Neil McCauley
23-02-2017, 10:39
Pina Napolitana writes ....
Why is it that music historians and musicologists love to talk about Schoenberg, but his music is still relatively rarely performed, seemingly feared by both the public and promoters? The occasional revival aside (he featured as Radio 3’s composer of the week in January, and the Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival in 2013 programmed his music), he’s rarely heard in the UK. The BBC Proms archive reveals that the festival has programmed Schoenberg’s music only 73 times in its 122-year history, compared with, say, Brahms’ 823. Just this week I was invited to speak about Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto on Radio 3, but they preferred that I perform only one of his pieces, alongside two by Brahms.
It was my piano professor, Bruno Mezzena, who first encouraged me to play Schoenberg’s music. Mezzena was a composition student of Sangiorgi, who was a student of Schoenberg’s. I knew very little of Schoenberg’s compositions at that time. Several years before, I had chanced upon his Piano Concerto – it was paired on a disc with another Romantic concerto that I’d wanted to buy. I didn’t entirely .....
Continues at https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/21/music-arnold-schoenberg-do-not-approach-with-caution-pina-napolitano
Why is it that music historians and musicologists love to talk about Schoenberg, but his music is still relatively rarely performed, seemingly feared by both the public and promoters? The occasional revival aside (he featured as Radio 3’s composer of the week in January, and the Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival in 2013 programmed his music), he’s rarely heard in the UK. The BBC Proms archive reveals that the festival has programmed Schoenberg’s music only 73 times in its 122-year history, compared with, say, Brahms’ 823. Just this week I was invited to speak about Schoenberg’s Piano Concerto on Radio 3, but they preferred that I perform only one of his pieces, alongside two by Brahms.
It was my piano professor, Bruno Mezzena, who first encouraged me to play Schoenberg’s music. Mezzena was a composition student of Sangiorgi, who was a student of Schoenberg’s. I knew very little of Schoenberg’s compositions at that time. Several years before, I had chanced upon his Piano Concerto – it was paired on a disc with another Romantic concerto that I’d wanted to buy. I didn’t entirely .....
Continues at https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/21/music-arnold-schoenberg-do-not-approach-with-caution-pina-napolitano