American Symphony Orchestra and Bard Festival Chorale Perform Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder Next Month

Music Director Leon Botstein leads the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the Bard Festival Chorale in a rare performance of Schoenberg’s massive cantata, Gurre-Lieder, at Carnegie Hall on Friday, March 22 at 8 PM. Infrequently performed due to the unusually large number of musicians required and the logistical challenges it poses, the work is scored for more than 200 musicians, including six soloists, chorus, and a grand orchestra.

The performance celebrates the 150th anniversary of Schoenberg’s birth, and the centennial of Gurre-Lieder’s 1913 world premiere in Vienna. It has been more than 90 years since the work’s 1932 American premiere by American Symphony Orchestra founder Leopold Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was recorded the next day for a remarkable twenty-seven 78 RPM discs. This concert closes the ASO’s 2023-24 season at Carnegie Hall. 

The guest artists are soprano Felicia Moore, noted by The Wall Street Journal for her “opulent, Wagner-scaled soprano,” who sang in this year’s Metropolitan Opera premiere of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X; mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann, who recently appeared at The Met as Jade Boucher in Dead Man Walking; tenor Dominic Armstrong, who this season sings Cavaradossi in Maryland Opera’s production of Tosca; tenor Brenton Ryan, hailed by Opera News for his “remarkable tonal suavity and refined phrasing,” who returned to The Met as Monostatos in the new Simon McBurney staging of Die Zauberflöte; bass-baritoneCarsten Wittmoser, a frequent performer in major opera houses ranging from Deutsche Oper Berlin to The Met; and bass-baritone Alan Held, winner of a Brigit Nilsson Prize with a repertoire including title roles in Wozzeck and Der fliegende Holländer.

Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder

Friday, March 22, 2024, 8 pm at Carnegie Hall, Isaac Stern Auditorium

Conductor’s Notes Q&A 7 pm

American Symphony Orchestra

Leon Botstein, conductor

Dominic Armstrong, Waldemar

Felicia Moore, Tove

Krysty Swann, Waldtaube

Alan Held, Bauer

Brenton Ryan, Klaus Narr

Carsten Wittmoser, Narrator

Bard Festival Chorale 

James Bagwell, music director

Arnold Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder

Wagnerian in conception, Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder is his largest work. It was written during the composer’s tonal period and represents the ideal of late Romanticism, full of lush, colorful orchestration along with endless melodies and a highly chromatic harmonic language. The complexity of the work can be demonstrated in part by its gargantuan orchestration, which includes 40 violins; 6 timpani, tenor, snare, and bass drums; 3 four-part male choruses and an eight-part mixed chorus; cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, ratchet, glockenspiel, xylophone, and even large iron chains. Met with a standing ovation at its Viennese premiere, the cantata springs from a sonnet in an 1868 novella titled A Cactus Blooms by the young Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen. The story is based on a 14th-century Gurre legend about King Waldemar, his passion for the maiden Tove Lille, their love tryst at Gurre Castle, and Tove’s subsequent murder by the king’s jealous wife. 

Test and expand your Broadway knowledge with our new game - The Broadway Match-Up! How well do you know your Broadway casting trivia?	Play the Daily Game, explore current shows, and delve into past decades like the 2000s, 80s, and the Golden Age. Challenge your friends and see where you rank!
How well do you know your Tony Awards history? Take our never-ending quiz of nominations and winner history and challenge your friends.	Can you beat your friends? Play today’s daily Broadway word game, featuring a new theatrically inspired word or phrase every day!