Introduction to Schoenberg V: Passacaglia Opus 1 by Webern

I know that this series of posts is supposed to be "an introduction to Schoenberg", but I think it perfectly appropriate for me to use the music by his pupils, Anton von Webern and Alban Berg, as a way of drawing interested listeners into the sound world of the Second Viennese School. Schoenberg would have given his approval to this, and so would have Webern himself.

Pelleas und Melisande is a hard act to follow. I had to think long and hard about what I was going to choose as the next stepping stone into the Schoenbergian Klangwelt. I ended up choosing the Webern Opus 1 Passacaglia for Orchestra.

Anton Webern  

If you remember, I said at the end of the last post on Pelleas that Schoenberg becomes more and more Brahmsian the further into his career you go. Schoenberg actually started his life as a Brahmsian, and was only much later converted to Wagner by his brother-in-law, Alexander von Zemlinsky.

In the Passacaglia, you can see the Brahmsian influence on the Second Viennese School very clearly. In particular, you can hear immediate echoes of the passacaglia finale from the Brahms Fourth Symphony. Listen to how Webern opens the work with some woodwind writing, particularly for the flute, that sounds strikingly similar to some passages from the Brahms passacaglia.

I should also make special mention of the fact that this is Anton Webern's Opus 1, that marked the official completion of his studies with Schoenberg. Webern was only 24 years old at the time. Prior to this, Webern had completed a PhD in music under the supervision of Guido Adler. The subject of his dissertation was the Choralis Constantinus by Heinrich Isaac – an exact contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci. Around Isaac's time, composers pioneered the Renaissance technique of imitative counterpoint where the subject was treated by inversion, retrograde (cancrizans) or retrograde inversion.  These compositional techniques can be found in the music of Bach too – take the famous solo violin Chaconne in D Minor for example.

With this background in early music, it came naturally to Webern to make his official Opus 1 a passacaglia, a form that originated in the seventeenth century and also used by Johann Sebastian Bach. Webern completed his orchestral Passacaglia in 1908, some 24 years after Brahms finished his. As usual with a passacaglia, continuous variations are presented over a ground bass, with the work typically having a very serious character. In Webern's case, there are 23 variations plus a developmental coda. Webern even adopts a type of Brahmsian variations technique that Schoenberg call "developing variations". Additionally, the form of this work is in what Webern called "adagio form", which combined the slow movement variations form with sonata form. Typically, Webern regarded the Brahms Tragic Overture to be a classical example of "adagio form".

What is interesting about Webern's style of orchestration is that it is very different from Brahms, in that it aims mainly for clarity. This is despite the fact that Schoenberg considered the sort of thickening of texture through instrumental doublings, such as those favoured by Brahms, to be quite deliberate. Schoenberg also gives Mozart as a precedent here. Both Schoenberg and Berg copy this style of instrumental enriching of texture. Today, fashion dictates that instrumental doubling like this be regarded as too thick textured. It seems that Webern agreed, because instead of following Schoenberg and Berg, Webern followed Gustav Mahler's later style of uncompromising crystal clarity. So what you get in the Passacaglia is a Brahmsian styled orchestral passacaglia with a style of orchestration that is more like late Mahler. At the same time, you get more than a hint of the lushness of Pelleas embellishing the underlying seriousness typical of a passacaglia.

In terms of the musical background essential to understanding the Webern Passacaglia, you need to appreciate the passacaglia finale of the Brahms Fourth but also the late works of Mahler. Webern was a great admirer of Mahler. Berg said that Webern was the greatest Mahler conductor since Mahler himself. At the time he wrote his Passacaglia, Mahler was still alive. This makes the Passacaglia a work that is contemporary, both in temporal as well as stylistic terms, with the Mahler 8th, 9th and Das Lied von der Erde. Boulez calls Mahler the "missing link" in the evolution from Wagner to the Second Viennese School.  For all his academic background, Webern revealed to his friend, Alban Berg, that the Passacaglia was fundamentally an expression of the emotional trauma from the death of his mother. Just as for Mahler, composition for Webern remained a profoundly personal experience at a deeply emotional and spiritual level.

All that said, I am still taking a bit of a risk in recommending the Webern Passacaglia to follow on after Pelleas and Gurrelieder. I must confess I really only grew to genuinely like the Passacaglia after I came to like many of his mature works. Then again, the passacaglia finale of the Brahms Fourth took a long time to really grow on me as well. In particular, Webern's juxtaposition of extremely lush Romanticism and Brahmsian weightiness took me time to appreciate. With that its seems a perfect work to explore next after Schoenberg's Pelleas. I am just hoping that those who take this guided tour into the world of the Second Viennese School will find that the progression to be natural, effortless and enjoyable. I honestly wished someone had introduced me into this Klangwelt like this. So in many ways, this is the guided tour I never had.

In decided to make a list of recommended recordings, I found myself listening innumerable times to the Passacaglia. Not only that, but I found it hard to stop listening to this endlessly Romantic, exquisitely lyrical and profound work. It was pleasure to listen attentively many times over to all of the recordings I could find. I was left in amazement that this work is not genuinely popular.

The recording of the Passacaglia I would recommend comes from Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Sinopoli is more fearless than most in taking a Romantic approach to this work that allows the Brahmsian lyricism to come through unashamedly. The Staatskapelle Dresden play beautifully and are a joy to listen to. The slight downside is that, other than the early Im Sommerwind (it predates the Passacaglia), the accompanying works are in the mature style of the Second Viennese School. It is an enormous leap to go from these early works to more advanced Webern. You can sadly only download the Passacaglia separately in the lossy MP3 320 format from Classicsonline.

Another excellent recommendation remains the classic Karajan recording from Deutsche Grammophon.

It is only a little less overtly Romantic than the Sinopoli, but I do like the expansive pacing here, and the playing from the Berlin Philharmonic is superb. The recording is good, but showing its age a touch (whether this because of a dated digital transfer or because of the sound on the original tapes remains to be seen).

Another excellent recording comes from Herbert Kegel, whose expansive basic tempo is close to Karajan's.

Kegel is little known because he spent his career behind the iron curtain before sadly committing suicide in 1990. I really do like his tremendously committed approach to the Second Viennese School. These recordings deserve to be much more widely known. This is available to purchase as part of a boxed set. It is only available for download in a lossy MP3 320 format from Classicsonline.

Another highly regarded recording comes from Pierre Boulez.

However, for all of the dramatic sweep of the superlative orchestral playing, and the remarkable sensitivity towards the nuances of the instrumentation, Boulez just underplays the Romanticism a hint too much for my tastes. It all comes across as though he might be trying to force Webern to sound like a little bit too much like a Darmstadt Generation composer. Some of the Romantic lyricism is underplayed, to a degree far greater than when Boulez plays Wagner or Mahler. Boulez intensely dislikes Brahms, and he comes across as loath to have his beloved Webern defiled by any Brahmsian Romanticism. This contrasts strikingly with how the composers of the Second Viennese School saw themselves. This recording is available through Deutsche Grammophon. You can even just download the Passacaglia alone.

Another commendable recording comes from Michael Gielen. Those wanting the CD will find that the coupling with Mahler and the early, Romantic, Im Sommerwind will nicely avoid anything too challenging at this stage.

You can also download the Passacaglia alone in the lossless FLAC format.

I am reluctant to fully recommend the recording by Claudio Abbado. He seems to be trying a little too hard to make Webern sound like Berio.

Although beautifully played, with some lyricism permitted to come through, the basic tempo is just a touch too fast. If you ever listen to recordings of Webern himself conducting, he favoured quite expansive and monumental tempi. In fact, Webern's conducting reminds me more than a little of Otto Klemperer in its monumental power – possibly reflecting the common influence of Mahler.

Although it remains fashionable to try to portray Webern as a forerunner of the Darmstadt Generation, in reality, I fear that it is a bit of a misrepresentation. Don't get me wrong, I do like the Darmstadt Generation of composers very much, but Webern seen through their filter seems to me a distortion produced by trying to impose a quote different aesthetic agenda. However valid that Other aesthetic agenda may be in its own right, it nonetheless remains somewhat alien to the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School. The more you get to know Webern, the more he sounds like an extension of the Viennese tradition of Brahms and Mahler.

I suspect that as time goes by the tensions between those who emphasise the continuity of the Second Viennese School with tradition, and those who emphasise their modernism will become even more marked. Without doubt, you can count me in as one who prefers to emphasise their continuity with tradition — just as they themselves did. When Webern has left behind a legacy of such a powerful and expressive Romantic work as the Passacaglia, it is surely only a matter of time before the public at large embrace him as they have Mahler.