The composer Arnold Schönberg revolutionized the course of Western classical music. By dismantling the tonal system of major and minor keys as he self-consciously placed himself in the German tradition, he is also one of the 20th century’s most polarizing figures.
The 150th anniversary of his birth is being celebrated this year with exhibits, concerts and workshops. The official birthday concert is scheduled for Sept. 13 at the Musikverein in Vienna, with the monumental “Gurre-Lieder” (“Songs of Gurre”) performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and conducted by its music director, Petr Popelka. Also in September, the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York will unveil an exhibit to commemorate the anniversary.
And from July 27 to Aug. 24, the Salzburg Festival will present the concert series “Time With Schönberg,” juxtaposing the composer with everyone from his contemporary Maurice Ravel to his disciple Alban Berg.
Schönberg’s theories emerged from a forward-looking intellectual climate in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century that included Sigmund Freud and painters such as Oskar Kokoschka and Gustav Klimt. The composer would write some of his most important works in Berlin, however, which he also established as a home base starting in 1912. After Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933, Schönberg emigrated to Los Angeles, where he spent the last two decades of his life.
In Salzburg, the soprano Anna Prohaska, 42, will sing in the expressionist String Quartet No. 2, a work that she has been performing since 2007 and considers a “cornerstone of her career.” Georg Nigl, 52, a bass-baritone, will take on the song cycle “The Book of the Hanging Gardens,” a score that has been sitting on his shelf for three decades, and will return to the satirical, late-period work “Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte.” The pianist Tamara Stefanovich, 51, will (together with Nenad Lecic) perform the Second Chamber Symphony in a version for two pianos written by the composer after he left Germany.
The following conversations have been edited and condensed. Prohaska and Stefanovich were interviewed by phone from Aix-en-Provence, France, and Berlin; Nigl was interviewed in person in Vienna.
Anna Prohaska
Tell us about your connection to the String Quartet No. 2.
The text is incredible because of the history behind it. Stefan George was madly in love with a young lad named Maximilian Kronberger and wrote swaths of poetry about him.
Schönberg found himself on the other side of an affair when his wife, Mathilde, flew into the arms of the painter Richard Gerstl. The two movements of the quartet [setting George’s poetry] are a culmination of these two dramas.
In what ways did Schönberg carry forth tradition, and in which ways does his music create a radical break?
He tried everything possible within the corset of tonality. This string quartet is an expression of that. Also in “Verklärte Nacht” [“Transfigured Night”] or the “Gurre-Lieder,” there’s nowhere else to go. It’s like a big, luscious garden that is slowly but surely starting to rot. I think he wanted a clean slate.
He was a very ironic man because he was so self-aware. He was seen as a revolutionary, but actually he saw himself as quite conservative.
What is Schönberg’s significance today?
He may have been one of the few composers to somehow formulate or at least touch on the horrors of the Second World War. There is a great deal of soul-searching in his biography, for example in terms of religion and spirituality, the way he rediscovered his Judaism later in life with “Kol Nidre” [“All Vows”] and “Moses and Aaron.”
Georg Nigl
Tell us about your work on “The Book of the Hanging Gardens.”
Even after performing so much contemporary music, it’s not a score that I open and immediately understand. There’s a lot of pleasure to be found, but it does not try to take you by the hand.
The music is complicated, although not difficult. It is free in its tonality. I wouldn’t necessarily call it atonal. That of course is a big discussion.
What is important for me as an interpreter is to ask, how does it speak to me? What does it mean today? And how can I put that into practice?
In what ways did Schönberg carry forth tradition, and in which ways does his music create a radical break?
The history of art always brings forth personalities who suddenly want to change everything that has come before. [The 18th-century writer] Jakob Lenz decides not to write about aristocrats and gods but soldiers, prostitutes and peasants.
I think Schönberg had to be as radical as he was. He puts the lid down on tonality.
It’s always been my wish that the reaction to modern and contemporary music — where the effort needed is usually greater — is not just “wow” but that the listener is touched in some way. Because in the end, music is an art form that is performed for someone.
Tamara Stefanovich
How should we redefine our perspective on Schönberg’s legacy?
There is an incredible aura around his name. And yet he scares presenters. Why isn’t it possible to have the trust of the public to say, I will not confront you with something that I don’t think is a masterpiece? It will be played in a way that engages all my powers to communicate this music to you.
If one were to present a piece by, say, Orlando di Lasso, and then one of Beethoven’s last string quartets, and then an early piece by Schönberg, it won’t be Schönberg that shocks audiences the most.
Did his music create a radical break?
Let’s not forget that Liszt wrote atonal music, and Wagner introduced a level of chromaticism that made it impossible to turn back.
Many things that he represented are also far from being over. Artists at that time had to have utmost courage to exist. And not unlike today, many people migrated. I don’t have such a dramatic story, but I also migrated to Germany because of the Balkan wars.
It is interesting to consider how people find a way to persevere throughout political and geographical upheavals. He proposes one way. And we’re still fighting about him. I think that’s the beauty of someone like Schönberg, that he makes us question and think.
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