Schoenberg: 6 A Cappella Choruses / String Quartet No. 2 / Suite in G Major

Featuring

Robert Craft
Jennifer Welch-Babidge
Jennifer Frautschi
Jesse Mills
Richard O'Neill
Fred Sherry

Simon Joly Chorale
Fred Sherry String Quartet
Twentieth Century Classics Ensemble
Arnold Schoenberg
Anonymous (Traditional)

Did you know?

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Critical Reception

Despite being written for young players, Schoenberg's Suite in G for String Orchestra was found extremely difficult by professional musicians, including Otto Klemperer, and remains practically unknown.

Composer Biography

During the composition of his String Quartet No. 2, Arnold Schoenberg's wife Mathilde eloped with the painter Richard Gerstl, who later committed suicide.

Recording & Production

This album is the third volume in the Naxos Robert Craft Schoenberg Collection, featuring music written over a forty-year period of the composer's life.

Composition History

Schoenberg's Six A Cappella Mixed Choruses include three pieces from 1928, which were arrangements of 16th-century German folk songs, and three more composed in the same style in 1948.

Performer Biography

Robert Craft, the conductor on this album, was Igor Stravinsky's constant companion, co-conductor, and musical confidant for over twenty years, contributing to his understanding of Stravinsky's music.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Schoenberg intended his Suite in G for String Orchestra to help students develop modern intonation and contrapuntal technique, believing it would lay the foundation for a new artistic culture.

Compositional Technique

The String Quartet No. 2 includes two vocal movements, Litanei and Entrückung, which feature a soprano singing settings of poems by Stefan George, a German poet.