Schoenberg in Vienna and New York

Synopsis

On today's date in 1908, a chamber concert in Vienna provoked a near riot as the Rosé Quartet premiered the Second String Quartet of Austrian composer, Arnold Schoenberg.

A reporter from the Viennese Daily wrote: "It was like a bunch of singing cats"—and a reporter from Prague newspaper wrote: "Some discords made elegantly dressed ladies cringe under the painful impact on their delicate ears, and elderly gentlemen were at the point of tears from fury. In the middle of all this tumult stood the figure of the composer, who gestured towards the performers in an expression of gratitude and encouragement."

Even today, no major figure of 20th century music remains quite so controversial and seemingly contradictory as Arnold Schoenberg, who developed a new, atonal system of composition which gave equal importance to all 12 tones of the Western musical scale—yet was also heard to say that "there was still so much good music to be written in C Major."

And Schoenberg, the implacable musical revolutionary, insisted his students first study the German classics, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms—and he himself prepared opulent modern orchestral versions of three organ pieces by Bach. Two of these Schoenberg arrangements of organ preludes by Bach, "Adorn thyself, O my Soul" and "Come God, Creator, Holy Ghost" were premiered in New York in December of 1922, by Joseph Stransky and the New York Philharmonic.

Music Played in Today's Program

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10 Borealis Ensemble Victoria 19088

J.S.Bach (arr Schoenberg) Chorale Prelude Adorn thyself, O my Soul Houston Symphony; Christoph Eschenbach, cond. RCA 68658

On This Day

Births

• 1837 - Russian composer Mily Balakirev (Gregorian date: Jan. 2);

• 1850 - Bohemian composer Zdenek Fibich, in Vseborice;

• 1940 - American composer and guitarist Frank Zappa, in Baltimore, Maryland;

Deaths

• 1864 - American composer and journalist William Henry Fry, age 51, in Santa Cruz, West Indies;

• 1890 - Danish composer Niels W. Gade, in Copenhagen, age 73;

• 1957 - British light-music composer Eric Coates, age 71, in Chichester;

Premieres

• 1890 - Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (final version), in Vienna, Hans Richter conducting;

• 1900 - Frederick Converse: “The Festival of Pan” for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Wilhelm Gericke conducting;

• 1903 - Glazunov: Symphony No. 7, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Jan. 3);

• 1908 - Schoenberg: Quartet No. 2 for strings and soprano, in Vienna, by the Rosé Quartet with soprano Marie Gutheil-Schoder;

• 1934 - Prokofiev: "Lieutenant Kijé" Suite (from the film), on a Moscow radio broadcast;

• 1934 - Toch: “Big Ben (Variation Fantasy on the Westminster Chimes)” for orchestra, by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting;

• 1939 - Prokofiev: cantata "Zdravitza" (A Toast), in Moscow, to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin;