One of the first recordings I ever heard, when my parents were able to afford a vinyl LP player, “Verklaerte Nacht.” was one of the greatest discoveries of my youth, a miracle of beauty for an adolescent student of composition. I spent hours listening to it over and over completely spellbound. This profound impact sent me on a quest for the score at my conservatory’s library; I took it out and began studying it. Several years later, I started conducting the version for string orchestra. This piano version is the culmination of my life-long love for this beautiful work by Arnold Schoenberg . It is meant as a tribute to him, with profound admiration to its musical expressivity.
The marvelous “Verklaerte Nacht” was composed over three weeks in 1899 as a sextet for two violins, two violas, and two violoncellos. The first known manuscript dates from December 1st of that year. It premiered in the Wien Musikverein on March 18, 1902 by the Rosé Quartet with the addition Franz Jelinek, viola, and Franz Schmidt, violoncello. The piece was transcribed by the composer for string orchestra in 1917, and was again revised, newly arranged, and finally published in a new version for strings in 1943.
The piece was created as a tribute to the composer’s first masterpiece. The visible and audible faithfulness shown in this piece is verifiable in the extent to which this ‘translation’ accurately renders the meaning of the original musical text. The formal equivalence is explained by the ‘note-by-note’ transcription, applied in most passages, including tremolos, arpeggios, and passages that belong idiomatically to strings’ chordal structures. Both the contrapuntal complexity and the astonishing harmonic novelties are explicitly interpreted so it demands powerful keyboard skills and proven dexterity given its intricate voicing, and expanded chordal settings. The studious performer will find plenty of information on proposed fingering. In passages where robust chordal combinations exceed standard fingering, the performer will need to solve rapid octave changes posed as ‘grace chords’ with the intention of transliterating the entire orchestral score into the piano piece.
It is thus highly recommended to carefully exercise pedal technique, as the piece requires a sophisticated managing of the three pedals. The ‘sustain’ pedal must be used with plenty of assiduity and must be utilized in different degrees of depth. Thus, there will be distinctive levels of resonance: the soft pedal (called ‘una corda’ in the score) is absolutely necessary in several passages marked ‘pianissimo’ . Finally, the sostenuto pedal is essential to maintain and underline the basses where the original version reveals the imposing importance of the elaborated bass while the higher voices combine arpeggios and different melodies at a given time.
The artistic beauty and astounding magnitude of Verklaerte Nacht’s technical achievement have prompted several musicological essays whilst its portentous morphological structure has received diverse interpretations. A demonstrable unity is reached by so many listeners and players who have reacted with admiration to its radiant beauty and wondrous expressivity. Stylistically speaking it proceeds through Wagnerian language, albeit its structural sequencing shows both the pathos of the great composer of Tristan but also alludes to musical construction of Johannes Brahms. This generated controversies due to daring chordal combinations based on original inversions.
As it could allow a comparison with a ‘paraphrase’ in the Lisztian sense, my piece is written with the same intention composers from Bach to Liszt have shared: it is the desire to make orchestral music available to pianists. As the incomparable beauty of the piece has made it the most popular work of Schoenberg, I believe that my version will enhance the piano repertoire with one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.
The score can be purchased here: https://www.universaledition.com/Werke/Verklaerte-Nacht/P0174659