Arnold Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht

Verklärte Nacht (or Transfigured Night) is the high point of Arnold Schoenberg's early composing period before he moved away from the late-Romantic tonal idiom of Brahms and Wagner and developed his 12-tone technique for making all notes in the scale of equal importance.

Composed in 1899 as a string sextet, the later string orchestral version (of 1917, revised 1943), as here, is the most commonly heard today.

Schoenberg (1874-1951) was a music theorist and painter, as well as composer, and became important also as a teacher and mentor. He founded what has become known as the Second Viennese School- a movement inspired by his compositional advances  in extended tonality, through atonality to his 12-tone serial method. His most well known associates were Alban Berg and Anton Webern.

Verklärte Nacht is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel (with the same title): two lovers walk under trees on a moonlit night. She tells him her destiny was to be fulfilled by motherhood and had become pregnant by another man before meeting her true love. Her lover assures her their love is strong enough for them and her baby to achieve perfect unity, and they embrace and walk on through the high, bright night . . .  (The words of the poem are given below).

Schoenberg's music - almost a symphonic poem - is both introspective and passionate. His idiom is still tonal, but he expands on the late-Romantic style with increasing chromaticism - almost wringing as much he can from the tonal system western music had developed over the preceding centuries.

The nicely rich digital recording here was made by Decca in late 1981 (two years before the advent of CD) in the late lamented Kingsway Hall in Central London - home to some of the great Decca and EMI recordings. Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts the English Chamber Orchestra.

Cartridge: SAE 1000LT

Phono amp: Graham Slee Reflex M

Turntable: Kenwood KD7010

Zwei Menschen gehn durch kahlen, kalten Hain; der Mond läuft mit, sie schaun hinein. Der Mond läuft über hohe Eichen; kein Wölkchen trübt das Himmelslicht, in das die schwarzen Zacken reichen. Die Stimme eines Weibes spricht:		Two people are walking through a bare, cold wood; the moon keeps pace with them and draws their gaze. The moon moves along above tall oak trees, there is no wisp of cloud to obscure the radiance to which the black, jagged tips reach up. A woman’s voice speaks:
„Ich trag ein Kind, und nit von Dir, ich geh in Sünde neben Dir. Ich hab mich schwer an mir vergangen. Ich glaubte nicht mehr an ein Glück und hatte doch ein schwer Verlangen nach Lebensinhalt, nach Mutterglück		“I am carrying a child, and not by you. I am walking here with you in a state of sin. I have offended grievously against myself. I despaired of happiness, and yet I still felt a grievous longing for life’s fullness, for a mother’s joys
und Pflicht; da hab ich mich erfrecht, da ließ ich schaudernd mein Geschlecht von einem fremden Mann umfangen, und hab mich noch dafür gesegnet. Nun hat das Leben sich gerächt: nun bin ich Dir, o Dir, begegnet.“		and duties; and so I sinned, and so I yielded, shuddering, my sex to the embrace of a stranger, and even thought myself blessed. Now life has taken its revenge, and I have met you, met you.”
Sie geht mit ungelenkem Schritt. Sie schaut empor; der Mond läuft mit. Ihr dunkler Blick ertrinkt in Licht. Die Stimme eines Mannes spricht:		She walks on, stumbling. She looks up; the moon keeps pace. Her dark gaze drowns in light. A man’s voice speaks:
„Das Kind, das Du empfangen hast, sei Deiner Seele keine Last, o sieh, wie klar das Weltall schimmert! Es ist ein Glanz um alles her; Du treibst mit mir auf kaltem Meer, doch eine eigne Wärme flimmert von Dir in mich, von mir in Dich.		“Do not let the child you have conceived be a burden on your soul. Look, how brightly the universe shines! Splendour falls on everything around, you are voyaging with me on a cold sea, but there is the glow of an inner warmth from you in me, from me in you.
Die wird das fremde Kind verklären, Du wirst es mir, von mir gebären; Du hast den Glanz in mich gebracht, Du hast mich selbst zum Kind gemacht.“ Er faßt sie um die starken Hüften. Ihr Atem küßt sich in den Lüften. Zwei Menschen gehn durch hohe, helle Nacht.		That warmth will transfigure the stranger’s child, and you bear it me, begot by me. You have transfused me with splendour, you have made a child of me.” He puts an arm about her strong hips. Their breath embraces in the air. Two people walk on through the high, bright night.