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Fin de Siècle- Lieder of the beginning 20th c

Anke Vondung / Christoph Berner

Fin de Siècle- Lieder of the beginning 20th c

Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533138
Catnr: AVI 8553313
Release date: 21 November 2014
1 CD
 
Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533138
Catalogue number
AVI 8553313
Release date
21 November 2014
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

This is the first solo album of the Mezzo Soprano Anke Vondung, who is travelling the world and the most prominent Opera Houses and Concert Halls.

Two years ago, inspired by their shared love of Viennese music and visual arts at the turn of the 20th century, Anke and Christoph put together a vocal recital programme featuring lieder by Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler.

This recording is based on that programme with the addition of the strikingly expressive early songs of Franz Schreker.

As the investigated the repertoire more closely, they were fascinated to discover the degree of musical and biographical connections the composers shared – the many ways these five composers inspired and had a reciprocal influence on one another. The music of
Gustav Mahler was the focal point around which all subsequent “Viennese” compositions were centered; therefore they chose to place Mahler’s songs at the end of their selection.

The performers on this disc say: "Over a century ago – in Vienna in 1913 – Schoenberg conducted a concert featuring Mahler’s Songs on the Death of Children and Zemlinsky’s Four Orchestral Songs on poems by Maeterlinck, an evening that went down in history as the Skandalkonzert. Over a century later, we are glad to note that this music is now acknowledged as an integral part of the great European musical legacy."

Composer(s)

Alban Berg

Alban Berg was an Austrian composer. Berg studied from 1904 to 1910 under Arnold Schoenberg and together with his teacher and fellow student Anton Webern he is part of the Second Viennese School. Berg married with Helene Nahowski (1885-1976), a singer who was a daughter from Anna Nahowski and, allegedly, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. At first, Berg applied a free atonality, but later he started developing strict twelve tone techniques and combined these to a style which, despite its expressionistic character, reminds of the Late Romantic music of Gustav Mahler. 
more

Alban Berg was an Austrian composer. Berg studied from 1904 to 1910 under Arnold Schoenberg and together with his teacher and fellow student Anton Webern he is part of the Second Viennese School. Berg married with Helene Nahowski (1885-1976), a singer who was a daughter from Anna Nahowski and, allegedly, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.

At first, Berg applied a free atonality, but later he started developing strict twelve tone techniques and combined these to a style which, despite its expressionistic character, reminds of the Late Romantic music of Gustav Mahler.


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Gustav Mahler

During his own time, Gustav Mahler was considered as one of the major conductors of Europe, but nowadays he is considered to a major composer who bridged the Late Romantic period to the modern age.  Few composers are so connected with the symphonic repertory as Gustav Mahler. Composing symphonies was his 'core business': in every aspect he developed the symphony towards, and sometimes even over, its absolute limits. Almost all of Mahler's symphonies are lenghty, demand a large orchestra and are particularly great in their expressive qualities. With rustic and mythical atmospheres (the start of the First Symphony), daunting chaos (the end of his Sixth), grand visions (end of his Second), cheerful melodies (opening Fourth), romantic melancholy (the famous adagio of...
more

During his own time, Gustav Mahler was considered as one of the major conductors of Europe, but nowadays he is considered to a major composer who bridged the Late Romantic period to the modern age.

Few composers are so connected with the symphonic repertory as Gustav Mahler. Composing symphonies was his "core business": in every aspect he developed the symphony towards, and sometimes even over, its absolute limits. Almost all of Mahler's symphonies are lenghty, demand a large orchestra and are particularly great in their expressive qualities. With rustic and mythical atmospheres (the start of the First Symphony), daunting chaos (the end of his Sixth), grand visions (end of his Second), cheerful melodies (opening Fourth), romantic melancholy (the famous adagio of his Fifth), evocations of nature (his Third), megalomanic eruptions in the orchestra (his Eighth), and the clamant atonality of his unfinished Tenth, Mahler's musical palette seemed inexhaustible.

His symphonies are captivating, but some could find it a bit 'over the top' at times. For those, his orchestral songs could undoubtedly show there is an incredibly subtle and refined side to his compositional style as well.

In the Netherlands, Mahler is particularly popular due to its close bond with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which was already established during his lifetime!


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Arnold Schönberg

Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, but perhaps also one of the least listened to. Strikingly, Schoenberg was self-educated, even though his music is imbedded in complex music theory. It was Schoenberg who definitely departed from tonality and he developed the twelve tone technique. In this composition style, one has to use every twelve tones of the scale, before one can be repeated. The struggle to adhere to this dogma is clearly audible: his music is tense, hectic and particularly acute - and therefore at times not that accesible to occasional listeners.  Nevertheless, his music and his liberation of tonality had an enormous impact on all composers that came after him. Together with the...
more

Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, but perhaps also one of the least listened to. Strikingly, Schoenberg was self-educated, even though his music is imbedded in complex music theory. It was Schoenberg who definitely departed from tonality and he developed the twelve tone technique. In this composition style, one has to use every twelve tones of the scale, before one can be repeated. The struggle to adhere to this dogma is clearly audible: his music is tense, hectic and particularly acute - and therefore at times not that accesible to occasional listeners.

Nevertheless, his music and his liberation of tonality had an enormous impact on all composers that came after him. Together with the music of his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern, his style is often referred to as the Second Viennese School, parallel to the First Viennese School of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, who, in a similar vein, changed the history of music for good.

His most performed works are his string sextet Verklärte Nacht, his five Orchestra pieces op. 16, and his opera Moses und Aron. The development of Schoenberg's music can be heard in his Five String Quartets in particular.


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