Customer Reviews

Music of the Viennese School: Berg, Webern, Schönberg [Hybrid SACD]

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Judging from the amount of orchestral music vs. chamber music broadcast on FM radio, it seems more people prefer the former to the latter.

If that's the case, and one is a novice to the New Viennese School, then this is probably a good starter disc, as it features orchestral versions of earlier New Viennese pieces.

Schönberg's second string Quartet (Op. 10, 1908) begins in the purple and silver key of f#-minor--until movements iii-iv, when it crosses the threshold of tonality unto the "air of other planets" as Stefan George's poetry tropes.
Movement iii in particular is quintessential Schönberg, especially in the breathtaking drawn-out coda. This version for string orchestra dates from c. 1919.

Berg's Seven Early Songs (1908; orchestral versions, 1928) present his post-Romantic lyricism at its best.

Webern's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30 (1940) is, at :08mins, one of his largest mature works: the musical equivalent of an M. C. Escher litho displayed in a room of mirrors.

M.C. Escher: The Graphic Work (Special Edition)
M.C. Escher: His Life and Complete Graphic Work (With a Fully Illustrated Catalogue)
The World of M. C. Escher, New Concise Nal Edition

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