by William Thomas Walker
(excerpt)
Early works by Arnold Schoenberg were featured in Intermezzo II, heard in the warm acoustics of Grace Episcopal Church on June 3. Between seven and fifteen members of the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra were led by Marc Williams. Schoenberg founded The Society for Private Musical Performances to present his works and those of his friends along with transcriptions or orchestral reductions of music by more established composers. Schoenberg's role in preparing these varied quite a bit. The Society's repertory is a treasure-trove for any chamber orchestra.
Typical of the delights to be found is Schoenberg's transcription of "Kaiser-Waltzer" ("The Emperor Waltz") by Johann Strauss II. The small forces - two violins, viola, cello, clarinet, flute, and piano – allow for great clarity of line. Williams conducted a good if rather too direct performance in which free use of Viennese rubato was largely missing.
One of the high points of Braunfels' opera Die Vögel was baritone Brian Mulligan's portrayal of the tormented Prometheus. Schoenberg's transcription of Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) heightens the wrenching sorrow of these mournful songs. Mulligan's enunciation was flawless and his sumptuous baritone, from floated high pianissimos to resounding fortes, filled the church. His nuanced use of dynamics and phrasing wrung every ounce of meaning from the words. One of the delights of the festival is the chance to hear rising major talents of tomorrow in their early successes.
Schoenberg's Kammersymphonie (Chamber Symphony), Op. 9, is a seminal work that combines late Romanticism and the composer's increasing compression of means. He creates dissonances without immediate resolution and concentrates all the elements of a symphony into a single movement. Dense textures are juxtaposed with lush, melting melodies. The intensity of the work is not unlike the sweep of Strauss' Ein Heldenleben. The work is tonal, but traditional rules are stretched close to the breaking point by Schoenberg's increasing use of formal complexity and contrapuntal density. The fifteen musicians and Williams combined passionate involvement with great precision that did full justice to the score.
Jeffrey Day, The State
The performers in Circus Flora walked the high wire and flew through the air, but Spoleto Festival Orchestra conductor Marc Williams took an even greater risk. He opened Sunday afternoon's Intermezzi concert with the very modern-sounding, but 80-year-old, Symphony, Op 21 by Anton Webern. It didn't go over well with the packed crowd in Grace Episcopal Church, but then the orchestra moved on to a clarinet concerto by Mozart. That got a standing ovation.
Then Williams came out and talked about how much he loved the Webern piece and explained what to listen for. Then he said the orchestra was going to play it again. "It's only eight minutes," he said.
It sounded like a joke, but then the musicians started. Several people got up and left.
The second time around the piece got a warm response. The conductor should get a medal.
