Newsletter
Edition 3, October 1998 – January 1999

Contents

Editorial
Maddalena Crippa and Peter Stein/Carbaret Songs and Schönberg texts
Comparing Interpretations with Artkustik
Schönberg and Mödling
Schönberg's house in Mödling
From the Archives
International Cooperation with Exhibitions
Permanent Exhibition
Arnold Schönberg's Study


Editorial

Dear friends of the Arnold Schönberg Center,
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

We celebrated the final day of our opening exhibition "Exposition" on Arnold Schönberg’s birthday, 13 September, with a matinee concert performed by the Ensemble Kontrapunkte conducted by Peter Keuschnig and broadcast by the ORF and the BBC. More than 10,000 visitors experienced the Center’s founding phase: our "prenatal" event "Schönberg on the construction site" in October 1997, the opening ceremonies of the "Schönberg Festival" in March of this year, the exhibition and a variety of performances in the last six months. These activities should give a first impression of our ideas and plans for the future; they also should demonstrate our enthusiasm for the many possibilities that the Schönberg legacy offers and the ability of our team to rapidly turn creative ideas into reality, even under difficult conditions during the construction process.
The many inquieries by visitors have conceived us about the necessity of offering a permanent exhibition. Along with the replica of Schönberg’s study in Los Angeles, the permanent exhibition will present musicmanuscripts, writings and paintings of the Master from all of his periods of development. It will be open weekdays and before and during performances.
The upcoming events promise an autumn of diverse experiences at the Schönberg Center: Stefan Litwin’s Piano Recital, the first performance of the Aron Quartett and the first concert from the subscription series with the Ensemble Wiener Collage, the Jeunesse Festival, "Vienna at the Turn of the Century," with orchestra concerts in the Golden Musikvereins-Hall and chamber concerts with us at the Schönberg Center, the recital of Maddalena Crippa and Peter Stein, as well as an "audiophile" weekend made possible by the HiFi-foundry Artkustik, to name just a few of the highlights of our first "normal" season.
1999 will be a year of jubilees and anniversaries: Schönberg’s 125th birthday (1874); the 100th anniversary of "Verklärte Nacht" (composed 1899); the 75th anniversary of Mathilde Schönberg’s (née Zemlinsky) death (1924). The half-century during which Schönberg lived and worked mainly in Vienna and Mödling came both privately and professionally to an end, when Mathilde Schönberg died in 1924, with the second marriage 1925 and the call to teach at the Berlin Akademie. This has provided the theme for 1999: "Schönberg’s Viennese Circle." We want to reconsider and discover many aspects of that period, in particular the "school-idea," in the (Second) Viennese School, the music historical steps toward Atonality and Dodecaphony, Schönberg’s teaching method and its effect through the years up to the present-day in symposia, scientific publications and other events. We believe that by studying his circle, a more differenciated view on the Master’s life and work can be achieved. This series will be continued in 2000 with the theme "Schönberg in Berlin," and – on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Schönberg’s death in 2001 – with "Schönberg in America."
The Schönberg House in Mödling, which has often been called the "cradle of twelve-tone composition," was a center for the Schönberg circle from 1918 to 1925. It will be renovated in the coming months with funding from sponsors and patrons, the city of Mödling, the provincial government of Lower Austria and from our Foundation, and shall celebrate it’s grand re-opening for the anniversary in September, 1999. A number of articles are devoted to Schönberg’s Mödling home in this issue of the Newsletter.
May the variety of activities encourage you to visit the Schönberg Center, whether it be to see the exhibition, to attend one of the performances or to consult our library, which is open for free to researchers as well as to the general public.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Christian Meyer
Secretary General


Maddalena Crippa presents Carbaret Songs Peter Stein reads Schönberg texts

Arnold Schönberg’s Cabaret Songs were composed in 1901. Most of them were devoted to Ernst von Wollzogen’s "Buntes Theater" in Berlin where Schönberg was later on given the position of a conductor at the Berlin Cabaret Überbrettl as a direct result of these songs. The texts that served as the basis of these songs were written by Hugo Salus, Gustav Hochstetter, Frank Wedekind and Emanuel Schickaneder (published in the anthology "Deutsche Chansons" by Otto Julius Bierbaum), amongst others. Peter Stein has long been deeply involved in Arnold Schönberg’s ouevre and will read Schönberg texts, some of which are still unpublished. Maddalena Crippa will perform the delightfully frivolous "Brettl-Lieder," including Mahnung, Galathea and Gigerlette, accompanied by Alessandro Nidi.


Comparing Interpretations with Artkustik

By offering interpretation comparisions, the Schönberg Center is increasing it’s services with an exciting aspect: state-of-the-art stereo equipment provided by Artkustik enables the audience to experience the finest nuances of recordings and interpretations in the performance of Schönberg’s works and to compare and analyze them. Historical and modern recordings of compositions for orchestra, chamber music or soloists will be played after a brief discussion. A selection of music that demonstrates the new technical possibilities will also be presented daily. Othmar Spitaler, the inventor and constructor of the high-quality Artkustik-System, emphasizes however that his goal is to experience the music without being aware of the technical equipment that makes it possible. The first steps in this new field of activity are exciting since the interpretation of the works of the (Second) Viennese School has been extremely varied and sometimes even eccentric, and add a new dimension to these compositions. After each interpretation visitors will have the opportunity to discuss with Mr. Spitaler of the Artkustik company and with staff members of the Schönberg Center followed by the interpretation of each works.

Wednesday, 11 November, 6.15 pm
Sechs kleine Klavierstücke op. 19
– Glenn Gould, New York 1964
– Claude Helffer, Frankreich 1969
– Maurizio Pollini, München 1974
– Markus Hinterhäuser, Hall 1991

Thursday, 12 November, 6.15 pm
Variationen für Orchester op. 31
– Sinfonie-Orchester des Südwestfunks, Rosbaud, Baden-Baden, um 1960
– Berliner Philharmoniker, Mitropoulos, Salzburg 1960
– Orchestre de Radio Television France, Scherchen, Paris 1964
– Berliner Philharmoniker, Karajan, Berlin 1969
– Berliner Philharmoniker, Karajan, Berlin 1974
– City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rattle, Birmingham 1993

Friday, 13 November, 6.15 pm
Gurrelieder
– Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Chailly, Berlin 1985
– New York Philharmonic, Mehta, New York 1991
– Staatskapelle Dresden, Sinopoli, Dresden 1995

Saturday, 14 November, 4 pm
II. Streichquartett op. 10
– Clemence Gifford, Kolisch String Quartet, Hollywood 1936
– Margaret Price, LaSalle Quartet, München 1969
– Dawn Upshaw, Arditti Quartet, London 1993

Saturday, 14 November, 5 pm
Pelleas und Melisande op. 5
– New York Philharmonic, Mitropoulos, New York 1953
– Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, Scherchen, Köln 1958
– New Philharmonia Orchestra, Barbirolli, 1968
– BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boulez, London 1970
– Berliner Philharmoniker, Karajan, Berlin 1974

Saturday, 14 November, 6 pm
A Survivor From Warsaw op. 46
– BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boulez, Reich, London 1976
– Wiener Philharmoniker, Abbado, Hornik, Wien 1989
– Bamberger Symphoniker, Metzmacher, Samel, Bamberg 1995


Arnold Schönberg and Mödling

Arnold Schönberg’s first documented association with Mödling dates from the years 1896 to 1898 when he took over the direction of the Workers’ Male Chorus "Freisinn" (formed in 1893) after he had quit his job as a bank employee at Werner & Co. in the Wipplingerstraße. According to the account of his son Georg (1906–1974) Schönberg always walked part of the way from Vienna to Mödling because the job paid so little that he could not afford to take the train both ways. Schönberg also conducted the Metalworker’s Male Chorus in Stockerau and the Men’s Choir of Meidling during this period. Since these workers’ choirs were closely related to the social democratic movement, and since the Mödlinger Bezirks-Bote always referred to the choirmaster as "Comrade Arnold Schönberg," it is possible to speculate about Schönberg’s having been a member of the Socialist Party as a young man before the turn of the century, or at least having sympathized with it. Although the Glee-Club performances in Mödling were extraordinarily successful – supposedly attended by 350 to 1,000 persons – they were threatened with being disbanded because of their questionable politics. Some of the texts of the compositions even had to be re-written after the Austrian imperial authorities intervened. Along with choruses by Johannes Brahms, arrangements of works by Strauß and German folksongs, the programmes consisted mainly of patriotic songs, soldiers’ songs and hymns to freedom. "Afterwards, a dance followed that lasted until the next morning." (Mödlinger Bezirks-Bote, January 8, 1899) Performances took place in Hotel Eisenbahn as well as in Hotel Bieglerhütte (Wiener Straße 4), where the last Male chorus meeting with Schönberg’s participation took place on New Year’s Eve 1898 and was deemed "a satisfactory performance." Egon Wellesz, who was one of Schönberg’s students and his first biographer, reported in 1921 about one of Schönberg’s experiences following one of those choral evenings (which testifies to a link between Mödling and the composition of part of "Gurrelieder"). "After a night in Spring spent partying with the Mödling Male chorus, he climbed the nearby Anninger mountain. Hiking through the forest that was covered with early morning fog, and then watching the sunrise, inspired his version of the melodrama ‘Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd’ in the third part, as well as the final chorus, ‘Seht die Sonne.’"
Schönberg married Mathilde Zemlinsky, the sister of his friend and teacher, Alexander Zemlinsky, in October 1901 in Vienna. Shortly afterwards, they moved to Berlin where Schönberg was employed as a conductor at Ernst von Wolzogen’s "Buntes Theater" and where his daughter Gertrud (Trudi) was born on January 8, 1902.
After returning to Vienna around the middle of 1903, Schönberg stayed in Mödling again. In July and August 1904 he lived in the house of the parents of his childhood friend David Josef Bach at the Brühlerstraße 104. At that time Schönberg was working on a commission for the publisher Josef Weinberger, along with his brother-in-law Zemlinsky, to prepare the instrumentation and piano reduction of Robert Fischhof’s opera "Bergkönig," which was published the following year with the title "Ingeborg." But this was also a time devoted to work on his own compositions, such as the First String Quartet in d minor, op. 7, and the Six Songs for Orchestra, op. 8: "I started a new song for orchestra (the fourth one). I believe it will be very good! [...] I’ve had to leave my quartet. But maybe I’ll get around to it, too. Unfortunately, I have to devise a lean Fischof for the piano and a fat one for the orchestra! I recently said that if someday a memorial plaque, such as you often see in the country, were to be placed on this house for me, it would have to say ‘he did the instrumentation here’ instead of the usual ‘he composed here...’ ." (Letter to Oscar C. Posa, president of the "Vereinigung schaffender Tonkünstler," dated 13 July 1904).
After years of intensive activity as a pedagogue and, primarily, as a composer in Vienna, at the lakes of Upper Austrian, and in Berlin, Schönberg was recruited by the Austrian army. Probably with the help of Baroness Pascotini ("Aunt" Olga), whom Schönberg’s parents had taken in as an orphan and who lived at Schillerstraße 22 in Mödling, Schönberg was able to find an apartment for his family at Bernhardgasse 6 for the monthly rent of 200 Crowns. The furniture was moved in as early as January and Schönberg reported to his brother-in-law Zemlinsky on 1 April, "We’re in Mödling but without a maidservant!" Along with his activities at the Schwarzwald Schulanstalten (until 1920) he also gave private instruction at Bernhardgasse after moving to Mödling. More than 100 students studied composition with him at that time, among them Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Max Deutsch, Hanns Eisler, Hanns Jelinek, Fritz H. Klein, Rudolf Kolisch, Paul Amadeus Pisk, Josef Polnauer, Karl Rankl, Erwin Ratz, Josef Rufer, Rudolf Serkin and Viktor Ullmann. "He often took long walks to the Anninger on Sundays with Webern, who also moved to Mödling in 1918. Berg and his wife, as well as other friends and students, visited him regularly. The apartment was located on the first floor and consisted of a number of rooms. Eventually father remodeled the bathroom and the entrance hall, and glassed-in the veranda himself. He had his own study, where there was a piano, a harmonium, violins, a viola and a cello, as well as his entire library and a desk; he worked at a standing disk." (Georg Schönberg, 1971)
His students traveled on the electrical or steam-engine streetcar to Mödling, but they also walked there during the days after the war when trains went at irregular intervals. Max Deutsch described the situation in a television documentary in 1970: "We hiked the 15 kilometers on foot, going there and back on the same day, to be able to study with Schönberg. He taught us as a group at least twice a week. Schönberg sat at the piano and we stood in a semicircle behind him and gave him our compositions which he then corrected and discussed."
The idea of forming a Society for private musical performances was conceived in July 1918, during the usual Sunday "meeting day" in Mödling: it was founded the following November. The goal of the society was the presentation of contemporary music in weekly concerts, which were held in the Konzerthaus, the Musikverin, the Festival Hall of the Kaufmännischen Verein, the Club of the österreichische Eisenbahnbeamten, the Schwarzwald Schulanstalten and the Festival Hall of the Ingenieur- and Architektenverein. According to Alban Berg’s wording in the Society’s pamphlet, critics were excluded from the concerts to "keep audiences at a safe distance from their corrupting influence."
Arnold Schönberg left his home in Mödling in the following years for numerous concert tours in other countries, as well as for summer vacation at Mattsee in Salzburg province and at Traunkirchen in Upper Austria. The conditions for participating in his composition classes for a period of at least 6 months were specified accordingly. The students "can expect to have only an average of 7 hours of instruction a month" because he "is unable to be present for classes from time to time due to trips or rehearsals." (Teaching contract from Schönberg’s papers)
Along with the circle of his students, Schönberg had foreign visitors, among them Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, both members of the "French Six." "He invited us to his home in Mödling near Vienna. We had a wonderful afternoon there. [...] Schönberg spoke in detail about his work, especially about his operas ‘Glückliche Hand’ and ‘Erwartung,’ the score of which I had just bought. [...] The walls of his apartment were full of pictures that he had painted himself: Faces and eyes, everywhere eyes!" (Milhaud concerning his visit in 1921)
Schönberg’s composition classes in Mödling achieved historic importance with the development of the "Method of composition with twelve notes related only to each other", which he first put to practice in the waltz from the Piano Pieces, op. 23, the Serenade, op. 24, the Suite for Piano, op. 25, and the Quintet for Winds, op. 26. "When Arnold Schönberg gathered together some friends and pupils in his house in Mödling on a February morning in 1923, to talk about the basic ideas of his method and to demonstrate these with examples from his latest compositions, a new chapter in the history of music began." (Josef Polnauer in his speech on the occasion of the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the Schönberg house, 1959)
After the death of his wife Mathilde in October 1923, Schönberg began to plan a move to Vienna, for he found the apartment in the Bernhardgasse "not only too small but also too far from town." He shared the apartment with his son Georg, his daughter Trudi, her husband Felix Greissle, and their son Arnold, who was born there in 1923. Schönberg explained the reasons that made the move to Vienna necessary, in a request addressed to the Vienna Municipal Senator Anton Weber, dated 28 December 1923: "My apartment has become too small; a) I don’t have a sitting room; b) I need another bedroom; c) my study (which also has to be used as a bedroom!) isn’t large enough to keep all the books, music and musical instruments that I need and is completely unsuited for holding rehearsals. [...] We have 7 rooms altogether, which does not go beyond the legal limits since we are 5 inhabitants, but 3 of them have to use the apartment to practice their profession." Senator Weber and the mayor ("the current ‘Super Snob’ of Vienna," this Schönberg to Zemlinsky) turned down the request. The composer was informed that he should try to find his own private solution because there are "certain people who would be glad to move from Vienna to Mödling if they only knew of a suitable apartment."
In January 1924, Schönberg conducted a benefit concert at the request of the Mödling municipal government to help "Germans in distress." It was such a grad success that it had to be repeated. The programme included parts of "Gurrelieder," the orchestral version of "Verklärte Nacht" from 1917 and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Rudolf Kolisch as soloist. "Arnold Schönberg was the guiding light of the evening and also of the people who follow his divine talent in musical humility, and, moreover, he proved that he understood how to express the heart of Dehmel’s most poignant poem." (Critique in the Mödlinger Nachrichten of 26 January 1924) On 28 August the same year Schönberg married Gertrud Kolisch, the sister of his student Rudolf Kolisch, in the Lutheran parish church in Mödling. On the occasion of Schönberg’s 50th birthday on 13 September 1924 the local newspapers printed a tribute to him: "May Mödling someday realize to whom it was a home for so many years." At the end of 1925 Schönberg moved from Mödling to Berlin, where he succeeded Busoni as the head of a Masterclass in composition at the Prussian Academy of Arts.


Schönberg's House in Mödling

Schönberg’s house in Mödling received little attention for many years, and at the beginning of the 70s there was even talk of tearing it down. Thanks to the efforts of Prof. Walter Szmolyan and Prof. Elisabeth Lafite, and to the drive to save it organized by the Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, it was – just in the nick of time – listed as an historical monument. The house then became worthless to the previous owner and in 1972 the International Schönberg Society was able to buy it. Subsidies from the government of Lower Austria, the municipal governments of Mödling and Vienna, and the Ministry of Education and Art made possible the acquisition and general restoration of the building. Not only was it to be a memorial to Schönberg, but it was also to house the office of the International Schönberg Society and a research division. Just months before Schönberg’s "100th birthday" the festive opening of the renovated Schönberg house took place on 6 June 1974. It was presided over by minister Fred Sinowatz in the presence of numerous representatives of the federal and provincial governments; as well as Nuria, Ronald and Lawrence Schoenberg. Maurizio Pollini performed the Klavierstücke op. 19 and op. 23 on the Ibach baby-grand piano of the master. On the previous day the urns of Arnold and Gertrud Schönberg (which had been brought from Los Angeles) were interred at Vienna’s Central Cemetery in a grave of honor provided by the City of Vienna and designed by Fritz Wotruba.
Both the displays of Schönberg’s own instruments donated by his heirs and the establishment of a research library containing microfilms of his legacy in Los Angeles played an important role in awakening interest in the (Second) Viennese School, wheter for research or for performance. Concerts with works of the (Second) Viennese School (among them the Schönberg Serenades, in collaboration with the Cultural Division of the provincial government of Lower Austria), musicological congresses in 1974, 1984 and 1993, and the revival of Schönberg’s teaching methods rounded off the activities of the International Schönberg Society.
Particular authenticity was given to a series of annual interpretation courses in Mödling by installing, as Director, Rudolf Kolisch, Schönberg’s one-time student and brother-in-law. As a result of the participation in these courses by Prof. Rudolf Stephan, director of the Schönberg Gesamt-Ausgabe, they also attracted a stendy stream of young, international musicologists. After Kolisch’s death in 1978, the courses were continued under the direction of Prof. Richard Hoffmann, a former student and assistant of Schönberg in America, and beginning in 1987, in collaboration with Oberlin College. In the period from1983 to 1990 Ernst Krenek, who had met Schönberg in Mödling in 1922 and who had remained in touch with him until his death, spent the summers with his wife Gladys at Bernhardgasse 6.
In March 1997 the Internationale Schönberg Society donated the Schönberg Villa in Mödlling to the newly-founded Arnold Schönberg Center Private Foundation. After the thorough renovation of the house (planned for 1999) it should become more than simply a memorial: it should be a place of intellectual stimulation that is visited not only by students and scholars but also by the public in large.


From the Archives

During the first six months after the Arnold Schönberg Center opened its doors, we began copying the audio-visual material in the archive. This means that visitors to the Center can not only consult the library, which has approximately 7,000 books, but also listen to a large part of Schönberg’s works on CDs and view copies of the entire video collection in the Club of the Center.
This project will be continued in the next months, when we will copy all of the various sound documents to CD Rom. These include both commercialy available and private recordings, ranging from the first 45 RPMs to LPs and CDs, as well as radio and live recordings on tape. The catalogue currently has 1,500 entries: an up-to-date discography is available at "www.usc.edu/isd/archives/schoenberg/."
Comparing historical and contemporary interpretations offers a pleasant alternative to research on the original documents from Schönberg’s legacy. In order to make our collection more complete, we would request collectors and "Schönbergianer" to lend us their radio or television recordings, so that we can make copies for the Center.
We are also happy to receive information about recent or older publications which refer to Schönberg and the (Second) Viennese School, that can be added to our library. Most importantly, the Schönberg Bibliography is constantly being updated and indications of missing material from Europe (dissertations, masters theses, articles, reports, critiques, concert programmes) are particularly helpful.

Opening hours:
Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closed on legal holidays and on 23, 24 and 31 december 1998.
Information: (+43/1) 712 18 88-30
(Therese Muxeneder, Archivist)


International Cooperation of the Arnold Schönberg Center with Exhibitions

"Schönberg is a painter of unseen pictures just as he is to this day a composer of largely unheard works." This pessimistic assessment of Arnold Schönberg’s oeuvre by John Russel, printed in the New York Times in 1983, is definitely outdated. In fact, there has been constant interest in Schönberg’s paintings and drawings after the grand retrospective exhibitions in Vienna (Museum of the 20th Century), Cologne (Ludwig Museum), Manchester (The Witworth Art Gallery), Berlin (Academy of Arts), Milan (Royal Palace), Barcelona ("la Caixa" Foundation) and Paris (Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris). This can be seen in a variety of themes as part of international exhibition projects by museums and galleries. A large number of the self-portraits, other portraits, "visions", caricatures, landscapes, stage settings, still-lives and sketches are kept in the Arnold Schönberg Center as permanent loan from Schönberg’s heirs. Within the first six months after the opening of the Center 50 objects from the picture collection and the archive were lent to other institutions.
The partners in this cooperation were the Beyerler Foundation in Basel, with the documentary "Farben – Klänge" in tribute to Wassily Kandinsky and Arnold Schönberg, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, with the exhibition "Austria im Rosennetz," on Austrian art in the 20th century, and the Schloßmuseum Murnau on Staffelsee, with an exhibition currently running until 11 November featuring the almanach of the "Blauer Reiter." In the Scuderie of Castello Miramare in Triest, a documentary exhibition about Jewish intellectuals in Middle and East European cities (Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Triest) at the turn of the century is being shown until 8 November. Objects on display include self-portraits, the Gustav Mahler Vision and the autograph score of "Peace on Earth." The Neue Galerie at the Landesmuseum Joanneum has organized an exhibition on the occasion of Austria’s EU presidency. This exhibition, "Jenseits der Kunst," (Beyond Art) is being shown in the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp from 19 September till 6 December 1998 and presents the most important twelve-tone rows and dodecaphonic row devices by Schönberg from the beginnings of "composition with twelve notes related only to each other" (Serenade, op. 24, Quintet for Winds, op. 26) through the late works ("A Survivor from Warsaw," op. 46).
A small exhibition of pictures related to Schönberg’s life and work will be shown at the Opera House in Graz, where the current season is opening with a performance of "Moses und Aron."


Permanet Exhibition

The end of the "Exposition" was celebrated with a closing week-end on 12 and 13 September. 700 people came to the exhibition, films and the concert of the Ensemble Kontrapunkte on those two days. In order to continue offering the public the possibility of seeing a selection of manuscripts of Schönberg’s music and writings, as well as of his books, paintings and teaching materials, the Arnold Schönberg Center is presenting an exhibition that will provide insights into Schönberg’s life and work. This permanent exhibition provides the possibility to visit Vienna’s new sight on Schwarzenbergplatz all year.


Arnold Schönberg's Study

Arnold Schönberg’s study is a replica presenting Schönberg’s original furniture and equipment from his time in Mödling, Berlin and California. It displays his personal tools and writing aids, some of which he invented and constructed himself. The replica of the study is on permanent display at the Arnold Schönberg Center.