Lineage and Innovation: Music by Schoenberg, Berio, and Boulez
Please join us for a concert on Thursday, January 23 at 7pm, featuring works by Schoenberg, Berio, and Boulez, performed by artists Jisu Choi, Leo Sussman, and Tina Deng.
When discussing the lineage of classical music, names like Bach and Beethoven inevitably come to mind, along with the musical forms they shaped, such as the sonata and the fantasia. The concept of "form" in music encompasses not only its structural framework but also its essential function. Over the centuries, as music evolved—whether as absolute or programmatic, rooted in sacred practices or folk inspirations, or shifting between portraying human drama and celebrating nature—composers from various eras, nations, and schools have continually interpreted these forms as vehicles where long-established traditions meet their unique creativity.
As we continue to honor the centennials of Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez in this concert series, we also pay tribute to Arnold Schoenberg, the revolutionary modernist who developed the twelve-tone technique. This innovation dismantled the tonal hierarchy, paving the way for new possibilities in twentieth-century contemporary music. Tonight’s program opens with Schoenberg’s final instrumental work, Phantasy, Op. 49 for Violin with Piano Accompaniment (1949), composed in the United States two years before his passing. The piece juxtaposes the precision of a crafted twelve-tone row with the fluid and free-flowing nature of a fantasia. The program then transitions to a much younger French composer, Pierre Boulez, who, in the same year revised his Sonatine for Flute and Piano. This early work reveals Schoenberg’s influence while highlighting Boulez’s emerging voice as he delved into serialism.
Finally, we step into the world that Italian composer Luciano Berio described as a place where “past, present, and future techniques coexist.” His two Sequenzas expand the boundaries of technical innovation and artistic expression: the first-born Sequenza I for flute (1958), a work that underwent significant revisions over time, and Sequenza VIII for violin (1976), a homage to Bach’s Chaconne from the Partita No. 2. The evening concludes with Berio’s Piano Sonata (2001), his final piano composition and a profound synthesis of his lifelong exploration of tradition and innovation.
Program:
Arnold Schoenberg – Phantasy op.47 for Violin with Piano Accompaniment (1949)
Pierre Boulez – Sonatine for Flute and Piano (1946, revised in 1949)
Luciano Berio – Sequenza VIII for Violin (1976)
Luciano Berio – Sequenza I for Flute (1958)
Luciano Berio – Piano Sonata (2001)
Musicians:
Jisu Choi – violin
Leo Sussman – flute
Tina Deng – piano
*Photo by John Ciampa