MUSIC Schiinberg's " Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte "
MESSRS. BOOSEY AND HAWRES transferred their latest concert to the Cambridge Theatre, presumably because the demand for tickets exceeded the capacity of the Wigmore Hall—though the theatre was by no means fulL The programme contained, as its chief attractions, the first performance here of SchOnberg's Ode to Napoleon Buona- parte, which was composed a year ago and produced in New York last autumn, and two works chosen by the votes of the audiences at this series—Shostakovich's Concerto for pianoforte, trumpet (Mr. Dennis Egan) and strings, and Britten's Serenade.
Schonberg's work is a setting of Byron's ode—or should one call it "palinode," for there is nothing eulogistic in his address to the fallen emperor?—for a speaker with pianoforte and strings. The speaker's part is notated as regards rhythm but not in the matter of pitch, though general indications of the raising and dropping of the tone are given. The composer has, therefore, avoided the sing- song effect as well as • the unpleasant slurring from note to note, which characterised the " Sprechgesang " in such works as Pierrot Lunaire. The present method of notation brings with it other dangers, though these are perhaps not inherent in it ; for this declamation of Byron's verses, though faithful enough to sense and rhythm, arcused too often memories of irreverent caricatures of the old-style tragedian's mouthing. It was not Mr. Cuthbert Kelly's fault that the ghost of the late Bransby Williams walked.
As to the accompanying music, we were informed in the pro- gramme-note that according to the composer's " technique of com- position with twelve tones much musical substance is developed out of a single combination of notes." But the difficulty the ordinary listener finds at a first hearing of this music is to perceive how that development proceeds, or what principle regulates the progress of this music from one particular chord to the next and why that next should be the inevitable one. In default of intellectual appreciation of the musical procedute, the listener must fall back upon seeking intuitive emotional pleasure. Here he has a poor reward in these jejune harmonieS and arid gibberings. That the twelve-atone system can produce beautiful and moving music has been proved by Hinde- mith, less rigid perhaps in his adherence to the rules, and Berg. Its creator has yet to prove that he can mate his intellectual concep- tions with emotional experience. Nor, on the plane of dramatic relevance, can it be readily perceived what is the relation between the rcmantic declamation of the voice and the Valley of Dead Bones in which it is heard.
The conductor was Herr Karl Rankl, who was alert and energetic— sometimes, as in Handel's Concerto Grosso in G minor, too energetic
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