While reading through Colin's excellent catalogues of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg (posted at composers.gulabin.com along with other catalogues of more famous 20th century composers), I was surprised and fascinated to see how many orchestral works Schoenberg (and, to a lesser extent, Berg) left unfinished:
Schoenberg:1896: Serenade in D major for small orchestra
1898: Symphonic Poem
Fruhlings Tod1912-14: Symphony for soloists, chorus and orchestra
1917-22/44: Oratorio
Die Jakobsleiter for soloists, chorus and orchestra
1949:
Israel Lives Again for chorus and orchestra
1950:
Modern Psalm for speaker, chorus and orchestra, op. 50c
Berg:1913: Symphony and Passacaglia (
not two different pieces)
Fascinating! A symphony each by Schoenberg and Berg-they would have been in their earlier, more late-romantic styles, too! A real shame Schoenberg left so many of his works unfinished, probably (I'm not certain) to work on his twelve-tone method :( Does anyone know how much of these works were completed? Probably not much :(
Anyone interested in Schoenberg's early/unfinished music should check out this fascinating disc of his rare string quartet and string orchestra music:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=10855&name_role1=1&genre=55&bcorder=19&comp_id=262045It appears that the only unrecorded Schoenberg orchestral work that is complete is the Adagio for strings and harp in A-flat (1898).
I've also discovered that there is a version of Schoenberg's String Quartet no. 2 for string orchestra, arranged by the composer himself. It's available on these CDs:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=10855&name_role1=1&comp_id=2586&genre=70&bcorder=195&name_id=62048&name_role=4 (conducted by Mitropoulos, no less)
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=10855&name_role1=1&comp_id=2586&genre=70&bcorder=195&name_id=67272&name_role=4 (also Mitropoulos)
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?name_id1=10855&name_role1=1&comp_id=2586&genre=70&bcorder=195&name_id=63198&name_role=4http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=148574Does anyone have any further information on the unfinished works of Schoenberg and Berg?
:)