Re: GG: more Schoenberg

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

>
> > Verklarte Nacht: Karajan on DG, along with the Variations for Orchestra,
a
> > very rich recording.
>
> Hollywood String Quartet with two added players, Testament 1031.  Wow.
> They played it for him AT HIS HOUSE, looking for interpretive suggestions,
> and all he said at the end was, "It was good, very good...in fact, I have
> nothing to say."  Then they made the recording and he wrote the liner
> notes for them.  Wow.

Hi Brad.  I've got a recording I made of an over-the-air interview with the
cellist Eleanor Aller and she recounted a funny version of this story.
Apparently the record label, Capital Records, really wanted Schoenberg to
write the liner notes to this recording, but he at first didn't want to and
agreed to listen to a performance in order to okay the interpretation and
give suggestions on how to play it.  Apparently Schoenberg was a real
perfectionist and the players were nervous about having to play in work in
his house no less.  When the got to his home, they said the temperature
outside was in the low hundreds and inside it was even hotter because the
windows were closed, doors shut, and no AC.  They were seated in the house's
performance area and only then did Schoenberg meet them.  Guess what he came
dressed in?  That's right: a muffler, coat, and gloves.  (can we say "role
model?")

they played the piece, and when the were through, drenched in sweat,
Schoenberg said just what Brad said he did, and then he immediately called
for his wife to bring in refreshments, which consisted of doughnuts and
scotch.  "Scotch, at that temperature," Eleanor complained.  "It was
brutal."  But they drank and ate to make him happy.

Schoenberg agreed to do the liner notes and gave them, unasked for, a signed
photo of himself, which Eleanor always had hanging on her wall, and which
actually made her choke up and cry a bit when talking about it.  It said.
"To the Hollywood string quartet for playing my Verklarte Nacht with such
subtle beauty."

I love stories like that.


Jim