Re: Schoenberg Piano Music

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 6 Jan 1998, gregory barton wrote:

> LesThom263 wrote:
> > 
> > I am going atonal.  
> 
> There is no known remedy for this affliction.

But you can listen to Beethoven's "Grosse Fuge" a coupla times, which at
least has a placebo effect.  (And if you play it backwards and listen
closely, you can hear it say, "Ludwig ist tot!")

> 
> Has anyone heard Gould playing Schoenberg's Piano Music
> > and Fantasy for Violin & Piano (Op47)? I heard Sony has made a new release.
> 
> Is the fantasy that piece in one of those collections of video clips
> where Gould is accompanying Menuhin and, after several minutes of
> introductory conversation, Gould asks Menuhin,
> 
> "Now, Yehudi, laying your cards on the table, you don't actually like
> this piece, do you?"
> 
> Yehudi's reply was most diplomatic.

The thing that interests me most about it is that Schoenberg wrote the
violin part first, piano part later, sort of like realizing a continuo.

I'm especially pleased with his String Trio, which is one of the best
pieces ever composed posthumously.  Schoenberg was medically dead, then
resuscitated, then wrote this piece.

By all means get GG's recording of Schoenberg's solo piano works.  His
commitment, concentration, immediacy, and phrasing make these pieces sound
like the natural consequence of Brahms' career (especially in Op. 11):
warm and personal music, the same way GG played on his disc of Brahms
intermezzi.  Beautiful playing.  GG makes the Suite dance, too. 

Anybody else here a fan of Schoenberg's early D-major quartet?  Sort of a
retro Brahms-Mendelssohn-Dvorak thing. 

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.44N+78.87W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/
...driving rhetoric home with poetic learner's permit