Arnold Schoenberg, Quintett Op. 26 i. Schwungvoll Part 1, Basel Ense
  • Classical music Heinz Holliger, oboe Klaus Tunemann, Fagott Aurèle Nicolet, Flöte Eduard Brunner, Klarinette Radovan Vlatković, Horn. At the beginning of the 1920s Arnold Schönberg revolutionized the existing rules of Western music with his Methode der Komposition mit zwölf nur aufeinander bezogenen Tönen. With the twelve-tone method, a visionary plan for a future musical order, he laid the twentieth century's decisive foundation for the emancipation of traditional hierarchical principles of organization. The Wind Quintet, Op. 26, was begun in one of the composer's most difficult years and completed in one of his happiest. On 14th April 1923, when Schönberg committed the first ideas for the work to paper, he had already made plans for a summer holiday with his family in Traunkirchen, Upper Austria, a spa that had been a favourite of his since 1907. When he arrived there on 1 st June 1923, he had the first movement with him, having completed it the previous evening. On the manuscript he had written: 'I think Goethe would have been quite happy with me.' That summer in Traunkirchen not only saw an intense period of work on the Wind Quintet and a large number of theoretical and historical writings but was also marked by the serious illness of his wife Mathilde. In September she had to return to Vienna where she was admitted to a sanatorium; Schönberg's work on his Wind Quintet was interrupted. Mathilde Schönberg passed away on 18th October 1923 in the presence of her husband. After the first ...

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