3 Focus Luciano Berio “ Certainly all through my life, I’ve accumulated a lot of different experiences, and I’ve always wanted to get a working knowledge of 4 all the materials of music, past and present. Maybe this desire to try and possess everything is a little Faustian, and I don’t yet know if and how I shall have to pay for it, or who else is already paying for me.” Luciano Berio in an interview with Umberto Eco (1985) © ALEXander Schlee BER LUCIANO IO Focus Luciano Berio UMBERTO ECO Those Studio Days Dear friends, being neither a musician nor a musicolo- When, on the evening of Thursday 26 February 1959, gist, at a conference in which the titles of the papers Cage had won two and a half million lire (and not five, as alone make me aware of my abysmal lack of knowledge, all the internet sites report, since he had decided not to let me talk about Luciano Berio not as a musician or a double), we met up to celebrate with glasses of cham- musicologist but rather as a friend, having the privilege of pagne in a bar on the corner of Via Massena [in Milan], being the last survivor of that evening at a bar called “di the only one close to the RAI television studios still open, 6 Ballesecche”. a bar nicknamed “di Ballesecche”1 by Berio and Maderna It was the beginning of 1959, and John Cage had because they had some dislike or other for the owner. been taken off to appear on [the game show] Lascia o There we were, in the billiard room, as squalid as any Raddoppia (Double or Quit) to help pay for his stay in billiard room on Corso Sempione could be after midnight Italy. Seeing that Roberto Leydi knew that he was an (and without even Paul Newman to play the braggart), expert on wild mushrooms, and there to celebrate, with John that Cage had done his perfor- Cage, Berio, Maderna, Cathy, Ma- mances with coffee machines and rino Zuccheri, Roberto Leydi and food mixers on the stage of the However, with Berio Peggy Guggenheim (sic) wearing a Teatro alla Fiera, [the presenter] pair of gold shoes (sic). They are all Mike Buongiorno, flabbergasted, and musicians of his gone, I am the last survivor of that asked him whether this was Futur- generation we find marvellous event. So please look ism – at the time we had laughed upon me with respect and forgive about it, though the question was a new situation: the me if I reminisce about personal unintentionally philological, since musician was aware memories and follies. no one could deny that Russolo’s intonarumori (noise intoners) had theoretically of what I would very much like to have had a certain influence. he was doing. talked about Berio, a companion John Cage had recently com- in so many adventures, together pleted his aleatory composition with Bruno Maderna, but I fear Fontana Mix, actually written for I would offend decency – even Cathy Berberian, but with a title dedicated to Signora if Talia would have had nothing to be upset about since Fontana, his landlady, of mature years but with a certain these were adventures that happened before Luciano met charm, who, fascinated by her tenant (John Cage wouldn’t her and, I believe, before she was even born.