Berg: Chamber Concerto / Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto; Dumbarton Oaks; 8 Miniatures

In this recording, the pianist is Daniel Barenboim, the violinist is Pinchas Zukerman, the orchestra is the Ensemble InterContemporain, and the conductor is Pierre Boulez.

## Berg: Chamber Concerto

The Kammerkonzert für Klavier und Geige mit 13 Bläsern (Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments) is a piece of chamber music composed by Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1923 and 1925. The short score was completed on 9 February 1925; the full score was finished on 23 July 1925. The work was premiered on 19 March 1927.

### Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following instruments: Piccolo, Flute, Oboe, English Horn, Eb Clarinet, A Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, Contrabassoon, 2 Horns, Trumpet, and Trombone.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Thema scherzoso con variazioni
2. Adagio
3. Rondo ritmico con introduzione

## Stravinsky: Dumbarton Oaks

Concerto in E-flat, inscribed Dumbarton Oaks, 8.v.38 (1937–38) is a chamber concerto by Igor Stravinsky, named for the Dumbarton Oaks estate of Robert Woods Bliss and Mildred Barnes Bliss in Washington, DC, who commissioned it for their thirtieth wedding anniversary. Composed in Stravinsky's neoclassical period, the piece is one of Stravinsky's two chamber concertos (the other being the Concerto in D, for strings, 1946). The piece is performed without a break and the total length is roughly twelve minutes. The concerto was heavily inspired by Bach's set of Brandenburg Concertos, and was the last work Stravinsky completed in Europe, started in spring 1937 at the Château de Montoux near Annemasse, near Geneva, Switzerland, and finished in Paris on March 29, 1938.

The commission had been brokered by Nadia Boulanger. She also conducted the May 8, 1938 private premiere in the music room at Dumbarton Oaks, while the composer was hospitalized with tuberculosis. The public premiere took place in Paris on June 4, 1938, at a concert of La Sérénade, with Stravinsky conducting. The full-score manuscript, formerly owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss, is in the Harvard University Rare Book Collection of the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington, DC.

Stravinsky himself created a reduction for two pianos. Leif Thybo's 1952 transcription for organ laid the foundation for his investigation of the possibilities of the modern form of the instrument. A ballet, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, was premiered by the New York City Ballet on June 23, 1972, calling for one principal and six corps dancers of each sex.

### Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following instruments: Flute, Bb Clarinet, Bassoon, 2 Horns, 3 Violins, 3 Violas, 2 Cellos, and 2 Double Basses.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Tempo giusto
2. Allegretto
3. Con moto

## Stravinsky: 8 Instrumental Miniatures

Stravinsky's 8 Instrumental Miniatures were composed in 1962. 'Originally composed as a series of five-finger piano exercises, the orchestrated versions of these eight short works were completed singly and in small groups for specific concert occasions, including a Monday Evening Series in Los Angeles (numbers one through four), a concert in Mexico (number eight), and those by the CBC Orchestra of Toronto (numbers five, six, and seven). The eight pieces together may be performed in under eight minutes. Each work is a five-note tone row; that is, each row consists of only five notes with counterpoint added subsequently during the orchestration process. The pieces are extremely sparse, late-Stravinsky works written entirely for higher pitched instruments and played at a generally quick tempo.' - Michael Morrison

### Instruments

The piece is scored for the following: 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, Horn, 2 Violins, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos.

### Miniatures

The names of the miniatures are:

1. Andantino
2. Vivace
3. Lento
4. Allegretto
5. Moderato
6. Tempo di Marcia
7. Larghetto
8. Tempo di Tango

## Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto

Igor Stravinsky wrote the Ebony Concerto in 1945 (finishing the score on December 1) for the Woody Herman band known as the First Herd. It is one in a series of compositions commissioned by the bandleader/clarinetist featuring solo clarinet, and the score is dedicated to him. It was first performed on March 25, 1946 in Carnegie Hall in New York City, by Woody Herman's Band, conducted by Walter Hendl.

### Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following instruments: Bb Solo Clarinet, 2 Eb Alto Saxophones, 2 Bb Tenor Saxophones, Eb Baritone Saxophone, 3 Bb Clarinets (doubled by first and second alto and first tenor saxophone players), Bb Bass Clarinet (doubled by second tenor saxophone), F Horn, 5 Bb Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Piano, Harp, Guitar, Double Bass and Drum Kit.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Allegro moderato - Andante - Moderato - Con moto - Moderato - Vivo

## Program Note - Learning by Enjoying

The detectives invoked by Boulez have been busy and successful over the past few years, but it is doubtful if the intimate secrets which Berg embedded in his Chamber Concerto (1923-25) can all be deciphered at this distance in time. And when faced with a masterpiece it's not that important to know which notes or combinations of notes come charged with special autobiographical significance. The non-cryptic, undisguised characteristics of the piece are already plenty for the ear to absorb, when one is lucky enough to hear it played by a capable, authoritative, let alone outstanding ensemble. Such a team was assembled in Paris in the 1970s, and recording technology allows us to hear again a performance to match what Boulez wrote in his note for the recording's first issue: excessive, full of ideas, keeping track of all the motivic ramifications. Pinchas Zukerman and Daniel Barenboim, who also recorded Brahms's Violin Sonatas, among other works, for Deutsche Grammophon, joined forces with Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble InterContemporain which he founded and directed, in this version of one of the most complex and simultaneously most exciting scores of the 20th century.

The full title Berg gave his three-movement piece is Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with Thirteen Winds. He wrote it for the 50th birthday of his teacher and friend Arnold Schoenberg, and seized the opportunity to give musical expression to the close and fruitful relationship between Schoenberg, Anton Webern and himself. The work is prefaced by a "motto" for the piano, the violin and the horn, enunciating those letters of the three men's names which can be reproduced in musical notation. In German usage these are A to G (B = B flat), H (= B natural) and S (Es = E flat). The three themes "spelt out" to the listener in this form are: ArnolD SCHönBErG - Anton WEBErn - AlBAn BErG.

The works of Berg and Stravinsky on this disc will be enjoyed not only on account of their profound and vital performances under the direction of a conductor who was a composer first, but also because of the progressive and simultaneously connective forms of expression they adopt. Progressive, because Berg's Chamber Concerto and Stravinsky's works contain decisive elements of the "new music" of our century. Connective, because pieces like Stravinsky's Ebony Concerto and his chamber concerto Dumbarton Oaks, "in the style of the Brandenburg Concertos", reach out to American Jazz as well as to Classical forms. Stravinsky wrote his three-movement Ebony Concerto for the clarinettist Benny Goodman, a forerunner of artists from the worlds of jazz and pop music today, like Gulda, Corea and Jarrett, who work for understanding and reconciliation between music's separate enclaves. Stravinsky's Eight Instrumental Miniatures are re-scorings of Les cinq doigts, his easy piano pieces for children. The last is a movement in "Tempo di Tango" - another instance of how "light" the "serious" music of this century can get.

*Peter Cossé*

*(Translation: Mary Whittall)*

## Reviews

Berg's personality is fascinating in more ways than one, but what I find most striking is the combination of immediate expressiveness with outstanding structural powers. He was certainly a romantic, even to excess: what he communicates are feelings of fascination, nostalgia, often paroxysm. His music expresses his whole personality and reflects the epoch in which he lived. Yet this orgy of sensations is organised in such detail that it needs the work of a detective to trace the endless ramifications of his ideas. These are scattered in abundance throughout all his scores.

*Pierre Boulez*

## Links

For the playlist of the album, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h\_Ai8ZBRZ\_g&list=OLAK5uy\_lSQOjyQbT7xr2aq3gc3IjR4Ee2Ao0WHS8

For more details on the album, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/berg-chamber-concerto-stravinsky-ebony-concerto-2737

For the official Deutsche Grammophon website, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en

## Notes

* Art Direction - Hartmut Pfeiffer
* Clarinetist - Michel Arrignon
* Composers - Alban Berg, Igor Stravinsky
* Conductor - Pierre Boulez
* Engineers - Karl-August Naegler, Klaus Scheibe
* Executive-Producer - Günther Beest
* Orchestra - Ensemble InterContemporain
* Photographer - Clive Barda
* Pianist - Daniel Barenboim
* Producers - Dr. Rudolf Werner, Wolfgang Stengel
* Violinist - Pinchas Zukerman
* Sound - Stereo
* Recording dates - June 1977 (Berg), November & December 1980, December 1981, January & February 1982 (Stravinsky)
* Recording venues - Paris, Salle de la Mutualité (Berg), Paris, IRCAM (Stravinsky)
* Total duration - 61'45