Schoenberg, A.: Chamber Symphony No. 2 / Die Gluckliche Hand / Wind Quintet

Featuring

Robert Craft
Mark Beesley
Carol Wincenc
Stephen Taylor
Charles Neidich
William Purvis

Donald MacCourt
Philharmonia Orchestra
Simon Joly Chorale
New York Woodwind Quintet
Arnold Schoenberg

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Composition History

Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony No. 2 was started in 1906 but only completed in 1939, with the composer noting his style had become "much more profound" in the interim.

Compositional Technique

In Die glückliche Hand, Schoenberg uses a "nine-note 'ostinato chord'" played by timpani, harp, violas, and cellos to accompany the twelve singers.

Critical Reception

Schoenberg's Wind Quintet, Op. 26, was considered so difficult that it took performers of his time about an hour to play, despite the composer's required tempos making it a 38-minute piece.

Performer Biography

Robert Craft, the conductor on this album, was a constant companion, co-conductor, and musical confidant to Igor Stravinsky for over twenty years, providing unique insight into Stravinsky's intentions.

Composer Biography

The plot of Die glückliche Hand is autobiographical, reflecting Schoenberg's personal experience in 1908 when his wife, Mathilde, eloped with a painter.

Historical Context

The premiere of Schoenberg's Die glückliche Hand was delayed for a decade due to World War I, by which time its aesthetics had become alienated from new developments.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Schoenberg intended his opera Die glückliche Hand to be a "play with apparitions of colours and forms," designed by artists like Kandinsky or Kokoschka, with color changes notated in the score.