Schoenberg: Suite for Piano, Op.25 (Boffard)

An intensely nuanced and perky performance of one of Schoenberg’s earliest 12-tone works (the prelude and gavotte might actually be the first 12-tone piece Schoenberg ever wrote). The Suite for Piano has had a rather undeserved reputation as an academically strict work: in fact, it is expressive and vivid, and full of life. For a start, the tone row of the suite E–F–G–D♭–G♭–E♭–A♭–D–B–C–A–B♭ contains a rather cheeky cryptogram of BACH (the last 4 notes are BACH spelled backward), and the HCAB sequence recurs as the root of tetrachord sequences throughout the suite. Schoenberg’s use of serialism is also quite free and consistently creative: the tone row is used as both melody and accompaniment in the Prelude (transposed by a tritone in the bass to avoid note repeats), the Gavotte uses pitches of the row in the wrong order (although each tetrachord retains its integrity), the Intermezzo contains pitch repetitions, the trio in the Menuett is a strict canon that links together all the different permutations of the row arising in the suite, and the Gigue motors along with barely contained rhythmic energy.

There’s also the fact that the pieces are all recognisable as baroque forms, even if they’re extensively modified, and that each has its own quite distinct character. The Prelude is propelled along by the pitch repetitions in m.3; the Gavotte and Musette have rhythmic outlines that are well-defined, even graceful, in their wry detachment; the Intermezzo has that long line singing beneath that halting RH ostinato; the Menuet is liltingly brooding; and the Gigue darkly fraught with intimations of violence. There’s a lot here that is owed to Boffard’s superb playing, which is full of sensitivity, delicate shading, and rhythmic drive – all of this in music which, if played badly, easily becomes rigid, coolly colourless, mechanical.

00:00 – Prelude
01:01 – Gavotte
02:11 – Musette (Gavotte da capo at 3:27)
04:37 – Intermezzo
08:38 – Menuet (and Trio at 10:23)
12:19 – Gigue

[michaeldavis]

My cat has been playing Schoenberg the whole time. That genius little kitty

[magentuspriest]

That face when you audition for a vacant piano player position and they throw you this for sightreading

[Legendoftherock]

Schoenberg was really meant to be a drummer.

[김문문-iy]

00:00 – Prelude
01:01 – Gavotte
02:11 – Musette (Gavotte da capo at 3:27)
04:37 – Intermezzo
08:38 – Menuet (and Trio at 10:23)
12:19 – Gigue

[Legendoftherock]

I love how his compositions blur away the melodic content and help listeners and performers gain clarity on musicality as a whole: contrasts in rhythmic phrasing, dynamic interests, "percussive" attacks on notes, and the rise and fall of general phrasing. All of these elements are what comprise a great piece of music for the performer and listener.

[venakew]

The wonderful thing about playing Schoenberg is that if you make a mistake and play the wrong note no one can tell the difference anyway.

[jcBurton]

After listening to Mahler for some time, this was what I needed right now. Music in which triumph nor tragedy do not exist

[johnatwell]

I grew up on Pollini's recording of the Suite for Piano. This is a worthy performance. Boffard is perhaps a little more sensitive than Pollini. They each bring out different aspects of the Suite. This recording is, for me, a revelation. I admit I have listened to Pollini for so long that I thought it was 'definitive'. Now I know it is not.

[davidlancaster]

Ah yes, the sounds my brain makes when I am studying for finals.

[antfaz]

I was so surprised at how much this music relaxed me. Following the score, I was able to detach from everything else around me, like reading a book, yet not needing to understand what I was reading, just to feel it. I really needed this today.

[heathflagtvedt]

I love this piece. Schoenberg is a legit genius, and it's cool if you don't dig it. The great thing about that, is you can just listen to something else.

Schoenberg's main problem, from a popularity standpoint, is that it's hyper-conscious, its pleasure requires a specific kind of paying attention. Which makes a lot of people uncomfortable. Don't hate if you don't like it. No one thinks they are better than you for liking Schoenberg. Or if they do, they are not worth wasting your breath.

But it's naive to think that this is noise or nonsense or that a child could come close to replicating it.

[WaitintheWings]

Schoenberg is just that perfect background noise for studying and writing. No melodies to get distracted by.

[classicalmusic]

I know this music is not for everyone but I personally find it very compelling.

[jyryhalonen]

This sounds really playful at times because of the rhythm used actually

[a_pet_rock]

I wanted to thank you for sharing this particular recording. I think it's incredibly compelling and shows a great attention to formal aspects that aren't as apparent in recordings by other great pianists. I've also had a very hard time getting access to this recording anywhere else and I might have never heard it if you hadn't shared it. Bravo.

[danmusic]

Pretty good. Looking at the score, what an achievement it is to play it. Spectacular performance.

[sunkintree]

The first glimmer of appreciation for music like this is a sense of relief, a vacation from the tried and tired walls and gravity tonality, as though it were mundane life, beautiful and enduring in itself, but something from which we realize we have been longing to find respite from, however brief, even if only to catch our breath.

[baldrbraa]

12-tone music, you have to follow the row but you’re allowed to repeat one or two notes immediately. Feels like an arbitrary effect, but it’s at least something to listen for.

[sophiaparr]

This sounds like it should be in a Zelda game when you're running through a field at night and there are enemies nearby

[gerardbegni]

For me, nothing sounds academic in this suite; except perhaps the very beginning of he gavotte. Schoenberg applies to the series of 12 notes all the resources of his musical imagiination. I feel this suite easier to listen than say the perfectly tonal op. 9 and its dense contrapunctal effects rendrerd by a chamber orchestra. I would even sat that the pays betxeen a cell and its invesrion sound nice in that context.