Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht / Strauss: Metamorphosen (Bernius)
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(2)
- Transfigured Night
- Metamorphoses
Contents
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Preface writer
Mirjam Schlemmer
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Ensemble
Streicherakademie Bozen
The Streicherakademie Bozen was founded in 1987 by the Südtiroler Musikverein under the artistic direction of Georg Egger. It consists mainly of musicians from South Tirol who have gained extensive chamber and orchestral music experience in important international ensembles and who are now passing the fruits of their experience on to younger players. The Streicherakademie generally plays without a conductor. Under Frieder Bernius, a number of members of the Streicherakademie have regularly played together with the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart and over the past several years an artistic partnership has developed between these two ensembles for works requiring a larger ensemble. In addition to its own annual concert series, the Streicherakademie is regularly invited to important festivals such as the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, the Gustav-Mahler-Wochen in Toblach and the Engadiner Festwochen. Soloists who have appeared with the ensemble include Sergio Azzolini, Juliane Banse, Eduard Brunner, Giuliano Carmignola, Mirijam Contzen, Ingeborg Danz, Christian Gerhaher, Dietrich Henschel, Heinz Holliger, Diethelm Jonas, Louis Lortie, Antonio Meneses, Johannes Moser, Sabine und Wolfgang Meyer, Birgit Remmert, Sibylla Rubens, Andràs Schiff, Thomas Quasthoff, Wen-Sinn Yang and Ruth Ziesak. The Streicherakademie’s extensive repertoire ranges from Bach, Handel and Zelenka by way of Schubert/Mahler (Der Tod und das Mädchen) and Mendelssohn to Britten, Bartók, Stravinsky, Schönberg, Schnebel and Stuppner. Hitherto it has made several CD recordings, featuring works of C. Ph. E. Bach, Boccherini, Mozart, Rossini, Schönberg, Strauss and Stuppner. Personal details
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Conductor
Frieder Bernius
| 1947Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details
Reviews
Schönberg, A
Schönberg, A.: Verklärte Nacht; Strauss, R.: Metamorphosen
Ohne Zweifel gehören die beiden Werke zu den Höhepunkten der Literatur für Streichorchester. Fällt Schönbergs „Verklärte Nacht” von 1897 in eine Zeit, in der durch die Erweiterung und später sogar Auflösung der traditionellen Harmonik alles möglich schien, so sind die „Metamorphosen für 23 Solostreicher” ein Dokument tiefer Trauer und Resignation, die Strauss angesichts der Zerstörungen des Zweiten Weltkriegs empfand: „Mein Lebenswerk ist zerstört. Meine Werke werde ich auf dieser Welt nicht mehr sehen und hören - ich wollte, Mozart und Schubert hätten mich nach dem 80. zu sich ins Elysium genommen.” Doch gibt es auch Gemeinsames: Auch Schönbergs „Verklärte Nacht” ist in der eingespielten Fassung von 1943 letztendlich eine Verarbeitung der Weltkriegsereignisse, eine Flucht ins Jahr 1897.
Quelle: ohne Angabe
Schönberg, A.: Verklärte Nacht; Strauss, R.: Metamorphosen
It is said that really good orchestras can conduct themselves, and this is certainly true for the Streicherakademie who usually play without a conductor. Both Verklärte Nacht and Metamorphosen are large-scale chamber works – the former an orchestral amplification of an original string sextet and the latter a chamber work for 23 solo strings. The execution on this recording is immaculate except for one regrettably flagrant intonation mishap towards the end of the Metamorphosen [22:19]. But all credit to the conductor, Frieder Bernius, who is obviously a tasteful musician. He resists the temptation to wallow in self-indulgent late-Romantic excess and instead treats us to a meaningful sensuousness and constantly shifting drama that is deeply moving.
Considering Verklärte Nacht and Metamorphosen were written so far apart, the similarity between the two works is striking, and there is little doubt that Schoenberg’s early work is directly inspired by Strauss’s mature composition. Both pieces resemble each other particularly in structure, style and gesture. They are highly chromatic Romantic conceptions designed as single movement symphonic poems – where Schoenberg condenses five sections into one, Strauss adheres to the thematically tri-partite sonata-form structure. The inspiration for each is drawn from extra-musical sources and it is therefore important to consider these for a proper understanding. Richard Dehmel’s poem about a guilty pregnant girl, consoled by her new lover who insists that her unborn baby will transform into their very own love-child, lends its title and content to Verklärte Nacht. The poetry’s translucent quality is convincingly translated into a musical tongue. The conceptual force behind Strauss’s Metamorphosen is the sadness of the last years of WW2: an „inner”, psychological programme that bears no direct relation to events – as does Schoenberg’s oeuvre – but expresses a particular emotional quality.
As I said earlier, but for an unfortunately obvious moment of poor intonation, this is a really well polished recording. The Streicherakademie deliver a true chamber music performance, producing throughout a very intimate, homogeneous sound. The effects are lush but contained, and the instrumental interplays are seamless. The acoustics are, however, unforgiving – as though one were sitting through a live concert, every little detail can be heard: no ‚soft-focusing’ here. With a lesser performance this would be a disaster, but in my opinion, the vulnerable acoustic actually works in its favour. The wispy disturbances give a mark of authenticity.
My single subjective criticism is that the Streicherakademie fail to highlight the solo events within the works. But this has to do with their aesthetic approach – a consistent chamber music democracy over a hierarchical sound structure. Something in between perhaps? I would have liked to hear the solos sound out a little more, and especially in Metamorphosen where the violin, viola and cello are particularly independent and tuneful. For those who share my preference, let me recommend the 1974 Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic recording of Verklärte Nacht. All in all, an exciting recording. Not least for the powerful climaxes and wonderful palette of dynamics that are anchored in a rich and wholesome chamber music sonority. The depth and power of sound is impressive.
Aline Nassif
Quelle: musicweb.uk.net
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