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The Schoenberg conference (unedited, unabridged) by Greg A Steinke © 2005 'International Conference: Arnold Schoenberg Reconsidered.' Presented by the School of Music of the Herberger College of Fine Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ,
The conference opened with a lovely reception at the site of one of several exhibits available to conference attendees. This one, Arnold Schoenberg, 1874-1951, An Interactive Multimedia Exhibition was in a gallery several blocks from the music school. The exhibition is presented by the Arnold Schoenberg Center of Vienna and was curated by two of Schoenberg's three surviving children, Nuria Schoenberg Nono and Lawrence A. Schoenberg with text settings by Christopher Hailey, currently director of the Franz Schreker Foundation in Los Angeles . (It should be noted that this showing is the first appearance of this exhibition in the United States .) The exhibition consists of a series of 12 beautifully constructed panels resembling mini theatres that, through pictures and accompanying dialogues with music performances, convey the scope of Schoenberg's musical and other artistic activities from the early to mid twentieth century. As one walks and peruses the theatres there is a portable player to listen to the dialogue and music. For the moment one seems transported back to another time and era, almost like being in a time warp, while taking the journey from one theatre to the next. I felt like I was visiting with old friends as this was the stuff of which I grew up on as an undergraduate and graduate student. (The exhibition was large enough that I had to come back the next day to more thoroughly peruse everything as there was an extensive publisher display of scores and other Schoenberg memorabilia mounted on small panels.) [please see photos #14-27, 28-33; also #6 of conference coord. Shot with one of the theatres in background,; also shot of L. Schoenberg and wife at same exhibition. #34] As part of the reception for this opening session of the conference remarks were made by Wayne Bailey, Director of the School of Music, J. Robert Wills, Dean of the Herberger College of Fine Arts, Sabine Feisst, Conference Coordinator, Baruch Meir, Artistic Director of Performances, and Kay Norton, Exhibition Coordinator. After the gracious remarks and some interesting sidelights by Dr. Bailey and his bouts with the customs service in receiving the exhibits from Germany where they had last been, we were treated to several excerpts from Schoenberg's early Cabaret Songs and an arrangement of a Strauss waltz he made at the turn of the twentieth century sometime before the Schoenberg we remember of twelve tone pieces and atonality. It represented a curious dichotomy of the Schoenberg we probably think we all know. The performances were beautifully performed by a mix of ASU undergraduate and graduate students that had been wonderfully coached. As it turned out, this was not a conference for the faint of heart conference-goer. (The whole conference had a tight and very well organized schedule that kept me very busy for two solid days. No complaints; it was worth every moment.) So, it was a short break and then off to the first concert of the conference in the lovely Katzin Concert Hall that is a part of a fairly recently built addition to the original round music building that mirrors in miniature the round Gammage Auditorium across the street that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. All of the concerts were in this wonderful setting and beheld musical performances equally befitting for three evenings in a row.
The "Pierrot?" Wow, nothing like hearing this piece live after so many recordings. I have only heard this piece live a couple of times, but this performance really knocked one's socks off! Ms. Narucki, complete in Pierrot makeup and costume made a startling impression from the moment she set foot onstage. It was an excellent, heartfelt, and very dramatic performance. I have not had the pleasure of hearing Ms. Narucki before, but this was certainly a great performance to have heard her for the first time! It was if Pierrot came alive in front of our eyes. Although the conductor did an excellent job ─ same with Debussy ─ I felt the ensemble needed some balancing in spots to better compliment the reciter. Some things seemed a little too orchestral rather than chamber-perhaps Schoenberg. might have wanted this. Nonetheless, I would have preferred a little more "chamber" approach and a more intimate sound But small point, it was still a terrific performance and incomparable to many recorded performances I have heard. The drama of the recitation performance builds the excitement here and that must be experienced live. (This experience really made me look forward to the Schoenberg 2nd quartet on Tuesday night; I wasn't disappointed. ) The first full day of the conference was packed with many things to do. First on the agenda was a visit to the School of Music Library Lobby where there were scores, journals and books on display along with a series of 12 panels on the "Life and Works of Arnold Schoenberg" created by Nuria Schoenberg Nono. The panels are divided into three groups that offer a chronology of Schoenberg, commentary on his operas, Moses and Aron, Erwartung, Von Heute auf Morgen and Glückliche Hand and then commentary on different aspects of his intellectual life concerning: 12-tone composition; teaching; writings; religion, ethics and the Jewish Nation; and paintings. There were also two computer stations featuring a "Classical Jukebox" with the complete music of Arnold Schoenberg. (This jukebox feature by the way is available to anyone through the Arnold Schoenberg Center 's website. A high speed connection is recommended. There is also access through this same site to many Schoenberg artifacts, manuscripts, scores, et cetera.)
The early afternoon began with one of three Schoenberg films to be shown as part of the conference: Arnold Schoenberg o My War Years (Rhombus Media, 1992, Director: Larry Weinstein). I was not familiar with the film; I don't know how well known it is in the U.S. It is a documentary and focuses on Schoenberg's personal experiences and creative output between 1906 and 1923. It combines photos, location footage in Vienna and the Austrian countryside, and conversations with his friends and students, with performances by Pierre Boulez and Michael Tilson Thomas, among others. It certainly offered a well-crafted introduction to Schoenberg for this time period. This screening was quickly followed by the first part of the symposium portion of the conference: New Directions in Schoenberg Scholarship. General opening remarks were made again by Director Wayne Bailey and Dean Robert Wills. Martin Weiss, Consul General of the Austrian Consulate in Los Angeles , spoke next to express his country's deep appreciation for having the conference and also for being the first U.S. location to host the exhibitions from the Schoenberg Center in Vienna . He was followed by Christopher Hailey, mentioned previously, who offered some personal insights about the challenge of doing the multimedia exhibition in writing the script and selecting the musical excerpts. He speculated about the cultural divides and chasms that have existed since at least the beginning of the twentieth century and Schoenberg's role perhaps being a significant factor as part of this cultural divisiveness. He further expressed the challenge of the relation of music to the other arts, Schoenberg's function in that, and how many people do not even see these relationships. Thus, he had the challenge of finding the right balance between words, imagines and sounds to try to show the complete universe of Schoenberg and his work. (Having viewed the exhibition, I think that he was eminently successful.) Mr. Hailey proved to be a very charismatic and informative speaker as we prepared to transition to the first panel of the symposium: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on (In the interest of not being too longwinded about the symposium, I will identify speakers and their topics, drawing verbatim from their abstracts to give a brief description of their presentations and perhaps commenting here and there on any special items that might be of interest to the reader) Presentations for this panel were led by Therese Muxeneder, who is Archivist of the Arnold Schoenberg Center , editor of the Catalogue Raisonné of Schoenberg's paintings and editor of the Critical Edition of Schoenberg's writings. She spoke and gave a well-illustrated presentation on the recent release in March, 2005 of the Catalogue Raisonné of Schoenberg's paintings that now includes many sketches, fragments and previously lost works. This discussion revealed for many in attendance another intriguing facet of Schoenberg's creative output. The results of this new catalogue are viewable in whole or part-this was not made clear -through the Schoenberg Center web site. Dr. Esther da Costa Meyer, Associate Professor of Art and Architecture at Princeton University, presented next on "Schoenberg and the Visual Arts." She is author of The Work of Antonio Sant'Elia: Retreat into Future and co-edited Schoenberg, Kandinsky and the Blue Rider. This proved to be a very insightful presentation of Schoenberg's connections with the Symbolist movement of his day and with Mondrian especially. Fascinating details were shared about the importance of the eyes in paintings of this time period as well as thematic connections dealing with the subconscious. One only needs to view one of the many self-portraits Schoenberg did to notice the eyes and to reflect on the many descriptions of him by others and the many times his eyes are mentioned. Dr. Severine Neff, who is Eugen Falk Distinguished Professor in the Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a distinguished writer, editor and translator of Schoenberg's theoretical writings spoke on "'The Air of Another Planet': George's Entrückung and Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, Op. 10". (Her Norton Critical Score of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, Op. 10 will appear in fall 2005.) Her paper interpreted certain aspects of form in this quartet's fourth movement in light of the George poem. Relationships were pointed out with Kandinsky's paintings based on the poem as well as a remark by Webern that the form of this movement is based on the form of the poem. Also considered were the literary history, meaning, and structure of the poem with an emphasis on its relation to Dante's Divine Comedy . Dr. Neff also analytically focused on Schoenberg's setting of the renowned first line, "I feel the air of another planet" and considered the line's relation to the movement's large-scale form-a form that mirrors the three states of Christian ecstasy depicted in George's work. (This proved to be excellent preparation to listen to the Tuesday performance of this work.) The panel was closed out by Dr. Alexander Lingas, Assistant Professor of Music History at ASU and director of the ensemble, Cappella Romana. His presentation on "Schoenberg's Theology of the Divine Image and Its Historical Antecedents" was excellent and fascinating. His premise for the paper was to analyze the attention given to Schoenberg's idiosyncratic rearticulations of Judaism's prohibition of attempts to fashion material images of an indescribable and immaterial God (the Bilderverbot). Dr. Lingua seeks to build on the work of Marc M. Kerling and Richard Kurth, which has examined these theological pronouncements in relation to Schoenberg's religious belief and musical compositions, to place Schoenberg's theology of the image of God and attendant pronouncements of the Bilderverbot in a wider historical context. After explaining ancient and medieval image-theologies he compared solutions advanced by Wagner, Mahler and Schoenberg to the problem of representing transcendent divinity in word and music and argues that they form a theological spectrum predicated on the strength or weaknesses of their respective christologies. This was very "heady" stuff but very fascinating. But not to tarry, there was a concert to get to and only some time for a brief bit of food. For the second concert Katzin Hall was again the venue for performances of Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19, Klavierstück, Op. 33A, and Drei Lieder für tiefe Stimme un Klavier, Op. 48; Berg: Vier Stücke für Klarinette und Klavier, Op. 5; Webern: Vier Stücke für Geige und Klavier, Op. 7; and Korngold: Die tote Stadt, Einfache Lieder, Op. 9 and Shakespeare Songs, Op. 29. The concert featured a mix of faculty artists and doctoral students from the School of Music . The solo and duet chamber music that led the program displayed remarkable piano playing by different faculty (Andrew Campbell, Robert Hamilton, Baruch Meir, and Hamilton Tescarollo) and student (Natalya Shkoda) performers throughout. As the complimentary solo performers I would single out the clarinet playing of Jorge Montilla's and Katie McLin's performances as quite exquisite and very much in the spirit of what's called for in dynamics and timbral coloring for the Berg and Webern respectively. Mezzo-soprano, Judy May in the Schoenberg songs was respectable but did not seem totally comfortable for the demands of these songs while Robert Barefield as baritone in the Korngold songs acquitted himself very comfortably in these somewhat disparate songs. Closing out the evening, Gary Hill again very ably led the chamber symphony ensemble in a very rousing and spirited performance that showcased very well the talents of the faculty and doctoral student performers in it. The concert brought a fitting conclusion to a very busy first day of the conference. The second day brought two more panel sessions to the symposium section, two more films and the final concluding concert.
The second presenter of this panel was Walter Frisch, H. Harold Gumm/Harry and Albert von Tilzer Professor of Music at Columbia University . He is the author of The Early Works of Schoenberg 1893-1908 (1993) and editor of Schoenberg and His World (1999); a new book, German Modernism: Music and the Arts is appearing this summer (2005) . His discussion, "The Ironic German: Schoenberg and the Serenade, Op. 24," focused on the first Schoenberg work to fully engage the neoclassical aesthetic of the early 1920s. Frisch indicated that the work can be interpreted in light of irony as understood and practiced among the early German modernists like Thomas Mann, who helped define an ironic vision in the early 1900s. T heodore Adorno's important essay on this work also considered the work from the standpoint of irony . After some remarks about the use of irony during this time period, Frisch focused his discussion on the opening March of the Serenade, He indicated that its march reinvents an older formal structure in ways that combine proto-serial techniques with tonal principles. That pitch-class sequences or sets are deployed symmetrically around D, which functions as a quasi-tonic for the movement . Frisch's discussion was helpful in clarifying and explaining Schoenberg's compositional activity at this time and how it was a response of sorts to Stravinsky's contemporary creation of his Octet. This panel session closed out with a paper by John Cuciurean, an Assistant Professor of Music theory at ASU. His research has focused on music since 1945, mathematical modeling of musical structures, and scalar theory. It has been published in a number of prestigious music journals. Prof. Cuciurean offered a brief overview of the analytical and theoretical discourse that has proliferated over the years as a means to understanding Schoenberg's twelve-tone music and methodological approaches. He also discussed the impact serial music had on shaping contemporary music theory in the United States following the Second World War. This was followed by commentary on the analytical work done on Schoenberg's music where the analyses do not always address all aspects of Schoenberg's music, when the music doesn't not fit the theory. These were illustrated by looking at excerpts from the Piano Suite, Op. 25, the second half of Klavierstücke, Op. 33b, and "Tot" from Three Songs, Op. 48 where Cuciurean suggests, by offering a possible alternative analytic reading of these passages , Cuciurean suggests that while our analytic insights have done much to impart knowledge of and appreciation for Schoenberg's twelve-tone pieces, it still has far to go before a thorough understanding of his principles is attained. Prior to this panel session there was another Schoenberg film followed by one after the third panel session. I'll treat them together. The first film, The Visions of Adrian Marthaler (Swiss Television DRS, 1991, Director: Adrian Mathaler) opened with a scrupulously attentive, memorized performance of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by the European Community Youth Orchestra directed by James Judd. This is followed by a somewhat musically and visually eccentric performance of Schonberg's Verklärte Nacht. It is a spliced together version of the sextet and string orchestra versions, using the orchestra as timbral and emotional reinforcement to the works of Klimt and Freud with the events of the Dehmel poem on which the work is based, to try to create a postmodern visual pastiche to accompany the fine performances by the Brodsky Quartet and the Basel Symphony Orchestra. While interest- ing as an historical piece, to me it seemed very dated even for 1991. The Five Orchestral Pieces (Allegrei Films, 1994, Director: Frank Scheffer), always a favorite of Schoenberg's compositions, was the last film. It is a far more engrossing situation than either of the other two films with Michael Gielen rehearsing and performing the Schoenberg Opus 16 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. The five movements are cleverly interspersed with interviews as Gielen, Carl Schorske and Charles Rosen discuss various aspects of Schoenberg's life and works. Rosen also performs the last movement of Schoenberg's Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11. This final film proved to be a great close to the afternoon before a break to go to the evening concert. The final panel of the symposium proved to be the most interesting series. Panel II, Schoenberg Reception in America , was chaired by Kay Norton, Associate Professor of Music History at ASU. She introduced Elizabeth Keathley, Assistant Professor of Historical Musicology at the University of North Carolina , Greensboro , who is published on the works of Schoenberg and Leonard Bernstein and has presented papers on Alma Mahler, Milton Babbitt, Mexican popular music and on gendered dimensions of rap and electronic pop music . Her paper on "Schoenberg in Paris : Marya Freund's Crucial Role in Schoenberg Performance and Reception" offered a human dimension to Schoenberg and his music that is not often discussed or explored. Keathley's presentation offered an engaging insight of the role internationally known soprano Fruend played in Schoenberg's introduction to Paris in 1927 through a series of concerts, lectures, and important social introductions to Mme Debussy and Mme Sophie Clemenceau. That undertaking, as well as the Parisian premieres of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet, Das Buch der hängenden Garten, and Pierrot lunaire (in her own French translation ) plus her later finding the Schoenberg family accommodations in Paris as he fled the Nazi regime, all make for an interesting and intriguing story of her role as the mediator between Schoenberg and the French audience. Although she was not Schoenberg's favorite interpreter of Pierrot lunaire, she is tied to the premieres of the work not only in Paris, but also Brussels, London and Barcelona as well many other performances, including a 1949 tour for which she came out of retirement, radio broadcasts on the BBC and Radiodiffusion Française of the same year, and a Schoenberg memorial concert in Rome in 1951. So it is a fascinating story that offers yet another dimension to the very multi-faceted personality of Schoenberg. Sabine Feisst, the conference coordinator and Assistant Professor of Music History and Literature at ASU was the next speaker, who led an excellent discussion on "Echoes of Pierrot lunaire in American Music." She argued in her presentation that few other works in twentieth-century music have affected as many American composers as Pierrot lunaire. Yet, this work has primarily been discussed as the force behind European music. Its comparative absence from accounts of American scene could be attributed to historiographical efforts to minimize the impact of Schoenberg on American music, to the "anxiety of influence" on the part of American composers or to the conventionalization of certain features of Pierrot lunaire. Feisst was able to shed light on intertextual relationships between Pierrot lunaire and American compositions based on categories such as instrumentation, vocal treatment, theatrical aspects, number symbolism and other structural elements from the time the work was introduced in the 1910s to the end of the twentieth century. Works such as Ruggles' Vox Clamans in Deserto of 1923-24, Bliztstein's I've Got the Tune of 1937, and Austin 's Variations.Beyond Pierrot of 1993-94 have been influenced and reflect a wide stylistic diversity. There are also works of the "Pierrot Project", c. 1987, that were initiated by Leonard Stein on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Pierrot lunaire. Those pieces, including Babbitt's "Souper," and Reynolds' Not Only Night display a range from homage through parody and "misreading ."
And that was Lawrence Schoenberg, the youngest of Schoenberg's children. He is a former teacher of mathematics but now with his two surviving siblings, Nuria Schoenberg Nono and Ronald Schoenberg, keeps very busy with the duties he shares with them of supervising and maintaining the Schoenberg Estate, his more specific task being the supervision of Belmont Music and along with Nuria, coordination of activities with the Schoenberg Center in Vienna. It is my understanding through several conversations I was able to have with Lawrence over the course of the conference that Ronald primarily looks after the legal affairs of the estate. (I am most appreciative of the time Lawrence was able to take to talk with me and answer my many questions during the conference about life with his father and how the survivors deal with such a complex estate and legacy such as Schoenberg's.) Thus, this final presentation of the conference, "Arnold Schoenberg. Then and Now," became for me a real centerpiece of the conference. While it is always good to learn about the many technical facets of a personality such as Schoenberg's, the personal glimpse inside a family and the working habits of a composer are more revealing than all the analysis and speculation that can come from a composer like Schoenberg. It's just my thing, and I'll admit it right up front. In any event, Lawrence 's presentation was effective and fascinating through the presentation of personal recollections, family photographs, voice transcriptions and other materials to help dispel popular myths associated with Schoenberg. It is difficult to capture it all here but with the focus primarily on the latter years of Schoenberg-Lawrence was born in 1941-one came away with a sense of Schoenberg's working routine, a flavor of the atmosphere surrounding premieres of his music at this time, the scope and nature of his teaching activities in the 40s, and a real fascination he had for inventing things both to assist in his composition and for practical things around the house. In the discussion, Lawrence offered details about the complexities surrounding the breakup of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute at USC and its subsequent relocation to Vienna as the Arnold Schoenberg Center , where it now enjoys a very flourishing present and future with very loyal support. It is a complex story, but suffice it to say that it's truly wonderful to still have the type of resource provided by the center available openly for all people to enjoy both in person and over the internet. After the experience of the three panels' discussion, one was left with a much better understanding and much to continue to explore and learn about Schoenberg the man and his music. With the final concert yet to come, it already was three days of having the satisfaction of time well spent, and being quite memorable in all regards. The end of this three-day Schoenberg odyssey concluded with the final concert on Tuesday evening in Katzin Hall with the Orion String Quartet (Daniel and Todd Phillips, violins, Steven Tenenbom, viola and Timothy Eddy, cello) and Susan Narucki again as guest soprano. The program: Kirchner: String Quartet No. 2; Webern: Five Movements for String Quartet, Op 5; Schoenberg: String Quartet in F-sharp minor with Soprano, Op. 10. The pieces were exquisitely performed so that each created its own kind of "sound world." The Kirchner quartet from 1958 I had heard many years ago, so it was very refreshing to hear it again after so much time and with more listening experience. It is an exciting and energizing work that the Orion brought forth with great synergy for this listener. The Webern, with a sound world all of its own dating from 1905, is always a lovely set of pieces to hear and experience. In spite of all the great recording technologies available to listeners today, this is still a piece, for me at least, that needs to be experienced in the flesh. The delicate subtleties and nuances of the work were indeed a part of Orion's performance this particular evening, so it was a real pleasure to enjoy this work again in live performance. What can I say, I was in seventh heaven; but it's my favorite quartet, and I am hopelessly prejudiced. It was a special performance. I am most grateful and wish to thank all the sponsors of the conference, especially Sabine Feisst, conference coordinator, for making my conference experience so memorable and in providing additional information and opportunities to interview participants throughout the conference. I also wish to thank Barry L. Cohen, our editor-in-chief for his encouragement and support for this undertaking. It was worth every moment and becomes a lifetime experience. |
As I sped up I-10 toward Tempe from Tucson on a warm afternoon, it was with both enthusiasm and trepidation that I approached this conference about Schoenberg, which was to be: "A fresh look at the life and music of Arnold Schoenberg, the Austro-Hungarian/American composer, artist and innovator whose life and work spanned two world wars and two continents." (Taken from symposium announcement webpage overview.) While not an out and out favorite on my top ten composers list, Schoenberg had always enjoyed a special place in my listening and composer heroes' repertoire. I needn't have worried so much; the conference was excellent and much more beyond that, as I shall try to capture for you. It was truly a busman's holiday and most enjoyable. 
The opening concert featured Grammy Award winning soprano, Susan Narucki as guest performer, and members of the ASU performance faculty in the Schoenberg transcription of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune for Chamber Ensemble and Schoenberg's own Pierrot lunaire, Op. 21. Gary Hill, as conductor, led an excellent interpretation with superb tempi and pacing that fit the smaller ensemble. My only complaint was not being able to hear the harmonium very well in the balance of the ensemble. This transcription is an interesting rendition from the original in that the piano and harmonium become the "filler" and the harp. It is very faithful to most of the solo parts except the horn, which isn't contained in the ensemble. It proved to be a great listening experience and was met with a very enthusiastic audience reception. 
While the Nono panels at the library were interesting, informative, and intriguing, the multimedia exhibit at the gallery was a more polished and exemplary representation of Schoenberg's life and work. The journals and scores were refreshing and somewhat nostalgic as I remembered my avid and enthusiastic subscription days of yore to the now defunct Schoenberg Journal. On the other hand, the jukebox was a real treat in being able to dial up (click up?) various Schoenberg performances and remembering how not too many years ago-well, a lot of years ago-it was extremely difficult to even find any recordings of Schoenberg without some real effort or in knowing people who had private recordings, like one of my professors at Oberlin in the early sixties, Richard Hoffman, who was a treasure trove of Schoenbergiana. Nonetheless, I almost got delayed for the next event and revisiting the multimedia exhibition as I happily dialed up selection after selection. Suffice it to say how wonderful it is to have such terrific resources at one's fingertips if one needs to research a composer or just wants to listen to a particular work or performance . 
The morning led off with Panel II: Analytical Perspectives on Schoenberg Chaired by Jody Rockmaker, ASU Associate Professor of Composition and Theory. The first panelist was Joseph Auner, Associate Provost and Professor of Music at Stony Brook University . His book , A Schoenberg Reader: Documents of a Life was published in 2003 and he has forthcoming an article in Nineteenth-Century Music, "Composing on Stage: Schoenberg and the Creative Process as Public Performance." He has also just completed a three-year term as Editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Musicological Society. His paper, "Schoenberg's Row Tables: Composition, Analysis and the Idea," offered a reexamination of Schoenberg's twelve-tone row tables, focusing on the Suite, Op. 29, the Six Pieces for Male Chorus, Op. 35 and the Piano Concerto, Op. 42. His work built on a number of analysts and argued that twelve-tone row tables were not static and par t of the pre-compositional work, but a dynamic and evolving aspect of the compositional process. It would seem that the importance of the row tables extended well beyond their practical use and served Schoenberg on the one hand as a manifestation of the "Fasslichkeit" of the row, and on the other as a representation of the idea of twelve-tone composition at its most metaphysical. The most striking aspect of this presentation was how necessary it was for Schoenberg to physically work with his row materials and the several devices he invented to be able to do this in the form of slide rules, card catalogues and information wheels (volvelles). 
Interesting still was a joint presentation by Jeff von der Schmidt, artistic director and conductor of Southwest Chamber Music in Los Angeles and conductor of numerous premieres of new music, and James Newton, composer, flutist, and Professor of Music at Cal State University, Los Angeles, also artistic director of the Luckman Jazz Orchestra. Both these gentleman have an extensive list of other artistic achievements and awards much too numerous to include here. Their joint presentation on "Schoenberg and Jazz" was most fascinating and offered a dimension to Schoenberg that few musicians and writers probably contemplate. Their presentation focused primarily on Schoenbergian influence on Charles Mingus, Eric Dophy, and Billy Strayhorn with a number of fascinating musical examples that were played to illustrate these influences. On the other hand, sometimes the influences came through jazz musicians studying with teachers who had studied with Schoenberg like George Trembly who in turn taught Buddy Collete who then taught James Newton, or Eric Dolphy who had studied Schoenberg's music and then passed on influences to Charlie Parker. Suffice it to say that Newton made it clear, through many examples such as Ellington's Daybreak Express of 1931, that black culture as a part of jazz was deeply touched by Schoenberg's musical ideas As an aside Newton said that Monk and Bartok lived in the same building in NYC in the 1940s as an additional example of art music having some influences on jazz. So, the presentation became a fascinating voyage that had ranged over the course of three panels from profound musical analysis to painting to performance to jazz . It proved to be the ideal lead in to the final presentation of this panel. 
With the Schoenberg closing the program there was certainly no disappointment. I hadn't heard this piece in some time and didn't have any really fond memories of prior performances. Nonetheless, armed with the commentary and insights of the panel session on this work I tried to approach it anew and arrive with a refreshed context. This helped, and with the overall sensitive portrayal by the Orion combined with soprano Narucki's beautiful contribution in the last movement, I more clearly heard-perhaps for the first time-Schoenberg's "air of another planet" and realized as a listener about making better connections to where this music was to eventually lead. In the final analysis the evening topped off a wonderful three days of exploring in depth the music and life of Arnold Schoenberg.