Arnold Schoenberg 

Die Jakobsleiter; Friede auf Erden (two versions, orchestra alone and original a cappella chorus)

Soloists, Berlin Radio Chorus; Kent Nagano conducting the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin

Review By Joe Milicia
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  Schoenberg's The Jacob's Ladder, an oratorio for large orchestra, chorus and several major solo parts, is, like his opera Moses and Aron, an unfinished work. The composer began writing his own text — rather abstract and philosophical — in 1915, and published it separately in 1917. The musical composition proceeded much more rapidly, but a military call-up in the fall of 1917 interrupted his work. Having more or less completed the first half, he later composed only a symphonic interlude (finished in 1922) intended to bridge the two halves; but in the decades to follow he found himself unable to get back into the spirit of the work. After his death, his pupil Winfried Zillig created a performing edition, ending with the orchestral interlude and a soaring passage for female voices; this is the standard edition of today.

Though hugely demanding of both the size and the virtuosity of the orchestral and vocal forces required for performance, the piece is not unknown to the concert hall and to disc: Pierre Boulez recorded it in 1977 with BBC personnel and "name" soloists as part of a Schoenberg series for Columbia, and Christoph von Dohnanyi's live version with the Cleveland Orchestra is reportedly very fine, though available only as part of a multi-disc set issued by the Orchestra. Kent Nagano, celebrated for his performances of Stravinsky and other major modernists, offers an impressive, very well-recorded statement with his own Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (his own at least until he takes over the Montreal in 2006), with a couple of bonus works to fill out the CD program.

The text of The Jacob's Ladder features the angel Gabriel, first interacting with a chorus of Rejoicers, Doubters and so forth, and then welcoming and at times chastising a series of souls entering eternity: One Who is Called, a Rebellious One, a Struggling One, a Chosen One, a Monk, and a Dying One. Sources for Schoenberg's literary inspiration include Goethe's Faust, Part II, mystical dialogues by Swedenborg, and much else, discussed in detail in Harmonia Mundi's booklet. Apparently the composer identified various sides of himself, including the struggling artist, with each of his characters; whether the text is inspiring or hopelessly turgid will be for each listener to decide. In any case, the music is often powerful, in Schoenberg's pre-12-tone but still atonal and sometimes violently expressionistic style. (The work was composed shortly after another one-of-a-kind choral/operatic work, the brief Die Glückliche Hand.) Gabriel is a baritone part calling mostly for Sprechstimme (the vocal delivery invented by Schoenberg, halfway between spoken and sung, or more precisely, the notes "spoken" upon precise pitches). Dietrich Henschel is formidable in this lengthy role. Another vocal part that stands out is that of the Dying One, the only female soloist in the dialogues with Gabriel. Perhaps one should say "soloists," since the part is often split between a lower voice who delivers the text and a higher soprano who, singing the wordless notes of the now eternal "Soul," is required to hit a stratospheric high F (rising from a G flat almost two octaves below), among other vocal acrobatics over a nearly three-octave range. Heidi Meier acquits herself well, if not flawlessly, as the Soul, and the other soloists (instrumental as well as vocal) respond to Nagano's vigorous and precise direction. (I did not hear the hybrid SACD in multi-channel.)

The booklet essay does not say a word about Friede auf Erden (Peace on Earth), the 8-minute choral work that Schoenberg composed in 1907 in a chromatic but still tonal style. And the CD front and back covers give no indication that the disc contains not only the original a cappella version, following The Jacob's Ladder, but also, as the opening work on the disc, an orchestral version of this piece, listed only in the booklet's table of contents. I have not been able to find any reference to this version in any work on the composer, and the Arnold Schoenberg Center of Vienna has not responded to an e-mail inquiry. Since Schoenberg did add an optional orchestral accompaniment in 1911, for choruses unable to execute this extremely challenging work without some pitch guidance, I can only guess that Nagano's performance is of this orchestral part alone. Curiously, his reading of it is nearly a full minute faster than his reading of the a cappella version — just as well, since it isn't very effective as orchestral music. Scored for strings and woodwinds, it is rather densely, if not muddily, textured, with only a few wind solos and very little of the drama of the choral original. It is refreshing to turn to the a cappella work, a lovely rendition of a poem by Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. The text, in four stanzas, cites the Christmas story of the shepherds overhearing the Heavenly Host singing "Peace on Earth," notes that bloody discord has more often marked human history, but expresses hope for the blossoming someday of a "kingly race" that will truly bring "Friede, Friede auf der Erde!" Schoenberg in later years thought of his piece as naïve, but it remains touching in its restrained handling of the text, somber and tender in turn, with a memorable musical setting of the refrain line. The Berlin Radio Chorus produces some meltingly beautiful sounds under Nagano's direction.

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