As part of this year's annual Focus series, Milton Babbitt's World, A Centennial Celebration, the Juilliard Orchestra gave a concert on Friday evening at Alice Tully that featured a challenging program of modern works by Brahms, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Babbitt himself. The ensemble was conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky and included pianist Conor Hanick as soloist.
The program began with Brahms's Chorale-Prelude Es ist ein Ros entsprungen ("Behold a Rose is Blooming"), Op. 122, No. 8 (ca. 1896) as arranged for orchestra by Erich Leinsdorf. Any connection between the traditionalist Brahms and the arch-modernist Babbitt is difficult to discern even on close examination. They were, in the character of their work, as different from one another as night and day. Nevertheless, Babbitt had a high regard for the Viennese composer, even more so because he was held in such high esteem by Schoenberg for the meticulous craftsmanship he invariably displayed in his compositions. Schoenberg had in fact orchestrated Brahms's Piano Quartet in G minor, a work that later served as the basis for the ballet choreographed George Balanchine. The Op. 122 was Brahms's last work and was published only posthumously in 1902. Unlike the music that followed, it was lyrical and firmly based in nineteenth century Romanticism.
Next was Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 (1909, rev. 1949). Schoenberg, in his relentless search for a new musical direction, was without doubt the greatest influence on Babbitt and his style of composition. I had heard earlier this month at Chamberfest Schoenberg's Second String Quartet that dates from roughly the same period as the Five Pieces. It's fascinating to witness in both the determination with which Schoenberg moved away from nineteenth century form and tonality in order to create a new path for himself. That these pieces were essential steps to the eventual realization of the twelve-tone technique can be seen from a statement made by the composer in a 1928 letter:
"For the present it matters more to me if people understand my older works.... Only those who understand...them will be able to hear [later ones] with any understanding beyond the fashionable minimum.... I do not attach so much importance to being a musical bogeyman as to being a natural continuer of properly understood, good old tradition."
The reception the Five Pieces received at its 1912 London premiere (a year before Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps made its tumultuous debut in Paris) was as harsh and uncomprehending as that which had met the Second Quartet and the First Chamber Symphony in Vienna. Strangely, at Friday's performance the work, while hardly melodic, sounded far less discordant than one might have expected. This was the 1949 version which Schoenberg had created for smaller orchestral forces in the forlorn hope of increasing the number of its performances.
After intermission, the program resumed with Stravinsky's Variations (Aldous Huxley in Memoriam) (1963-64). Late in life, Stravinsky was dismayed to learn that he and his neo-classical works had been superseded as relevant forces within modern music by Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School. Not ready to be left behind, he quickly adapted to the times. Having been introduced to Webern's music, he found that he could live with the twelve-tone technique he had so long disdained. This piece was already in progress when Stravinsky learned of the death of his long time friend Huxley, author of The Doors of Perception, whose life I've always considered the most fascinating of all twentieth century British literary figures. The work, only about six minutes in length, was as dense as it was concise.
The evening concluded with Milton Babbitt's Piano Concerto No. 2 (1998). I have to admit that, though I do enjoy modern music, this was the first piece I'd heard by this composer. Commissioned by James Levine, who conducted the premiere with the Met Orchestra, it was one of only a handful of orchestral works that Babbitt produced during his lifetime. He commented that in order to project its "pitch, temporal and dynamic properties," he had chosen to work with only a small size orchestra to which he had added a vibraphone, marimba and harp. Knowing Babbitt's connection to electronic music, I was disappointed that none had been included in the concerto. But even without it, this was as uncompromising a piece of contemporary music as I've encountered. Roughly a half hour long, it made no concessions to its listeners.
It's been a couple of years since I last saw the Juilliard Orchestra. I thought the entire ensemble performed the difficult program extremely well under Jeffrey Milarsky's accomplished direction. Soloist Conor Hanick outdid himself on the complex concerto and entirely deserved the huge round of applause he drew from the audience and the orchestra members after its conclusion.
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