Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall, February 15
But the 12-tone scale uses notes in a system that’s still jarring to the ear, even though we’ve been listening to it for decades. With no one note serving as a grounding point for the melody, it’s characterized in part by its difficulty, since it’s entirely nonintuitive and, indeed, usually counterintuitive for the performer based in traditional Western classical music forms. Some neurological studies suggest that it’s counterintuitive for any normal ear: the brain likes certain patterns, and 12-tone refuses to provide them.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Schoenberg composed his concerto in 1942, soon after he took up residence in Los Angeles. He claimed it was a reconciliation of the Romantic tradition of the 19th century and atonality, partly because he was breaking his rules about things like how notes had to be repeated. But this 18-minute work in four pseudomovements is more like the Romantic tradition put into a blender and spread far too thickly onto atonal toast. Some individual moments sound all right–and their footing in Romanticism is audible–but the basis for the composition is still too spiky. Ax quoted Leonard Bernstein as saying that the work is “Schumann with wrong notes.” It may sound better than most adventures in 12-tone, but that isn’t saying much.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jenny Bauman.
