• About Jeff von der Schmidt, the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble & LA International New Music Festival

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

~ A blog about new music, travel and food

Sound Travels with Jeff von der Schmidt

Tag Archives: Arnold Schoenberg

Transfigured Schoenberg in Việt Nam

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Contemporary Music, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Laos, Nguyen Thien Dao, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Vu Nhat Tan

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Ancient Ensemble of Tonkin, Arnold Schoenberg, Goethe Institut Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Hanoi Old Quarter, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Kolisch Quartet, Nguyen Thien Dao, Paris, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Pham Truong Son, Ripieno Ensemble of Manila, Tet Lunar New Year 2018, Vu Nhat Tan

01B69A7E-182E-40D3-8F4D-6802D35455DD

Rehearsing Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night in Hà Nội.

”I’m satisfied with what we’ve accomplished tonight,” I said to my hard working friends in the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble after two and half hours rehearsing the complexities of texture and harmony in Schoenberg’s epochal Transfigured Night. “Would like to go home early?”

”No,” came a unison answer. “Can we just take a break and keep working?”

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A Few Berlin Stories & A New Hall for Pierre Boulez

13 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Composers, Contemporary Music, Diplomacy, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Kent Nagano, Music, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized, Vienna, Vietnam

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Arnold Schoenberg, Berlin, Caspar David Frierich, Checkpoint Charlie, Christopher Isherwood, Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Liebeskind, Edward Said, Frank Gehry, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Holocuast Memorial Berlin, Kent Nagano, Pierre Boulez, Pierre Boulez Saal, Reichstag, Silke Hilger, Travel, Universal Music, West-Divan Orchestra, Yasuhisa Toyota

2017-06-07 16.49.00

Enjoying Caspar David Friedrich in Berlin

Berliners love to talk – with a blunt directness which is both rude and friendly – and even in their grumbling there is a note of pleasure. Christopher Isherwood

I’ve benefited from a good dose of internal California breathing space after visiting Berlin last month. The city was long overdue for me to experience and this was my first chance. And my lasting impression is not of monuments, museums, concerts or one of the best bus systems on the planet. No, my memory remains fixed on one thing.

Charming, grumbling, and usually laughing Berliners!

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The Hamburg Elbphilharmonie & Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder

27 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Arnold Schoenberg, Composers, Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Kent Nagano, Music, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall

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Alan Gilbert, Anja Silja, Arnold Schoenberg, Elbphilharmonie, Gurrelieder, Hamburg, Hamburg Staatskapelle, Hamburg Staatsoper, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Johannes Brahms, Kent Nagano, Leonard Bernstein, Mari Kodama, Pierre Boulez, St. Michael's Church, Travel

2017-06-18 15.11.00

The shining new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

If you’re curious why Alan Gilbert is leaving the New York Philharmonic for Hamburg’s NDR Elbphilharmonie, here’s a statistic for you. My friend Kent Nagano’s entire ten concert season at the shining new hall with his Hamburg Staatsorchester is already completely sold out. How long did it take? One hour.

Welcome to Hamburg!

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A Question of Continuity for the Hà Nội New Music Ensemble

12 Thursday Jan 2017

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartók, Contemporary Music, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky, LA International New Music Festival, Music, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam, Walt Disney Concert Hall, William Kraft

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Arnold Schoenberg, Asia, Bela Bartók, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Lehner, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Igor Stravinsky, Kate Akos, Kolisch Quartet, Meryl Streep, Nguyen Minh Nhat, Nguyen Thien Dao, Tam Coc, Ton That Tiet, Vietnam, Vietnam War, Walt Disney Concert Hall, William Kraft

Rehearsing a new quartet by 19 year old Nguyen Minh Nhat.

Rehearsing a new string quartet by 19 year old Nguyễn Minh Nhật.

The New York Times launched a series of articles the weekend of January 8 to focus attention on the Vietnam War, or from a different perspective, the American War we fought in Việt Nam. This season of bizarre political transition makes the series well timed for the American reader. The obligatory colon in the title sums it up. Vietnam: The War That Killed Trust. Before the first article begins, the editorial introduction states “the legacy of the war still shapes America, even if most of us are too young to remember it.”

And some us are old enough to remember it.

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Where the Dragon Descends: A Trip to Hạ Long Bay, Part One

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Buddhism, Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Anthony Bourdain, Arnold Schoenberg, Ascending Dragon, Au Co Boat Tours, Buddhism, Cat Ba Island, Emeraude Boat, Hanoi, Hanoi New Music Ensemble, Vietnam

A world of clouds and dragons in Ha Long Bay.

A twilight world of clouds and dragons in Hạ Long Bay.

When the dragon meets the clouds, peace is at hand. Vietnamese Proverb

Listen well to my story, because once upon a time in a distant land there was a fairy princess named Âu Cơ. She lived high in the mountains and had a warm heart. With her abundant kindness, Âu Cơ became a skilled doctor, healing the mountain people of their sicknesses with endless compassion. But one day she was very frightened by a monster, who scared her so much, Âu Cơ turned herself into a crane and flew far far away to safety.

And where did her crane wings fly her to safety? To the protection of Hạ Long Bay, where the dragon descends into the ocean.

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A Barcelona Diary

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Arnold Schoenberg, Barcelona, Benet Casablancas, Catalonia, Composers, Contemporary Music, Education, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Los Angeles, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vienna

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Antoni Gaudi, Arnold Schoenberg, Barcelona, Benet Casablancas, Domenech i Montaner, Frank Gehry, Girona, La Pedrera, Liceu, Montserrat, Morton Subotnick, Moses und Aron, Palau de la Musica, Park Guell, Rafael Moneo, Richard Meier, Sagrada Familia, San Sebastián

A majestic sky over Barcelona.

A majestic sky over Barcelona.

Dreams often get tucked away – but hopefully not forgotten.

From a youthful spark of excitement their inspiration often takes years to become reality. And after visiting Barcelona, I know that dreams in my family now have a new home in a Catalan city we intend to visit as often as possible.

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The Autumn Gold of Vienna

12 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Austria, Food, Uncategorized, Vienna

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Arnold Schoenberg, Cafe Demel, Cafe Landtmann, E. Randol Schoenberg, Gustav Klimt, Hollywood Exiles, Leonard Bernstein, Roland Berger, Solti Ring Cycle, The Seccession Building, The Woman in Gold, Vienna, Vienna Philharmonic

The Seccession in Vienna.

The Seccession in Vienna.

To the Time, Its Art. To the Art, Its Freedom.

My home of Hollywood was the exiled haven of a legendary list of emigres, my mom serving many of them at 20th Century Fox or Chasen’s. Older teachers and colleagues spoke rapturously of working with Otto Klemperer and Bruno Walter when they were with the Los Angeles Philharmonic or Columbia Symphony. That meant discovering Mahler would not be far away. Lotte Lehmann was at the Music Academy in Santa Barbara. Erich Wolfgang Korngold invents the film score here, his violinist granddaughter Katie living down the street from our house in Eagle Rock. Alma Mahler lives with Franz Werfel in Beverly Hills. Schoenberg is friends with Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers and his entire family are now great friends. And a very young Zubin Mehta was leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, recording Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Varese and William Kraft, so the name Hans Swarowsky was in the air.

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (I could stop right there but it wouldn’t be honest) Schubert, Brahms, the Strauss Family, Bruckner, Wolf, Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern. The strongest list of local composers on Planet Earth. The Viennese feel they own this music so in September of 1977 I set out to find out their secrets.

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From Old Hollywood to Old Vienna

29 Friday Aug 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Austria, Contemporary Music, Education, LA International New Music Festival, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vienna Philharmonic

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Arnold Schoenberg, Bayreuth Festival, Bertolt Brecht, Chasen's Restaurant, Georg Eisler, Hanns Eisler, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Stein, Otto Klemperer, Patrice Chereau, Pierre Boulez, Roland Berger, Vienna Philharmonic

A gorgeous Viennese spring day.

A gorgeous Viennese spring day.

“Am I boring you?”

I was 22 years old in September of 1977. I had dreamed and worked and worked and dreamed of studying music in Vienna. At the time I played the French horn, which I retired in 1998 to devote myself to conducting. But for 25 years or more the horn was my voice, my love, my sound. And the person who had the greatest sound in the world was in Vienna, Roland Berger of the Vienna Philharmonic. All that money washing dishes in my parents’ restaurant was beginning to pay off.

However as I now look back, one man took me under his wing, guided me, encouraged me, talked to me, questioned me. And I know that I learned as much, if not more, from renowned Austrian painter Georg Eisler than any musical mentor I would encounter. His father, composer Hanns Eisler, was nominated for two Academy Awards in the 1940s. Somewhat more ominously, Hanns was the prime target of Richard Nixon and the House Un-American Activities Committee, known as HUAC.

“Am I boring you?”

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Hanoi in Hollywood!

25 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by Jeff von der Schmidt in Contemporary Music, Food, LA International New Music Festival, Music, Southwest Chamber Music, Travel, Uncategorized, Vietnam

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Arnold Schoenberg, Ascending Dragon, E. Randol Schoenberg, Hanoi, Helen Mirren, Hollywood Farmers Market, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Pie 'N Burger, Ryan Reynolds, Song Hong Ensemble of Hanoi, The Woman in Gold, Ton That Tiet, Venice Beach Walkway, Vu Nhat Tan

Song Hong Ensemble violinists Son and To Trinh at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

Song Hong Ensemble violinists Phan Thi To Trinh and Pham Truong Son at the Hollywood Farmers Market.

I began blogging about my LA International New Music Festival on September 17, 2013. What jumpstarted my story telling was a return trip to Vietnam, my fifth, to reconnect with old friends in Hanoi and see what new developments were underway in their one-of-a-one city, a fascinating burg if there ever was one.

My blog is now read in 78 countries with 3600 readers, so a short recapitulation is in order. My attraction for Vietnam is guided by two of the most important people in my life, my trusted acupuncturist Loi Trinh Le and my mother Louise. You can read about Trinh (her English name) in my second post from September. And that September 17th date when I started my blog?

That auspicious date would be my mother’s birthday. She’s brought me plenty of good luck hovering like an angel over all of my work in Vietnam. And mom would be thrilled about the recent visit to LA from our friends in Hanoi, the Song Hong Ensemble!

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