Arnold Schönberg Symposium: 8-10 October 2015, Vienna

Next month, the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna will be holding its annual symposium. Taking place over two-and-a-half days, it covers a variety of Schoenbergian – or, if you prefer, Schönbergian – topics, ranging from the reception of Schoenberg in Japan to Herbert von Karajan’s recording of the Variations for Orchestra. False modesty only goes so far: I am delighted to be speaking on Moses und Aron and its staging. Below are the whole programme (copied from the website) and an abstract from my paper. Abstracts from the others should soon be available here, on the ASC website. Entrance is free, eliminating one possible excuse…

 

Staging Moses und Aron: Representing a Representation of the Unrepresentable

Moses und Aron questions the possibility of artistic representation. Schoenberg’s God is unimaginable: it is impossible to make Him into an image. Reformation controversy over iconoclasm informed the classical German concept of Bildung, the very word incorporating Bild, or ‘image’. Where does that leave musico-dramatic expression?

How does such extreme difficulty translate into staging? Schoenberg’s stage directions are notoriously unrealisable. Erwin Stein reported, apparently without irony, from the premiere: ‘there was not enough space for displaying the processions of camels, wagons and asses which are supposed to bring offerings to the idol. These tasks as well as the slaughter of cattle and the roasting of meat, which are part of the offerings, will tax the resources of any opera house.’ What of more theoretical concerns, in light of debates concerning Werktreue and Regietheater? What do particular stagings tell us about representation and its impossibility? What does the work’s confrontation with representation tell us about the possibilities of staging?

 

Donnerstag, 8. Oktober 2015, 15.00 Uhr

Workshop
Werkverzeichnis/Registerband zur Arnold Schönberg Gesamtausgabe
Therese Muxeneder (Wien), Ulrich Krämer (Berlin), Hella Melkert (Berlin)

Donnerstag, 8. Oktober, 17.00 Uhr

Projektpräsentation
Brief-Datenbank Universal Edition
Katharina Bleier (Wien)

Donnerstag, 8. Oktober 2015, 19.00 Uhr

Begrüßung & Eröffnung

Peter Fischer-Appelt (Hamburg)
Arnold Schönberg und Karl Barth
Die Konstellation zweier Gedankenwelten in der Suche nach gewaltfreier Gotteserkenntnis

Arnold Schoenberg Chor
Erwin Ortner Leitung
Max Reger: Nachtlied op. 138 Nr. 3
Arnold Schönberg: Friede auf Erden op. 13

Freitag, 9. Oktober 2015, 10.00 Uhr

Caroline A. Kita (St. Louis)
Schönberg’s Die Jakobsleiter and Modern Jewish Biblical Drama

Katrin Eggers (Basel)
»Quasi-Bilder« der Bewegung: Formgebärden im Musiktheater Arnold Schönbergs

Mark Berry (London)
Staging Moses und Aron: Representing a Representation of the Unrepresentable

Freitag, 9. Oktober 2015, 15.00 Uhr

Therese Muxeneder (Wien)
Der Herr ist hier!
The Enigma of Modern Music Arrives in America

Luca Antonucci (Boston / Wien)
Arnold Schönberg, Conductor: A Performance from Schönberg’s East Coast Year

J. Daniel Jenkins (Columbia)
From Verstehen to Fasslichkeit:
Schönberg, Recording Technology, Liner Notes, and Public Musicology

Fusako Hamao (Santa Monica)
The Reception of Arnold Schönberg in Japan

Samstag, 10. Oktober 2015, 10.00 Uhr

Alexander Gurdon (Dortmund)
»Wir paar Leute, muessen zusammenhalten!« – Oskar Fried und Arnold Schönberg

Elizabeth Keathley (Greensboro)
Schönberg’s French Connection: Marya Freund, Pierrot lunaire, and Schönberg in Paris

Dennis Gerlach (Berlin)
Die Macht des Maestro
Herbert von Karajans Aufnahme der Variationen für Orchester op. 31

Samstag, 10. Oktober 2015, 14.30 Uhr

Philip Stoecker (Hempstead, NY)
A »Theoretical Trifle« in Schönberg’s Serenade, op. 24

Charles Stratford (Boston)
»Die alten Formen in der neuen Musik«: Neoclassicism in Schönberg’s Serenade, Op. 24

Kooperation
Arnold Schönberg Center
Wissenschaftszentrum Arnold Schönberg am Institut für Musikalische Stilforschung der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien

Eintritt frei