Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Arnold Schönberg - Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11
Performer: Mitsuko Uchida
00:00 - I. Mäßig
04:25 - II. Sehr langsam
11:10 - III. Bewegt
The Three Piano Pieces were written in Schönberg’s extremely productive creative phase in 1909, during which he also composed the Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 16, and “Erwartung,” op. 17. Besides fundamental innovations in the handling of material (mainly in the solution of the form-building hierarchy of tonic thinking), important elements of musical tradition remain. In the first piece from op. 11, the rough outlines of a three-part form (A–B–A’) are recognisable, additionally, a conventional thematic work somewhat in the sense of Liszt’s transformation technique is clearly seen at the beginning. Also a connection can be seen with the last piano intermezzi by Brahms, with their closely-woven motival technique, well-balanced articulation and rhythmic structure. The second piece, with its long, melancholy theme over a bass ostinato of two notes can of course be more clearly seen in connection with inherited experience than the final piece, where the considerable density of the writing and impulsive upsurging sounds made Theodor W. Adorno speak of it as an example of “informal” music. In 1910, Schönberg’s radical “need for expression,” instinctive, accompanied by artistic/religious ideas, seemingly unconditional treatment of traditions, in reality turned out to be extremely rationally thought through. Ernst Bloch’s term “logic of expression” seems, applied to Schönberg, to be two-faced: “Every chord,” says the composer, for example in his “Theory of Harmony,” “is a compulsion of my need for expression, but possibly also a compulsion of an inexorable but unconscious logic in the harmonic construction.”
Arnold Schönberg - Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11
Performer: Mitsuko Uchida
00:00 - I. Mäßig
04:25 - II. Sehr langsam
11:10 - III. Bewegt
The Three Piano Pieces were written in Schönberg’s extremely productive creative phase in 1909, during which he also composed the Five Pieces for Orchestra, op. 16, and “Erwartung,” op. 17. Besides fundamental innovations in the handling of material (mainly in the solution of the form-building hierarchy of tonic thinking), important elements of musical tradition remain. In the first piece from op. 11, the rough outlines of a three-part form (A–B–A’) are recognisable, additionally, a conventional thematic work somewhat in the sense of Liszt’s transformation technique is clearly seen at the beginning. Also a connection can be seen with the last piano intermezzi by Brahms, with their closely-woven motival technique, well-balanced articulation and rhythmic structure. The second piece, with its long, melancholy theme over a bass ostinato of two notes can of course be more clearly seen in connection with inherited experience than the final piece, where the considerable density of the writing and impulsive upsurging sounds made Theodor W. Adorno speak of it as an example of “informal” music. In 1910, Schönberg’s radical “need for expression,” instinctive, accompanied by artistic/religious ideas, seemingly unconditional treatment of traditions, in reality turned out to be extremely rationally thought through. Ernst Bloch’s term “logic of expression” seems, applied to Schönberg, to be two-faced: “Every chord,” says the composer, for example in his “Theory of Harmony,” “is a compulsion of my need for expression, but possibly also a compulsion of an inexorable but unconscious logic in the harmonic construction.”
