Peter Hill - BergSchoenbergWebern Piano Music (29 tracks) +Album Reviews

In Its Way, a Kind of Nostalgia for Post-Romanticism

Karl Henning | Boston, MA | 09/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My five-star rating is partly to balance the three-star review, wherein the reviewer's only grievance was a technical problem on his copy. My copy suffers no such high-pitch difficulty.But the recording itself deserves five stars. Peter Hill gives great performances of this collection of short piano pieces which, for all their brevity, make inordinate demands of the pianist ... they are infrequently performed, largely (if not solely) because of the outsized "effort-to-musical-reward" ratio. It is a lot of effort to put in, for a few minutes of such seemingly wild pianism, that it is far more likely to puzzle an audience, than to please them.Frank Behrens is a little misleading here: less than half the music on this disc is twelve-tone music, strictly speaking. The Berg Sonata, and the Schoenberg Opp. 11 & 19 were composed before Schoenberg developed his twelve-tone thinking; and Schoenberg worked out the 'system' while he was composing the Opp. 23 & 25. And, even after twelve-tone was "set" (as it were) in Schoenberg's mind, he did not absolutely always write within the system.Most of the music on this disc is, contrary to expectation, very Romantic -- especially compared to the pianism of post-Schoenberg composers in the 1950s. Not the large-scale, effusive Romanticism of (say) Wagner and Mahler, but a fusion of the brief aphoristic pianism of Schumann and Brahms, with a post-Romantic tonal restlessness which Schoenberg regarded as simply taking Wagner and Mahler to "their logical conclusion."Frank is right, in that the music is not exactly "tuneful"; but then, a good deal of Wagner's sound-world is not all that tuneful. It is peculiar to describe this music as "daring," when almost all of it was written well before the second World War; almost anything written by the admirers of Schoenberg and Webern during the decade following the end of the war, makes these piano morceaux seem tame. Tame in an entirely welcome manner."

I've owned Pollini and Uchida

paul best | new orleans | 02/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"in the Schoenberg, both are good.

But I much prefer this Peter Hill. I rarely use the word definitive, but in this case that descriptive applies. Everything about this guy's balance of tech and poetic understanding is alive here. One thing I like especially well is that Hill's ability to make this music more refined classical sound and much less of a jazzy image.

For a jazzy approach try Pollini.

PLUS YOU get the incredible Berg sonata and Webern's enchanting variations. BIG bonus'. 79 minutes of delightful music.

"

Hard pieces played well...

Mark Grindell | Shipley,West Yorkshire | 02/11/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think that the word hard could only be applied to the technique and skill required to play the pieces.I had a recording of the Schoenberg by Maurizio Pollini, and although it was good, this recording by Peter Hill is very clear and was done with a great deal of care. There is no distortion and no over loading at all, which is a hazard for these pieces.I have been aware of all of these compositions by reputation for years, but only started playing bits of them recently. This material are for many people too hard, but this complexity has almost certainly percolated into the conciousness of most people watching films of any sort - I would be prepared to stick my neck out, and say that there is a strong overlap between the intentions of say, Carla Bley and Dave Brubeck as regards the suspension of tonality, or at least, it's possible abolition.In particular, Dave Brubeck's publishers issued a collection of Nocturns a while ago. It took me a couple of years picking a few of these and trying to get a feel for what they were really supposed to sound like. In the end, I had to cheat, and resort to a few rather obscure recordings of the pieces played in a quartet setting, quite a different context from solo piano, to get a feel for them at all. I suspect that Op11 is a lot less ambiguous than that, and as I've been slowly trying to get a grip on some of this, it's been very rewarding and become very clear.I do wonder now what we all mean when we say the word "atonal". I suspect that there's precious little chance of perceiving any such thing, as our apparatus for picking up relationships, harmonic and structural, are so powerful that in fact all we can do is to play games with these kinds of pieces, avoiding settling down like a bird fluttering around a while before finally settling down on a branch. Some folks would say that this is all tosh and what you think was intention was accident. That may posibly be the case with Xenakis and Babbit, where at least Xenakis is practically using the laws of chance to construct everything. But if you were really honest, that has nothing to do with this material, and is a much later development. Ignore the Berg at your peril, it's brilliant, and incisive and the fact that it is theoretically atonal is irrelevant, it's just marvellous. Op11 and especially Op33 is just whistful jazz, the sort of thing that you would hear mid way in a Barbara Thompson concert... I'm still learning about this. This is definitely music from the heart, and excellent. Anyone who can play this stuff, please get in touch!"

Music to think about

Mark Grindell | 09/29/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even compared to other 20th century compositions, the music on this disc is not often performed. Personally, I can understand peoples' aversion to some of Schoenberg's music, because he had to use extreme techniques to push the language of late Romanticism into the 20th century. Even if his music is the "logical conclusion" of late 19th century Romanticism, the high level of tension and extreme condensation of the material understandably turns off many people. However, he was undeniably a good composer, as evidenced by his chamber music and the Op. 11 and Op. 25 pieces on this disc. The three Op. 11 pieces are his first experiments in atonalism, when he had abandoned traditional tonality but had not yet developed the 12 tone technique. The first piece is slow and a bit wistful sounding, the second is very slow and doleful, and the third is a violent outburst. The Op. 25 is an almost neoclassical-sounding dance suite. Pieces such as the Prelude, Musette, and Gigue are lively, listener friendly and should catch many peoples' ear. Schoenberg's other three works on this disc, the Op. 19, 23 and 33, I admittedly do not care for. The short Op. 19 and 23 pieces sound too much alike, and the two Op. 33 pieces are nearly incomprehensible even with careful listening.Though Schoenberg's complete solo piano works are probably the main attraction, the Berg sonata is one of the more easily understandable pieces on the disc. Though its angstiness is not entirely compelling (after all, it was the composer's Op. 1), it is still worth a listen. The Webern pieces are very austere and I can't offer much comment on them. If you are interested in Schoenberg's piano music, then I recommend the disc. (I have heard Maurizio Pollini's recording of the Op. 11 pieces and it isn't that much different from Hill's. Hill definitely plays all these pieces with authority.)"

The Solo Piano Music of the Second Viennese School

Robin Friedman | Washington, D.C. United States | 08/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The music of Arnold Schoenberg (1885 -- 1935) and his students Alban Berg (1885-- 1935) and Anton Webern (1883 -- 1945) brought something creative, revolutionary, and controversial to music. The change they effected in compositional style was so marked that Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern are frequently referred to as the "Second Vienese School." This CD includes virtually all the solo piano music composed by the Second Viennese School. The works are short and in a variety of styles. Pianist Peter Hill, a specialist in the performance of 20th century music, including works by Stravinsky and Messiaen, gives a deeply informed and probing reading of these difficult works.

Alban Berg's piano sonata, opus 1 (1908) is the earliest of the works on this CD, composed after Berg had completed four years of study with Schoenberg. Berg's only work for solo piano, the sonata is lyrical, reflective and accessible. It is a late romantic masterpiece, full of changes in harmonies, tempo, and dynamics. The work develops from a quiet, meditative theme, stated at the outset, and rises develops to moments of great force and passion. It comes, at last, to a quiet, serene close in which the tonal character of the piece is confirmed.

Arnold Schoenberg was the creator of "atonal" or fully chromatic music. (As it developed, it uses all the black and white keys on the piano without establishing a key center.) Schoenberg's output for piano solo is small, but Schoenberg used his writing for the instrument to develop his musical ideas. There is a tendency to over-intellectualize Schoenberg's work and that of his student Webern, (Berg's music, even at its most atonal, is overtly romantic and tugs at the heart.) but the music is full of passion when given a chance.

Schoenberg's Three Piano Pieces, op. 11 and his Six Little Piano Pieces, op, 19 date from 1909 and 1911. The pieces of 1909 are sometimes dubbed as "Brahms with dissonances" as Schoenber composed music in a romantic mood while venturing into the musical language of atonality. The initial two pieces are recognizably romantic, in themes and structure, while the brief third piece moves into a language much more impressionistic, fragmentary and difficult. The set of six little piano pieces are short and intense, following the third piece of op. 11. The final piece of the set, with its bell-like conclusion was written for the funeral of Gustav Mahler.

Following WW I, Schoenberg developed his music by using the twelve-tone scale for which he is best remembered. The five piano pieces, opus 23 consists, again of very short works, which take small clusters of notes and explore them intensely. The final work of the set, a waltz, is the only work of this set in a 12-tone idiom. The suite for piano opus 25, written at the same time as the opus 23, is 12-tone throughout. But the feel of the music shifts from romanticism to a throwback to the baroque suite, as Schoenberg's movements each bear the name of, and a distant resemblance to, a dance movement from an early harpsichord suite, such as "prelude", "musette" "gavotte", and "gigue". Schoenberg's final piano works, op. 33A and op. 33b, combine, in short compass the romantic and the baroque elements of op. 23 and op. 25.

Anton Webern wrote only one short piece for solo piano, the Variations, op 27, but it exerted great influence on many subsequent 20th century composers. It is a three-movement work, in which only the third movement consists of variations. For many years, Webern's music was thought, even by his admirers and imitators, to be formal and cold with little room for feeling. But this view seems to be a misapprehension of the music's nature and purpose, as Webern, following his teacher, tried to write tersely and to pack emotion and feeling into very short, succinct phrases. I found that approaching the music in this way helped me to respond to it.

Berg's sonata has become established, and rightly so, in the piano literature, but Schoenberg and Webern still remain more respected than heard. For those possessing good familiarity with music and patience for repeated hearings, this music will be deeply rewarding. This budget priced CD is an excellent way to get to know the music of Berg, Schoenberg, and Webern.

Robin Friedman"

Search - Peter Hill :: Berg/Schoenberg/Webern: Piano Music

CD Details

Similarly Requested CDs

CD Reviews