NYP 17-02: Original Voices: Webern, Schoenberg, Ives

Transcription

1 Page 1 of NYP 17-02: Original Voices: Webern, Schoenberg, Ives (INSERT UNDERWRITING CREDIT #1): (MUSIC: nyp theme UP AND UNDER ) AB: and THIS week (MUSIC: Pelleas up and under): AB:...we explore the Romantic side of three 20 th century masters: Webern, Schoenberg, and Ives. Our broadcast will open with Webern s Straussian Im Sommerwind or In the Summer Breeze. That will be followed by Schoenberg s lush tone portrait of the doomed lovers Pelleas and Melisande. After a first half dominated by the Second Viennese School, we ll then return to local shores with a performance of a work premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1951: The Symphony No. 2 by insurance-exec-byday/composer-by-night, Charles Ives. I m Alec Baldwin I hope you ll enjoy this music with me as Alan Gilbert conducts The New York Philharmonic This Week. ACTUALITY 01: Gilbert 01) AB: Alan Gilbert with a few words about the first work on our program: Im Sommerwind by Anton Webern. 23

2 Page 2 of AB: Composed in 1904 and subtitled, Idyll for Large Orchestra, Im Sommerwind is based on the North German writer Bruno Wille s ode to Nature of the same name. The work was the fruit of the 21-year-old Anton Webern s summer holiday at his family s bucolic estate in Lower Carinthia. Webern was still very much under the influence of composers like Strauss, Mahler and Wagner when he wrote this piece. While it bares almost no resemblance to the body of work that would emerge following the composer s tutelage under Arnold Schoenberg, this gorgeous and evocative piece might be viewed as a letter of intent, from a promising young artist. Alan Gilbert tells us more: (ACTUALITY TBA) Im Sommerwind was never performed during Webern s lifetime. It received its premiere in 1962, some seventeen years after the composer s death. Here again is Alan Gilbert. (ACTUALITY TBA) (APPLAUSE UP AND UNDER) 46

3 Page 3 of AB: and now we hear Anton Webern s Idyll for Large Orchestra, Im Sommerwind. Alan Gilbert conducts The New York Philharmonic. (MUSIC: IM SOMMERWIND) (APPLAUSE UP AND UNDER TO X) AB: Im Sommerwind In the Summer Breeze. Idyll for Large Orchestra by a young Anton Webern. The New York Philharmonic was led by Alan Gilbert. (SLIGHT PAUSE) AB: Maurice Maeterlinck s haunting 1892 drama, Pelléas and Mélisande, has lived longer in the musical creations it inspired than in its original form. Jean Sibelius and Gabriel Fauré composed incidental for it, Debussy based his opera on the subject, and the story also inspired a lovely symphonic poem by Arnold Schoenberg, which happens to be the next music on our program. Composed during his ultra-romantic, pre-12-tone phase, Schoenberg s Pelleas and Melisande envelops the listener in the same voluptuous aura of sound we encounter in his Gurrelieder and Transfigured Night. Though composed in one movement, the musical progression suggests a 4-part conception that is not unlike the movements of a symphony. These generally follow the play s plot:

4 Page 4 of In Part 1, Golaud finds Melisande, a waif-like girl, lost in the forest. They marry. Part 2: Melisande loses her wedding ring down a well. In a scene reminiscent of Rapunzel in which Melisande lets her golden hair flow from a tower, the jealous Golaud sees his half-brother Pelleas caressing the girl s cascading tresses. Part 3: Golaud, after catching the lovers in a rapturous love scene, kills Pelleas and wounds Melisande with his sword. Part 4: Melisande has borne a daughter, and as she lies dying, she assures Golaud of her and Pelleas s innocent love. Golaud remains the sad survivor of this tragedy. Though Schoenberg had also considered composing an opera on the Pelleas/Melisande theme (he apparently wasn t aware that Debussy had already written one), he never followed through and later said, This symphonic poem helped me, in that it taught me to express moods and characters in precisely formulated units, a technique which an opera would perhaps not have promoted so well. Thus my fate evidently guided me with great foresight....and now we hear Pelleas and Melisande by Arnold Schoenberg. Alan Gilbert conducts The New York Philharmonic. (MUSIC)

5 Page 5 of AB: We just heard Arnold Schoenberg s shadowy interpretation of the doomed lovers, Pelleas and Melisande. The New York Philharmonic was conducted by Alan Gilbert. That performance and all of the music on this week s broadcast is available commercially, as part of the New York Philharmonic s digital download series. You can learn more under the Watch & Listen tab when you visit nyphil.org. There, you ll also find archived broadcasts, interviews, and links to other related content. The address, once again, is nyphil.org (SLIGHT PAUSE) AB: Coming up in just a moment: the Symphony No. 2 by one of America s most original voices, Charles Ives. I m Alec Baldwin and you re listening to The New York Philharmonic This Week. (ID) AB: (ACTUALITY 06: Gilbert 03) AB: Conductor Alan Gilbert

6 Page 6 of Charles Ives is something of an anomaly amongst his fellow composers. First: he had little formal training and composing was something Ives really only did in his free time. For his actual living, he was a very successful insurance executive. This, combined with the composer s somewhat eclectic musical voice, led the traditional music establishment to look askance at his output. As such, the 2nd symphony, which we re about to hear, wasn t premiered until 50 years after its completion, when it was championed by Leonard Bernstein. Once again, Alan Gilbert: (ACTUALITY 07: Gilbert 04) AB: Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic in the premiere of the Ives Second Symphony in The piece is in five movements and you re sure to recognize snippets of several popular patriotic songs, marches, and hymns throughout the work. (APPLAUSE) AB: So let s now hear the Symphony No. 2 by Charles Ives. Alan Gilbert conducts The New York Philharmonic. (MUSIC: Ives 2) (APPLAUSE)

7 Page 7 of AB: Symphony No. 2 by Charles Ives. The New York Philharmonic was led by Alan Gilbert. The performance was recorded live in September, 2009, during Alan Gilbert s first season as the orchestra s Music Director. And if you enjoyed it, you ll be happy to know that it is available commercially, along with the rest of the music on this week s show, via the Philharmonic s digital download series. More information is available at nyphil.org. We also hope that you will consider joining our more than 17-thousand followers on SoundCloud, where you can find on-demand streams of several of our broadcasts plus special playlists and complete interviews. PROMO for this program: AB: Next time, on the New York Philharmonic This Week: We hear works by three 20 th -century masters: Ives, Schoenberg, and Webern. This is Alec Baldwin, hoping that you ll join me for this program and no- -it s not going to be a festival of atonal music. Instead, we ll be showcasing the Romantic side of these men with works like Im Sommerwind and Pelleas and Melisande. Alan Gilbert will conduct The New York Philharmonic This Week.