Photo by Rémy Groleau on Unsplash
Here we are again for our second installment of media-laden monthly concert programs, and kind of a Part II from last month, a continuation of German(ic)-heavy programming, a bridge sort of, connecting the two Viennese Schools, music of which we will in the future be seeing an awful lot.
Also, nothing from these two programs so far has been too terribly adventurous, obscure, challenging, or rare. We’re getting there.
I also decided that my humble ‘start slow’ plan of doing only one program a month in the ‘25-26 season was going to be far too slow a posting pace, so I’ve rearranged and packaged programs that I’d originally planned for the next couple of years (when I’d originally planned to start doing two a month) and starting next month, there’ll be two Concert Program posts a month. How exciting, right? And next month is when we’ll start to get a bit more adventurous or interesting with more obscure pieces.
Let’s Begin
As Second Viennese School goes, for programming a concerto alongside Schoenberg, one might think, ‘Go Berg or go home,’ but we’re not getting that ambitious yet, and I also don’t have media ready for that concerto. It’s on the schedule now for a lecture in the summer of 2028, and I’ve got a lot more familiarizing to do before then.
I also just wanted to say ‘Go Berg or go home.’ Fugue for Thought merch, anyone?
If we wanted to zoom in on the connection between Brahms and Schoenberg, we’d find Alexander Zemlinsky in there, among others, but we’re not zooming in for the moment, so you’ll have to be satisfied with a name drop for now. Go check him out.
Schubert and Brahms both strike me as serious composers with well known/documented lighter sides: Schubert for his parties and drinking, Brahms for pieces like his serenades, Hungarian dances, waltzes, and lighter charming pieces. As I said, there’s nothing unpredictable or undiscovered or obscure on this program, just good music, and the Brahms is bookended by pieces that have extramusical (i.e. theatrical or literary) backgrounds.
Perhaps the Schoenberg will be a bit of a stretch for some listeners; cf the Paris ensemble who refused to play it because it has a chord or harmony that “doesn’t exist” or whatever, but while the harmonies are extended and may be unfamiliar or strange at first, I don’t think it’s out of reach at all to hear the tenderness, tension, uncertainty, intimacy, and pure beauty in the work, either in the original sextet version or the richer version for string orchestra.
Program
So here’s our monthly program:
Brahms Violin Concerto in D, op. 77
(Intermission)
The Schubert is really the amuse, the teaser, and what a cusp the composer sat on. Honorary member of the First Viennese School, perhaps, and prototype or progenitor (second (or more) to Beethoven) for what would come later, and would have been even more so if he’d managed to live just a few more years.
I’d have liked to put, say, one of his early symphonies on the program, but that would put us well over 90 minutes and take away from the real meat of the program, which is Brahms.
Of Joachim’s ‘four German gems’ of violin concertos, I have such little interest in Mendelssohn or Bruch, but Brahms and Beethoven give masterful, meaty, handsome, epic pieces. We’ll get around to the Beethoven here eventually, but it might be my preference over Brahms for a number of reasons. That said, the Brahms is a magnificent, spirited, wonderful piece with a huge 20+ minute first movement.
To close out the program, then, in a softer, darker, more introspective, transformative way, we have Schoenberg, of whom I’m a big fan. People can get incredulous when you say you like someone controversial or challenging or whatever, but it seems like oftentimes they equate “I like so’n’so” with “I listen to this person’s music non-stop every day and sing to it in the shower and can hum it beginning to end from memory and to the exclusion of everything else.” Obviously no.
Time and place. I rarely put on the fourth string quartet (or the first, for that matter), etc., but if he wrote any piece that’s going to be the gateway for what his music became (and just for very late Romantic or post-romantic music in general), Verklärte Nacht is a superb place to start.
So that’s what we’ve got for this month.
For ease of navigation, even though I’ve linked it above, you can click the link below (and at the bottom of each of the subsequent articles to get to the next piece on the program).