Monday, March 14, 2016

Arnold Schoenberg - Chamber Symphony no 1. op 9 Schoenberg's arrangement for piano 4-hands


Mendelssohn - Duo (can't find the names of the pianists)

Arnold Schoenberg was such an enthusiast for the kind of chamber music version of his music for larger ensembles that he not only made a number of such arrangements, he either requested his most accomplished students to make some for him or he authorized such transcriptions made by some of them.  Eduard Steuermann did one for solo piano, though I think the 4-hand version is probably more rewarding to play .  Schoenberg also, later, expanded the piece for full orchestra from the original for 15 instruments.

One of his major projects was the Society for Private Music Performances which featured a large number of such performances closed to anyone who was not a member of the society.   There were two such group, one in Vienna,  the members of which were mostly professional musicians, the other and even larger society, in Prague, had members who were mostly amateurs.  The purpose of the Society was to introduce "difficult" and new music to an audience who were interested in learning the music and about it, often more difficult pieces were played more than once.  I seem to recall that applause was not allowed.   It makes interesting reading.   Schoenberg also participated in a number of entirely private chamber music sessions of exactly the kind I wrote about yesterday.

Here is Anton Webern's quintet arrangement of the Chamber Symphony.

Assaff Weisman, Piano
David McCarroll, Violin
Yonah Zur, Violin
Tibi Cziger, Clarinet
Michal Korman, Cello

That piano player has amazing technique.

Many of the major composers of the 20th century carried on the practice of publishing 4-hand versions of their orchestral music, Bartok and Stravinsky among others.  That kind of private performance is, actually, something that really good musicians do all the time, seldom for pay, often for no audience bigger than themselves and whoever they are playing it with. It's considered an essential part of the development of a musician to do it.

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