Schoenberg arrives for Trick or Treat?

Synopsis

Happy Halloween!

Friends—and enemies—of “new music” will perhaps find it amusing that it was on today’s date that Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg arrived in America, when the liner “Ile de France” docked in New York in 1933.

Schoenberg arrived in the company of his wife, their 17-month-old daughter Nuria, and a little terrier named “Witz”—which in German, means “Joke.” For the benefit of the American press, Schoenberg explained this was because the dog was “so very comic.”

For the benefit of its readers, a 1933 issue of Musical America magazine described Schoenberg as: “the despair of conservatives, the hope of radicals” and “the arch-priest of atonality.” The Nazis had fired Schoenberg from his teaching post at the Prussian Academy of Arts, and he’d come to American to teach at a school in Boston.

In 1934, Schoenberg moved to Los Angeles, where he taught Californian junior college students, played tennis with George Gershwin, and continued to compose music which Time magazine described as “so complicated that only he and a couple of other fellows understand what it’s about.”

Despite his reputation as a radical, Schoenberg saw himself as a conservative, whose harmonic innovations would help maintain the traditional dominance of German music; and, despite his fame as the inventor of a strict 12-tone “method,” Schoenberg wrote: “As a composer, I must believe in inspiration rather than mechanics.”

Even so, 50-plus years after his death in 1951, just seeing the name “Schoenberg” on a concert program is still enough to give some concertgoers a good scare!

Music Played in Today's Program

Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951) Violin Concerto, Op 36 Zvi Zeitlin, violin; Bavarian Radio Symphony; Rafael Kubelik, cond. DG 431 740

On This Day

Births

• 1833 - Russian composer Alexander Borodin, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Nov. 12);

• 1806 - American composer Louise Talma, in Arcachon, France;

• 1949 - Cuban-American composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez, in Matanzas, Cuba;

Deaths

• 1870 - Hungarian composer Mihály Mosonyi (Michael Brand), age 55, in Pest;

Premieres

• 1724 - Handel: opera "Tamerlano" in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Nov. 11); This was the London debut of the Italian tenor Francesco Borosini in a work by Handel;

• 1865 - Brahms: "Theme and Variations" in d (after slow movement of Brahms' String Sextet No. 1), in Frankfurt am Main;

• 1866 - Offenbach: operetta, "La Vie Parisienne," in Paris, at the Palais-Royal;

• 1875 - Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 4 in c, Op. 44, in Paris at a concert conducted by Edouard Colonne, with the composer as soloist;

• 1891 - Mascagni: opera "L'amico Fritz," at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome;

• 1924 - Hindemith: "Kammermusik" No. 2, Op. 36, no. 1, in Frankfurt, with Clemens Kraus conducting and Emma Lübbecke-Job the piano soloist;

• 1932 - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 5, by the Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting, with the composer as soloist;

• 1947 - Chávez: "Toccata" for percussion, in Mexico City;

• 1949 - Mark Blitzstein: opera "Regina," in New York City;

• 1955 - Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 ("Mysterious Mountain"), by the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1966 - Stravinsky: "The Owl and the Pussycat" (dedicated to Vera Stravinsky), in Los Angeles; This was Stravinsky's last composition;

• 1970 - Crumb: "Ancient Voices of Children," in Washington, D.C.;

• 1985 - Rorem: "String Symphony," by the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Shaw conducting.

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in b, Op. 6, no. 12 (see Julian date: Oct. 20);

• 1933 - Arnold Schoenberg, accompanied by his wife, baby daughter, and family pet terrier "Witz," arrives in New York on the liner Isle de France.