SOME IMPRESSIONS
Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Schubert
and the Odyssey of Exile
on the occasion of the exhibition opening
Arnold Schoenberg.
Through the Lens of Richard Fish
Presented by the ACF Washington and PostClassical Ensemble
in conjunction with the exhibition
Arnold Schoenberg. Through the Lens of Richard Fish
sponsored by the Arnold Schoenberg Center Vienna
William Sharp, baritone
Alexander Shtarkman, piano
Commentary by Joseph Horowitz and Angel Gil-Ordóñez
This unique concert explores the condition of exile in the music of four composers, ranging from the existential estrangement of Franz Schubert’s Wanderer to Hanns Eisler’s wartime exile in Los Angeles.
William Sharp, one of America’s best-known concert singers, is a frequent guest of PostClassical Ensemble.
Alexander Shtarkman, an award-winning pianist, last appeared with PostClassical Ensemble in music by Arnold Schoenberg and Hanns Eisler at Washington National Cathedral.
Joseph Horowitz, Executive Director of PostClassical Ensemble, is the author of Artists in Exile: How Refugees from European War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts.
Songs and piano works by Franz Schubert, Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Hanns Eisler.
When: May 25, 2018 | 7.00 pm
Where: Austrian Cultural Forum/Embassy of Austria, 3524 International Court, NW, Washington, DC. 20008
PROGRAM
Franz Schubert: An die Musik
Franz Schubert: Andantino from Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959
Alban Berg: Piano Sonata
Arnold Schoenberg: Six Little Piano Pieces
Arnold Schoenberg: Songs
Hanns Eisler: Songs from the Hollywood Songbook
Franz Schubert: Songs from Winterreise
About the exhibition
Arnold Schoenberg. Through the Lens of Richard Fish
May 25 – June 15
Arnold Schoenberg – composer, painter, teacher, theoretician and innovator – was born in Vienna in 1874 and died in Los Angeles in 1951. He also resided in Berlin, Barcelona, Paris and Boston. In music history Schoenberg’s name is associated with an epoch-making innovation: the “Method of composing with twelve tones which are related only with one another.” The estate of the composer has been preserved at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna since 1998.
In May 1936, the Schoenberg family moved into a house with garden at 116 North Rockingham Avenue, Brentwood Park, Los Angeles. In summer 1948, Richard Fish, a young photographer, met Schoenberg at his Brentwood Park house. Fish visited Schoenberg many more times, leaving posterity with a particularly coherent documentation of the composer, teacher and father in his later years. Schoenberg actively participated in designing the pictures; when Fish wanted to photograph him with some of his oil paintings, Schoenberg was on the spot at once with a hammer and nails, arranging three paintings and sitting himself in fourth place as a living portrait. Other photos depict Schoenberg dictating, playing tennis and teaching. Schoenberg underlined his esteem for the photographer on a signed print: “To Mr. Richard Fish cordially thanking for making me so handsome: Arnold Schoenberg September 1950.”
Presented by the Arnold Schoenberg Center Vienna
In Cooperation with
Impressions from the concert
Eva Schöfer, our Cultural Counselor talking
Piano: Alexander Shtarkan
Baritone: Wiliam Sharp
