Moses und Aron : Gielen / Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, G.Reich, Devos, etc (1974 Stereo)(2CD)

Brilliant Opera Collection

SCHOENBERG: Moses und Aron

Gunter Reich
Louis Devos
Chor und Sinfonieorchester des Osterreichischen Rundfunks
Michael Gielen, conductor

Stereo Recording: 1974

Schoenberg started composing Moses und Aron (Aaron has an 'a' missing owing to the composer's superstition about the number 13) in 1928, working on the libretto and score up to 1933. Fleeing Vienna to escape the Nazi persecution of the Jewish population, Schoenberg settled in the US where he continued working throughout the 1940s to complete Act 3. Moses und Aron was premiered in 1954.

Struggling with the original biblical story and wrestling with its contradictions, Schoenberg was concerned that the audience would not grasp the extended diatribe by Moses of his brother's love for craven images. In fact, his challenge was also that of Moses' - how to translate a lofty, intellectual and abstract message without diluting or destroying it.

In style, the work is severe, and nearer to oratorio than opera. However, in its dramatic and bloodthirsty moments it matches anything in Puccini's Turandot. A 12-tone Turandot, crossed with the fugal style found in the oratorios of Bach or Handel best describes this gritty, imposing, daunting 20th-century masterpiece.

"The CD transfer of Gielen's account certainly underlines the raw intensity in his approach to which Boulez would never aspire." Gramophone
"The Austrian Radio orchestra squeezes the last drop of expressionist exoticism out of 'The Dance Around the Golden Calf', and no-one who likes the idea of linking Schoenberg with Puccini will want to be without this fiery reading … Gielen remains unsurpassed in the way he links Schoenberg's score to the blood-and-thunder traditions of some very different opera composers." Gramophone
Booklet contains an introduction to the opera, and a comprehensive synopsis of the plot
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