Schoenberg: Kol Nidre - Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti
9/30/2016, 12 Tracks, 56:49
Featuring
Riccardo Muti
Alberto Mizrahi
Ildar Abdrazakov
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Arnold Schoenberg
Dmitri Shostakovich
Did you know?
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Composition History
Schoenberg's Kol Nidre was commissioned in the summer of 1938 by Rabbi Jakob Sonderling of Fairfax Temple, amidst Schoenberg's growing alarm over reports from Europe.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich's final compositions, including this suite, were permeated with thoughts of death after he was diagnosed with a serious heart condition in 1966 and cancer in 1973.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Schoenberg aimed to remove the 'cello sentimentality' of Max Bruch's popular 1881 Kol Nidre, distancing his work from late-nineteenth-century romanticism.
Composer Biography
Arnold Schoenberg, born Jewish, converted to Christianity in his twenties, but returned to Judaism in 1933 when he emigrated from Nazi-ruled Germany.
Composition History
Shostakovich's Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, originally for bass and piano, was orchestrated at the request of composer Aram Khachaturian, becoming a symphonic work.
Compositional Technique
Schoenberg altered the traditional Kol Nidre text and dissected its melody, concluding it was a 'number of melismas' rather than a single tune.
Recording & Production
This album features live recordings from Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, with the Schoenberg piece recorded in March 2012 and the Shostakovich in June 2012.
