THE B.B.C. ORCHESTRA
(Section B)
Leader, ARTHUR CATTERALL
Conducted by ANTON WEBERN
When Schubert died his Unfinished Symphony, which had never been performed during his lifetime, lay hidden somewhere in the town of Gratz, of whose Musical Society Schubert was a member. It was for this Society that Schubert is supposed to have composed the B minor Symphony.
Ultimately, after years of search, the manuscript of the Unfinished Symphony was found.
Why it remained ' unfinished ', or whether, indeed, the composer's ultimate intention was ever to finish it at all, can never be known. We do know, however, that it was the work of a new Schubert, a genius for the first time probing the remoter depths of a mature imagination. When we reflect th?t it was followed not only by the Symphony in C, which we know and glory in, but by another that a century of search has failed to trace, we can only make a guess as to what further beauties we may have lost.
Anton Webern and Alban Berg are Schonberg's two most distinguished pupils. Webern was born at Vienna in 1883, and except for a few years as theatre conductor, he has devoted his entire energies to composition. But most of Webern's works are on a very small scale, and may be said to be the result of great concentration of thought. He has an amazing gift of conveying the most vivid impressions by the slightest of means, and many of his most expressive pieces are so short as to seem like a mere flash of light, a brief whisper of the wind as it passes. And yet each holds within its momentary compass a wonderful wealth of thought and feeling ; though it may take but a moment to give its message, it is a message which stays long after in the listener's mind. The Five Orchestral Pieces have well been described as ' moments of lyric ecstasy '.
The Passacaglia for Orchestra, unlike most of Webern's music, is laid out on a big scale. It exploits the old Passacaglia form with considerable freedom and complexity.
In a foreword to one of Webern's chamber works Schonberg defines the listener's position : ' Only they will be able to understand these pieces who hold the faith that tone can express something which nothing but tones can express. They can no more be subjected to criticism than this or any other faith can be. Faith can move mountains, but disbelief is incapable of allowing that the mountains exist. Against this incapacity faith is powerless. Do the players know how to play these pieces ? Do listeners know what to make of them ? Could faithful players and listeners fail to surrender to one another in perfect understanding ? But what is to be done with the heathen ? No need to resort to the sword or the stake : only the faithful can be excommunicated. But may this stillness of Webern's convey its message to them all ! '