Franz Schreker's Nachtstück from the opera Der ferne Klang, played by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ingo Metzmacher. Recorded live on 13.01.2024 in the Kölner Philharmonie.
Franz Schreker - Night Piece
Orchestral interlude from the opera "Der ferne Klang"
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Ingo Metzmacher, conductor
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Introduction to the work
"The most-performed opera composer at the beginning of the 20th century? - Franz Schreker! Today, the Austrian is clearly overshadowed by Richard Strauss, but in the 1920s he outstripped him in the public's favor. Schreker's operas met the tastes of the time: his protagonists are psychoanalytically grounded and their actions form an inseparable unit with the music. This is a consequence of the fact that Schreker wrote his libretti himself. He had not originally planned to do so, but when the writer Ferdinand von Saar expressed skepticism about the idea of "distant sound", Schreker's ambition was sparked. In just
three weeks he had the libretto on paper. That was in 1903, but he had set his sights high with the plot: a composer leaves his great love to find the "distant sound" in the world that would make his work unique. As a real composer, Schreker was now faced with the task of imagining music that would meet this requirement. He set to work with a mixture of ambition and self-doubt. But: "I wrote two acts of music, which aroused disconcertment, even shuddering, in all the 'experts'. Deeply discouraged, I abandoned the work."
Finally, he pulled himself together and completed the composition in 1910. The Frankfurt premiere of "Der ferne Klang" in 1912 was a sensation. It catapulted Schreker to the forefront of contemporary opera composers. With this and his subsequent operas, he established another leading actor alongside the characters: sound. It is no coincidence that terms such as "sound sensualism" or "iridescent timbres" have become established for Schreker's music.
The orchestral interlude entitled "Nachtstück" from Act 3 of "Fernen Klang" gives a good impression of Schreker's sound fantasy. The scene is this: Old and dejected, the composer sits in his house and realizes that he has forfeited his life in his search for the distant sound. He dreams himself away in the memory of his great love."
Text: Otto Hagedorn