Bach, Berg, Schoenberg, Webern

Featuring

Hortense Cartier-Bresson
Johann Sebastian Bach
Arnold Schoenberg
Alban Berg
Anton Webern

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Composition History

Alban Berg's Piano Sonata in B minor, Op. 1, was his first major work and his only piece for solo piano, composed at age twenty-three in 1908.

Composer Biography

Arnold Schoenberg, a composer on this album, was an autodidact who learned music by studying the works of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Brahms.

Album & Artwork

The album's program was conceived by Hortense Cartier-Bresson, the performer, who found a spontaneous connection between Bach's Toccatas and the music of the Second Viennese School.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Arnold Schoenberg, a composer featured on this album, believed that no new artistic technique could be created without roots in the past, viewing his music as a natural evolution rather than a revolution.

Interpretation

Anton Webern, a composer featured, conceived his Variations, Op. 27, with a "coolly passionate lyrical expression," despite later interpretations often attributing dryness and intellectualism to his style.

Composer Biography

Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Toccatas are featured, was largely self-taught in composition, learning by copying and transcribing works he admired.

Compositional Technique

Arnold Schoenberg's Three Pieces, Op. 11, composed in 1909, include a hidden musical signature: the note E flat (Es in German) appears only at the end of the first section, referencing the first letter of his surname.