Schönberg- The Book of the Hanging Gardens (Moore / Reid)

Arnold Schönberg (1874 - 1951)

Das Buch der hängenden Gärten

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809) 

Arianna a Naxos

Arnold Schönberg’s Das Buch der hängenden Gärten ("The Book of the Hanging Gardens") of 1908/9 is a groundbreaking cycle of songs, one of the first to embrace atonality whilst remaining rooted in the romantic song tradition. Its fifteen songs (settings of poems by Stefan George) follow the story of an affair between two youths in a garden, the failure of the affair, and the disintegration of the garden. Haydn’s “dramatic cantata” Arianna a Naxos, the story of the Greek heroine Arianna in her island isolation, is a remarkable work, a miniature opera for one voice and piano that is the perfect partner to the Schönberg, both complementing and contrasting.  Renowned mezzo-soprano Diana Moore makes her first appearance at the Oxford Lieder Festival, joined by pianist John Reid, whom many will remember for his impressive Italienisches Liederbuch at the Festival in 2006.

This concert will last no more than one hour.