Webern Im Sommerwind (1904), Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra

[roundtheblock1]

We need to remember that Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" was considered "atonal" when it was new, as were Beethoven's late piano sonatas and late string quartets. The topic is deep, it is contentious, and these comments are too short really to discuss it.

[dannymiewdg]

this a masterpiece in the tradition of mahler and shonberg where precursors of atonality are already  felt. but there is still a distinc melody

[roundtheblock1]

@dannymiewdg -- I wouldn't give Mahler any credit. I think the least listenable of 12-tone works, those which really qualify as "atonal," were the early experiments or self-teaching compositions which Schoenberg and his clique should have had the good sense not to publish. Later works influenced by this "Revolution" are not only listenable but intriguing and even quite enjoyable, although I am of two minds as to their contrived "theoretical" basis.

[Wavewolfaroha]

Gorgeous, utterly tonal???!!!!! Never heard this before , nor imagined it could be from the pen of THE Anton Webern...thank you for this posting. Beautiful performance.

[roundtheblock1]

@Wavewolfaroha Have you heard Alban Berg's Violin Concerto? It oozes Late Romanticism.

[Wavewolfaroha]

@roundtheblock1 Heard it for the first time recently, live, and loved it! Thank you for bringing this to my attention.