Arditti Quartet专辑介绍：1.First string quartet in d-minor The main subject of Schönberg’s work as a composer in 1904 and 1905 was the D-minor String Quartet. The first sketches were made in the summer of 1904 and in the following year he developed the work during his summer holidays in Gmunden on Lake Traun. The premiere in the Viennese Bösendorfer Hall by the Rosé Quartet on 5 February 1907 ended in a tumult, as reported by Paul Stefan, an early chronicler of the circle around Schönberg: “Many found the work impossible, and left the hall during the performance, one particularly humorously through the emergency exit. As the hissing continued afterwards Gustav Mahler, who was present, approached one of the unsatisfied and said, wonderfully emotionally and at the same time in defence of art deprived of its rights : ‘You should not hiss!’ – The anonymous person, proudly in the face of great intellectuals (faced by the doorman at his house he would have collapsed): ‘I also hiss at your symphonies!’ – Mahler was blamed for this scene.” In a sketch-book of Schönberg’s from 1904 some programmatic notes have been preserved, probably referring to the music of the first quartet: they range from “rejection, defiance” and “desperation” to “enthusiastic strength to fight, development of fantasy, energy” and “greatest intoxication of the senses,” to “quiet happiness and the return of peace and harmony.” Unequivocally, Schönberg made it very clear in later years, that although he had laid down such a “programme,” it was however of a completely private nature and belonged to the genesis of the work, and not to its aesthetic substance. Instead, he always pointed out, not without pride, the constructive achievement of this generously dimensioned work, imprinted with wide-spanning melodies as well as with differentiated rhythms and counterpoint. Here, Schönberg combines the individual elements of the sonata cycle (first movement, scherzo with trio, adagio and rondo-finale) in the movements of one single “double function form,” which has at its centre a broad development section. He intended Beethoven’s Third Symphony to be recognised as the form model for his composition: “Alexander von Zemlinsky told me that Brahms had said that every time he faced difficult problems he would consult a significant work of Bach and one of Beethoven, both of which he always used to keep near his standing desk. [...] In the same manner I learned, from the “Eroica,” solutions to my problems: How to avoid monotony and emptiness, how to create variety out of unity, how to create new forms out of basic material, how much can be achieved by slight modifications if not by developing variation out of often rather insignificant little formulations. Of this masterpiece I learned also of the creation of harmonic contrasts and their application.” (“Notes to my Four String Quartets”) With this, Schönberg naturally did not want to recommend “mechanical copying,” but to point out that that the procedure referred to the “essence” of the model. Elsewhere, he once used a vivid metaphor to express the same thought: “....in one respect, the works in every style are as different as are all wines: (When you pour them into old bottles, then the essences of old wines are still in the bottles). Together (and that is the old bottle), is only our way of thinking.” What was regarded at that time as disturbing and “impossible” in Schönberg’s compositions was due at the same time to historical responsibilities and to the demand for their radical development in the present. Matthias Schmidt © Arnold Schönberg Center There will not be many people today who would understand the opposition which this work provoked at its first performance in Vienna February 5, 1907. Nevertheless, with a retrospective glance at the same time in question it is comprehensible. First its unusual length. It is composed in one very long movement, without the conventional interruptions after each movement. Influenced by Beethoven's C-Sharp-Minor Quartet, by Liszt's Piano Sonata, Bruckner's and Gustav Mahler's Symphonies, we young composers believed this to be the artistic way to compose. Secondly it is the very rich and unusual employment of the harmony in combination with the construction of the melody which obstructed comprehension. It was, and is still, my belief that this very quick and partly new succession of harmonies should not be an unrelated addition to the melody, but should be produced by the melody itself; that it ought to be a result, a reaction, a consequence of the very nature of the melody, so expressing vertically the contents in a manner corresponding to that in which the melody does the same horizontally. It took nearly twenty years before musicians and music lovers became able to follow such a complicated style of musical expression. Today many of these difficulties are no longer in existance and so the listener will easily recognize the principal themes, their use, variation and development. He will also recognize that there are to be found the four general types of themes, each representing a movement. That is a group of themes representing the first movement of a sonata, another group representing the scherzo, a third representing the adagio and finally a short rondo. Besides he will find transitions, recapitulations and coda-finale, but also two so-called development sections in which the themes are carried out; the first one before the scherzo, the second before the recapitulation of the first theme. He, who can, would do well to read the score while he listens, because that would help him to understand the contrapuntal work, which, I do not hesitate to call remarkable. (Arnold Schönberg, introductory note for the private recording with the Kolisch Quartet, Los Angeles 1936/37; vgl. Fred Steiner "A History of the First Complete Recording of the Schoenberg String Quartets," in Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute 2 (February 1978), no.2, 122–137) 2.Second string quartet in f sharp minor For Arnold Schönberg, the Vienna years around 1908 were a time of artistic breakthrough and severe personal crisis. His family life was jolted by an intimate relationship between his wife Mathilde and the painter Richard Gerstl, who had set up his studio in the Schönbergs’ home in the Liechtensteinstrasse (in Vienna’s Ninth District) and had not only given the couple lessons but painted their portraits. The year 1907 marks the beginning of Schönberg’s activity as painter, this being yet another reflection of his need to find an artistic outlet for his inner visions. Compounding this marital crisis was his disappointment at Gustav Mahler’s departure for the United States. It was to counteract these setbacks that, in 1907 and 1908, Schönberg clearly parted ways with musical tradition, dissolving tonal harmony into atonality and entering that expressionist period of his career that would mark electrifying turn in the compositional development of our century. The Second String Quartet in F-sharp minor, op.10, represents a watershed in this evolutionary process both in the handling of material (concision of form, release from consonance) and in the history of the string quartet genre (through the addition of a solo soprano). Having completed the First String Quartet in D minor, op. 7, and the Chamber Symphony, op. 9, Schönberg now turned away from single-movement works and returned to multi-movement cycles. The earliest evidence of op. 10, found in his third sketchbook, is dated 9 March 1907, the same day on which he finished the chorus Friede auf Erden, op. 13. The third movement was completed on 11 June 1908 in Gmunden am Traunsee, followed by the second movement on 27 July; the fourth was probably composed there as well. Like the First Chamber Symphony, Schönberg repeatedly subjected his new quartet to revision, among other things making several arrangements of it for string orchestra: In the first movement, the formal structure is imparted less by the key scheme than by the layout of the thematic material, as the weakened ties to a tonic can no longer contribute to the formal design. It is a sonata-form movement largely lacking in contrast and containing five thematic ideas; all of them are related by motivic transformation to the first theme of the main group, which is rooted in the key of F-sharp minor. If the key relations become blurred in the second group, the development section, after opening with a contrast between F-sharp minor and C major, suspends the sense of key altogether apart from a few sidelong glances toward the tonic. At first, the recapitulation avoids re-establishing the home key and is instead ushered in by an A minor/D minor complex. As in Schönberg's chronologically related a cappella chorus “Friede auf Erden,” we note a similar tendency to shy away from modulations capable of engendering a sense of form. The D-minor scherzo is made up of two large thematic complexes followed by a highly contrasting section resembling a development. The first complex contains a reminiscence of the main theme of the first movement, from which it is derived through segmentation. In the trio, the second violin quotes the Viennese folk song “Oh, dear Augustin, it’s all over” (“O du lieber Augustin, alles ist hin”), which Schönberg scholars have variously interpreted as an autobiographical reference to his marital crisis and as a symbol of his abandonment of functional tonality. The two Stefan George poems, “Litany” (“Litanei”) and “Rapture” (“Entrückung”), are taken from “Der siebente Ring,” a collection of his poems published privately in 1907. Here Schönberg has worked them into a set of variations and into a finale far removed from traditional notions of form. Using chromatic complex and altered fourth-chords, the finale is replete with what Anton Webern called “harmonies never heard before [] detached from all tonal bearings.” The theme of “Litany” comprises four figures extracted from the opening movement and the scherzo and functioning as ‘leitmotifs’ within the work’s underlying program. The third movement may be viewed as a development section for the two preceding movements. Set in E-flat minor, it is richly contrapuntal if less prone to modulation, its variations closely adhering to the form of the poem. In the first variation, the soprano enters with a melody that retains its thematic independence throughout the remaining variations. Discussing the finale in his “Notes on the Four String Quartets,” Schönberg remarked: “The fourth movement, Entrückung, begins with an introduction, depicting the departure from earth to another planet. The visionary poet here foretold sensations, which perhaps soon will be affirmed. Becoming relieved from gravitation – passing through clouds into thinner and thinner air, forgetting all the troubles of life on earth – that is attempted to be illustrated in this introduction.” A single line from George’s poem “Entrückung” – “I am dissolved in swirling sound” (“Ich löse mich in Tönen, kreisend”) – might stand as a motto for the progressive tonal language of this finale, which otherwise adheres to the standard classical design: Introduction, Main Group (verses 1 to 3), Second Group (verses 4 and 5), Development (verses 6 to 8), Coda. In juxtaposition to sections that entirely suspend the feeling of key – in particular the Introduction, which sets up “twelve-tone” fields, but organizes them around fifth relationships –, other passages offer conspicuously tonal cadences. As in the scherzo, the writing generally employs a free-floating tonality. For the performance of “Entrückung,” Schönberg gave priority to the quality and expressive projection of timbre, as is particularly evident in the handwritten instructions he entered in one of the sources of op. 10. Here, for instance, is how he imagines a musically transcendent depiction of a gossamer mist as it slowly dissipates: “The whole passage must be like a breath. Nothing should stand out. Only the voice may be emphasized, and then in timbre only, not in loudness.” Therese Muxeneder © Arnold Schönberg Center My second string quartet caused, at its first performance in Vienna, December 1908, riots which surpassed every previous and subsequent happening of this kind. Although there were also some personal enemies of mine, who used the occasion to annoy me - a fact which can today be proved true - I have to admit, that these riots were justified without the hatred of my enemies, because they were a natural reaction of a conservatively educated audience to a new kind of music. Astonishingly, the first movement passed without any reaction, either for or against. But, after the first measures of the second movement, the greater part of the audience started to laugh and did not cease to disturb the performance during the third movement "Litanei," (in form of variations) and the fourth movement "Entrückung." It was very embarrassing for the Rosé Quartet and the singer, the great Mme. Marie Gutheil-Schoder. But at the end of this fourth movement a remarkable thing happened. After the singer ceases, there comes a long coda played by the string quartet alone. While, as before mentioned, the audience failed to respect even a singing lady, this coda was accepted without any audible disturbance. Perhaps even my enemies and adversaries might have felt something here. (Arnold Schönberg, introductory note for the private recording with the Kolisch Quartet, Los Angeles 1936/37; vgl. Fred Steiner "A History of the First Complete Recording of the Schoenberg String Quartets," in Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute 2 (February 1978), no.2, 122–137) 3.Third string quartet “Last Sunday [I heard] your 3rd Quartet played by Kolisch! I search for words to describe my impression; perhaps I can say it best this way: that with each new work from you, my whole world view becomes new.”– With this letter of 25 November 1927 Anton Webern expressed his enraptured opinion of Schönberg’s op. 30. More than 18 years separate Schönberg’s Second and Third Quartets, during which time the composer explored the possibilities of 12-tone composition with the Five Pieces for Piano op. 23, the Serenade op. 24, and the Piano Suite op. 25, but op. 30 is his first dodecaphonic string quartet. Composed between 24 January and 8 March 1927, this work represents an incredibly short period of effort for music of such complexity. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge commissioned the piece on 2 March (although it was already almost finished), and it was premiered in her presence at a festival of chamber music in Vienna, 19 September 1927. In his notes to the first recording (performed in Los Angeles by the Kolisch Quartet), Schönberg recollected, “Neither at this first performance, nor at some following performances at Prague and Berlin, did it provoke any kind of riot, as my former two string quartets had done. This might make one think that now my music was understood and I had finally succeeded in convincing the public of my mission as a composer. But it would be a great error to assume this […] Because, while in spite of the riots, caused by a part of the public, there were always a certain number of critics who stood by my work against the opposition, now there was a certain unanimity among these judges, saying that I might possess a remarkable musical knowledge and technique, but did not create instinctively, that I wrote without inspiration. I was called a constructor, a musical engineer, a mathematician.” In response to these criticisms, Schönberg insisted that his compositional style of the late 1920s differed little in affect from that of decades earlier. Throughout the latter part of his career, Schönberg maintained that dodecaphony was only a tool, a means of organization, but should not be mistaken for the music itself. As he explained in a revealing and often-quoted letter to his brother-in-law, Rudolf Kolisch, “You have rightly worked out the rows in my string quartet […] You must have gone to a great deal of trouble, and I don’t think I’d have had the patience to do it. But do you think one’s any better off for knowing it? I can’t quite see imagine it. […] I can’t utter too many warnings against overrating these analyses, since after all they only lead to what I have always been dead against: seeing how it is done; whereas I have always helped people to see: what it is!” (Berlin, 27 July 1932). After the formal innovations of his first two quartets (a single, through-composed movement in the case of the First, and the addition of a voice in the Second), Schönberg returned in his Third Quartet to the standard four-movement structure, a counterbalance to its harmonic innovations. The first movement (Moderato) is in sonata form with two forms of the row fulfilling the traditional harmonic function; the standard structure compromises exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda. An ostinato of staccato eighth-notes drives the movement almost throughout, a figure that, according to Schönberg, in meant to provide cohesion for the various characters and moods of the movement. The combination of sonata form and the procedure of developing variation in this movement represents the classical and romantic elements inherent in Schönberg’s style. The second movement (Adagio) is a Theme and Variations with two consecutive themes of ten measures each. Models for a slow variation movement can be found in numerous works of Viennese classical composers. The third movement, which Schönberg entitled Intermezzo (Allegro moderato), assumes a form typical for an inner movement of a classical string quartet, a minuet, and the ternary form applies not only to the movement in general but also to each of the three parts individually. Schönberg described the final movement, Rondo (Molto moderato), as a sonata-rondo form. Camille Crittenden © Arnold Schönberg Cente 4.Fourth String Quartet op. 37 Arnold Schoenberg composed his Fourth String Quartet, Opus 37 within six weeks in 1936. If one includes the quartet written in 1897 without an opus number, this was Schoenberg's fifth string quartet. He never realised plans for a sixth, for which he had made sketches. The work on his Fourth String Quartet came at a difficult time for Schoenberg: having emigrated from Germany in 1933, he moved to the East Coast of the United States following a short stay in Paris. At first he taught at two conservatories - in Boston and New York -, but his travel between the two cities as well as the climate were seriously injurious to his health, forcing him to cancel concerts and lectures. This, in turn, had a negative effect on the family's financial situation, which was already strained. Largely because of the more pleasant climate, the family decided to move to California, where Schoenberg accepted a professorship at the University of California at Los Angeles in the autumn of 1936, following a year's study at the University of Southern California. At the time of the move, Schoenberg had just started writing the Quartet, Opus 37. On 3 August 1936, he wrote to the music patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who had commissioned both the Third and Fourth String Quartets, that he had completed the quartet on 26 July: "[...] I would have sent it to you long ago, had I known where you are now [...]. You are probably surprised not to have heard anything from us. But you cannot imagine how much work we had because of the arrival of our furniture. I lost four weeks and have still not put my library and manuscripts in order. [...] But I used every free quarter of an hour to continue work on the string quartet. [...] I am very pleased with the work and believe that it is more pleasing than the Third. But I think that every time!" In its revue, the Los Angeles Times confirmed Schoenberg's feeling about the work, describing the quartet as: "[...] less revolutionary than expected [...] and it awakens feelings that are not far from those caused by euphony." The first movement begins with a catchy theme in which Schoenberg rejected his earlier principle of not repeating the tones of the basic form of the row in order not to destroy the equality of the tones. The main theme begins with a descending minor second, followed by a descending third. The third tone of the row is repeated three times in quavers, followed by an ascending second, also a quaver and the fourth tone of the basic row. The seventh and eleventh tones of the row also have this characteristic repetition, which is emphasised by accents. The basic row is presented in the first five bars; starting in bar six it is contrasted with a lyrical secondary theme. Over the course of the movement, lyrical episodes develop from this theme, which is repeatedly contrasted with the striking main theme. In addition to the basic row, which is notable for its tone repetition, thirds and sixths are heard not only as horizontal intervals but also as chordal elements of the accompaniment. The second movement - Comodo - shows a proximity to the classic quartet model. While there are only vague references to the classical sonata form in the first movement, here the relationship is more clearly recognisable, for example, in the A B A form, making it comparable to a minuet or scherzo movement. The trio, however, is closely tied to a development section that introduces new material as well as developing what has been previously heard. The third movement - Largo - is set off from the preceding movements by the presentation of the main theme. Schoenberg dispenses with a contrapuntal accompaniment, letting the theme sound in unison. At the beginning of the A B A B form, he first quotes the motif of the main theme of the first movement in fortissimo, but exactly one tone lower than the original. The emphasised intervals of a third as well as the cadence of the melodic-thematic phrase, ending in a fifth, create a harmonious feeling. The B sections are dominated by the rhythmic character of the second movement, again combined with motivic elements from the first movement. The reintroduction of the A section is clearly heard in the fortissimo, unison entrance, but the direction of the intervals is inverted. The transition to the B section is now more blurred. Elements of the first transition are combined with motifs of the B section, and the boundaries are not clearly recognisable. Arnold Schoenberg gives a reason for this change in his »Bemerkungen zu den vier Streichquartetten«( "Introduction to My Four Quartets"): "The departure from the first formulation of this section is quite extensive because of the different purpose. The first time, the B section serves as a lyrical contrast to the dramatic outbreak of the recitative, which it must overcome by the power of its inner warmth. The second time, when the inserted section has already lessened the tension of the beginning, its purpose is to prepare for the conclusion." The final movement is in rondo form. The theme appears five times in variation, contrasted with three episodes, each of them a kind of development after the third and fourth appearance of the varied rondo theme, and a coda. About this movement Schoenberg writes: "This Allegro movement contains a great wealth of thematic material, because each repetition is extensively altered, introducing new formulations." The harmonic relationships in this movement are particularly audible. One reason for this is that the notes B-flat and E-flat are heard twice in the basic form of the row. The latent feeling of tonality that this produces is confirmed in the tonal reference of the final cadence (E-flat major fourth and A minor fifth). Mirjam Schlemmer © Arnold Schönberg Center This string quartet also has been commissioned by the great patron of chamber music Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. It was first performed on the occasion of a festival given by Mrs. Coolidge to the students of the University of California at Los Angeles. As there were no speeches made by the officials at this occasion, the public perhaps did not realize that Mrs. Coolidge wanted to honor me in choosing the programs of the four concerts performed by the world-renowned Kolisch Quartet. In each of this programs was played one of my four string quartets and one of the last four Beethoven string quartets. Even if I had not known the intention of Mrs. Coolidge, I would certainly have considered it an honor to appear in such a program, in such a neighborhood. But I had meanwhile become a California composer and professor of composition at this University. And, while every one of my premieres had caused a great sensation and excitement, so that whole cities were agitated, and visitors and critics came from neighboring towns to attend these events, and while, besides the riots with the first two quartets, there were long articles in the papers - this time it was a perfectly commonplace affair. There was no special excitement and, at least, the anticipation was in no way exaggerated. Nevertheless, I was very content with the attitude of the public. The whole audience listened with respect and sincerity to the strange sounds with which they were faced and it seems a number of them were really impressed. Of course, the appreciation for the first and second quartets was much more intense and it could not be expected that a work of my present period would provoke such enthusiasm as does my "Verklärte Nacht," this work of my first period. But, I will never forget how long it took until there was an understanding for the work of my first period and I will also not forget that even "Verklärte Nacht" caused riots and real fighting, and that the first critics in Vienna wrote "This sextett seems like a calf with six feet, such as is often shown at fairs." This string quartet, if also a calf, has at least only four feet. (Arnold Schönberg, introductory note for the private recording with the Kolisch Quartet, Los Angeles 1936/37; vgl. Fred Steiner "A History of the First Complete Recording of the Schoenberg String Quartets," in Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute 2 (February 1978), no.2, 122–137)