Label news: DG to record complete orchestral Schoenberg
OrchestrasWe hear that DG have agreed to record all orchestra works and concertos by Arnold Schoenberg with the Danish National Orchestra, conducted by Fabio Luisi.
First up: Verklärte Nacht.
Fabio says: Arnold Schoenberg is one of the most profoundly original artists in the history of music. His music is both historically crucial, deeply personal and yet universal. Throughout his life, Schoenberg was on a continuous journey, both literally, personally and figuratively. In an artistic and intellectual sense, he moved from Brahmsian and Wagnerian ideals towards recognizing the limits of tonality, inspired by the artistic movements of his time (as well as the earliest film music). Only by seeing him as an artist and a human in constant motion can we understand his unique development, including his late return to the world of tonality, which I believe was never interrupted after all. I am incredibly pleased to embark on Schoenberg 150 with Deutsche Grammophon and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. This important recording cycle has been a dream for many years, unveiling the beauty and the importance of Schoenberg’s music to a greater audience.
Why?
Someone’s going to get fired once Universal’s executives sees the DG sales figures when all is said and done.
Considering that the majors nowadays are often content to simply license recordings that had already been made anyway by national radio orchestras (like the Danish NSO), this might not be an ambitious and financially risky undertaking like in DG’s glory days.
Why complain?
Sales figures likely have nothing to do with this decision to record orchestral Schoenberg.
It is a major anniversary for a significant figure in the history of music — no more and no less.
And the results may turn out to be more consistently compelling than the Carl Nielsen symphony and concerto cycle undertaken by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi.
I find Luisi’s Nielsen to be utterly compelling. Then again, I feel the same about Blomstedt’s cycle.
I find Fabio Luisi’s Carl Nielsen symphony cycle with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra to be a bit underwhelming.
The versions of the violin, flute, and clarinet concertos are more compelling interpretations.
To each their own! 🙂
i hope they make
some profit.
Well, don’t bet the Kibbutz, bubbie!
This should be a wonderful project. Do we know if it will include Gurrelieder? (not strictly orchestral…)
A very prominent critic on the other side of the pond reported that the recent Nielsen cycle was entirely financed by Danish Radio and distributed by DG. These days a number of artists are financing their own vanity projects and hoping that having a major label distributing their efforts will give a boost to their careers.
I don’t think Luisi or the Danish National Symphony Orchestra need a boost to their careers…..
Of course it was Luisi’s personal interest and dedication that fired-off that project. His performances of Nielsen that can he heard on youtube are stunning.
Years ago when DGG dropped Yundi Li as a condition of its getting Lang Lang into its roster, Yundi was eventually out in the cold. He started making and financing his own recordings in China and did a licensing deal for EMI to release them.
Schoenberg’s music is a tough nut to crack for the average music loving bear. Had he capitalized on the meaning of his surname and applied it to his music it would have been more aesthetically pleasing and financially lucrative.
With Schönberg, it was never about aesthetically pleasing or financially lucrative. Hence his enduring money problems all through his career. He was concerned about the art form and its spiritual meaning.
There has been published a great book on Schönberg by Harvey Sachs, in which the reader can both find understanding of this difficult man and a clear picture of his thinking.
https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631497575
TY for the HS recommendation.
This is a good point. I doubt very much that DG is paying for this project. Most likely the orchestra (or someone else) is covering the cost of the recording, and DG is simply distributing it.
I can hardly wait for Luisi’s recording of the Op. 31 Variations; I hope he can approach the insanely fast tempo Schoenberg specifies for variation VIII (sehr rasch, indeed!).
Here you are:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xE6FY2GaaU
Thanks! Almost as fast as Robert Craft’s first go at it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78eoyBosNzs
We’ll hear how Luisi does it.
I must say, I never found the Variations very satifying or even effective. It is brilliantly scored but the overall effect is stultified, and sounds like emotional lava that can’t go anywhere and solidifies when bumping into the 12-tone fence.
Great to read this but sad to say that most orchestras – at least American orchestras – shy away from programming the Five Pieces for Orchestra, an amazing piece IMHO.
Recording projects like this — just recording the entire output of a single conductor — are so uninspired and do not reflect how we listen to music in the concert hall.
I always thought it was clever that Gielen’s Mahler cycle, for example, included works by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Ives, Kurtag, Boulez, among others.
It’s the orchestral output of a composer, not a conductor.
That was a typo, but I think people got my point.
Don’t worry, I’m being corrected all the time here
Sally
Fantastic news. This is exactly the type of music that requires new recordings, unlike another Beethoven or Dvorak cycle. Not surprised the driving force is Luisi who already showed his creative spirit in the lovely Nielsen cycle. Well done and some other “bigger” name conductors could learn a thing or two from Luisi.
Reports of the death of the classical recording industry have been circulating for at least 20 years. Are we still supposed to believe them? This project offers powerful evidence against them.
It doesn’t offer any evidence. The project is likely financed by the Orchestra or Danish radio and based on live recordings. It’s also probably download/streaming only (as the first release, Verklärte Nacht, is certainly too short for a CD)
I heard from Copenhagen that it will be recorded as a studio recording, like Nielsen’s symphonies and the concertos. Some of pieces are going to be played in concert as well and recorded live for TV and video streaming
Well, Fabio is a contributor to this website. Perhaps he may comment on this point?
Like we did with Nielsen and Skrjabin, everything will be studio recorded. We will also program some of the pieces for concerts but not use the broadcasts for the recording project.
Given that DG is at least somewhat a boutique label these days, this project is undoubtedly being underwritten by a second or third party – most likely the Danish government through taxes. Let’s see how ‘complete’ DG wants to make it, once they roll around to “Jacob’s Ladder” (Die Jakobsleiter). Michael Gielen and Kent Nagano have already made fine recordings of that ‘lovely’ work. What a BIG SURPRISE that they’re starting with “Transfigueed Night”. But seriously, I wish F. Luisi and the DNSO all the best.
Why not? Die Verklärte Nacht has a sort of crossover appeal: it is well liked not only by the serial music audience, but also by many people who want nothing to do with serialism. (I guess both Mr Borstlap and Sally will approve.)
It’s a meandering, melodramatic cheesy piece and I don’t want to have anything to do with it!
Sally
Fortunately the estimable John Borstlap, if it is indeed himself, has his dubious PA Sally say what he really means. Or are we reading Bolstrap or Chat AI generated responses??
BTW, A question for Norman. What filtering precautions have been established on SD to prevent hallucinations??
Promising news. Verklärte Nacht is a personal favourite. His influence in the Second Viennese School alone is a major factor, as a mentor to Berg and Webern.
There never was a ‘Second Viennese School’, as there never was a first one. It is an academic scam to compensate for the rejection by concert life. Don’t believe such nonsense.
For the innocent people who took the trouble to put a downthumb here, some useful information:
The wish to give the music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern some status when concert practice did not want to give it any respect, led to the flight into academia, where Schoenberg’s intellectual explorations could be judged entirely separate from the test in the concert hall. In short: within an academic context the ideas could be explored unhindered by bad performances, loud audience protests, etc. etc. (Schoenberg: ‘My music is not modern, it is merely badly played’.)
So, by labelling the three composers as a ‘school’, which is an academic accolade, they could be placed on the same level of relevance as the ‘first Viennese school’ – supposedly, the three composers Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (none of whom was in fact Viennese). The incredible arrogance combined with wishful thinking, bypassing the judgment of history, is breathtaking. In short: it is a defence reaction and utter nonsense.
Schoenberg intended to save the German/Viennese classical tradition (as represented, in his eyes, by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven) in the context of modernity, and thought that that tradition could be ‘used’ in a technical sense, forgetting there is also something like the ‘spirit’ and ‘character’ of the music.
I hope & expect that DG will assign the tonmeister duties to Sean Murphy for this project.
Not needed. A vanity project for those with money to literally burn.
Finally! I have been waiting for a complete Schoenberg set. Excited for this to be released.
The comment section in Slipped Disc… I use it in communication seminars as an example for a community of toxic grumpy compulsory negative people. One can‘t create positive affection in them either way.
Major label undertakes a laudable effort to record a complete edition of an important composer’s orchestral works who doesn‘t appeal to the unwashed masses:
„losers, will never make profit on it, must be handed to them by external sponsors!“
Major label signs mediocre artist but whith profitable appeal to the masses, recording mainstream warhorses:
„Losers, betraying the ethics of high art!“
What losers themselves.
You must have missed my own, highly educational, constructive, insightful, enlightened, witty, modest comments by a very serious professional and expert in musical philosophy and aesthetics.
It is called ‘confirmation bias’ by therapists:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
Well said. I find reading the snide SD comments sections depressing and negative. I foolishly return from time to time hoping for some improvement but it never changes.
Solution is simple: look better.
In the US, selling 200 cds produces a #1 charting record.
It may take time. Already Beethoven complained about the low sales of the CD’s of his 5th symphony. And today, every miserable career of a contemporary composer is paved by them.
A unique project and in the best of hands. Who would doubt it?
Is this the only work on the CD? Has it been stretched out to 80 minutes? That could only mean that Bernstein or Celibid-ache was at the helm. Or is this just appalling value for a CD? Or maybe it’s download only?
This isn’t a CD. It’s an advert for a download of a single piece. The CD will be available in the future, with additional works included.
Whatever one thinks of Schoenberg’s listenability, these are hugely consequential and high-quality works. A complete survey of them makes sense. I admit I prefer the likes of Gurrelieder and Verklarte Nacht, but I’ll listen to the rest, which will undoubtedly be well played by the magnificent DNSO and Luisi.
Agreed.
And there are episodes in Gurrelieder that are unique and superb, like the prelude, and the Lied er Waldtaube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imhEEGmHHxc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ40E1Qanpg
But best is the first Chamber Symphony, a bit dense, but as Beethovenian as possible, the work can stand next to the Eroica without blushing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPQU05tfzqQ
Surely DG has already recorded Schoenberg’s complete orchestral output, many times over. Didn’t Boulez cover the lot for DG and for Columbia/CBS?