Sanderling to offer challenge to Toledo Symphony audiences
Still, the orchestra's principal conductor and artistic adviser also wants to keep listeners on their toes musically. This weekend's pair of Classics VIII concerts in the Peristyle will demonstrate his approach.
Before the late Classical benchmark that is Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 and the lush Romantic period Piano Concerto No. 2 by Brahms (with piano virtuoso Marc-Andre Hamelin at the keyboard), Mr. Sanderling literally will launch the concert with a much newer and far less comforting work: Begleitungsmusik zu Einer Lichtspielscene (Op. 34) (Music for a Film Scene).
Movies were still in their infancy in 1930 when Schoenberg, the Austrian-born musician (and painter) who is credited with developing 12-tone music, tried his hand at concocting a work that would suggest the strong emotional tides on which movies then and now sail.
Its three movements - Menacing Danger, Angst, and Catastrophe - sound like the sort of exercises young acting students encounter.
Indeed, the work was an experiment.
"It's about emotion, about feelings," Mr. Sanderling explains. "It was never meant to be for a movie. It was abstract - programmatic music without a program."
And it's serial music, although not the kind of serials aired on TV. Instead, this new method of composition established by Schoenberg during the Roaring '20s broke the bonds of harmonic progressions by assigning equal weight to each note in a series of 12: a tone row.
The basic rule for this 12-tone style was that each of the dozen notes in a chromatic scale had to be played once before any could be repeated. The order of the notes could vary, but not the frequency of use.
The method literally turned classical composition on its head. Many other adventuresome composers - Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and John Cage among them - took to the new method with enthusiasm.
As is so often the case, this new music fizzled in public, then and now. Even Mr. Sanderling, who judged that Toledo audiences trust him enough to bring open ears and minds to such a performance, admits Schoenberg is a tough sell.
"For me, Schoenberg is one of the great geniuses of music - not that I always want to listen to it," he said. "It's not a lullaby, it's not for 24 hours a day. It's not Puccini, with color and ornaments.
"But it's so well crafted. It's incredibly intellectual, sophisticated music."
Mr. Sanderling, now midway through his second three-year contract with Toledo, continued: "After a couple years in Toledo, I thought it was time. We decided this is the moment to do it. You don't know it, but listen and then make a decision. Don't make this decision on hearsay."
As a reward in the second half, Mr. Hamelin, a Canadian-born pianist lauded internationally for his virtuosic approach to many musical styles, will tackle the big Brahms work with symphony accompaniment.
Mr. Hamelin, who studied and now lives in Philadelphia, launched his career in 1985 by winning the Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. In 1999 he was chosen by the British magazine Classic CD as one of the hundred best pianists in history.
Although a symphony keyboardist will handle the piano part in the Schoenberg work, Mr. Hamelin no doubt would love to do it himself.
"Nothing scares me," he has said. "I'm at home with all types of writing. I particularly like the tonal language, with lots of chromaticism. My own pieces reflect this interest, even though I've also written atonal music."
As a childhood piano prodigy, Mr. Hamelin's quicksilver memory and technique allowed him to be far more experimental.
"I was always naturally curious, and when it came time to explore other types of music, I knew no barriers. I began with contemporary music because that's what seemed the most weird at the time.
"I've always been attracted by extremes. I began collecting recordings by Stockhausen, Cage, Boulez, Xenakis, and everything I could lay my hands on." Also a composer and arranger of note, Mr. Hamelin is a fixture on www.YouTube.com, where his original piece, "Valse Irritation d'apres Nokia," can be heard.
The Toledo Symphony will present its Classics VIII concerts at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Tickets are $20 to $47 at 419-246-8000 or www.toledosymphony.com.