Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra Berliner Philharmoniker, Rundfunkchor Berlin & Kirill Petrenko

• Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951): Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra:
• 1 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Ob rechts, ob links, vorwärts oder rückwärts (Gabriel, Chorus) 04:30
• 2 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Gleichviel! Weiter! (Gabriel, Chorus) 05:18
• 3 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Ich suchte die Schönheit (Ein Berufener) 02:45
• 4 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Du bist immerhin zufrieden mit dir (Gabriel) 00:43
• 5 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Geboten gehorchen (Ein Aufrührerischer) 01:23
• 6 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Dies Entweder und dies Oder (Gabriel) 00:52
• 7 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Alter Weisheit, Gesagtem (Ein Ringender, Gabriel) 02:47
• 8 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Gegen seinen und euren Willen (Gabriel) 01:56
• 9 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Ich sollte nicht näher (Der Auserwählte) 02:49
• 10 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Hier hast du Auge und Ohr (Gabriel) 02:08
• 11 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Herr, verzeih meine Überhebung! (Der Mönch) 02:10
• 12 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Wie du doch schwankst (Gabriel) 02:24
• 13 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Herr, mein ganzes Leben lang (Der Sterbende) 02:59
• 14 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Nahst du wieder dem Licht? (Die Seele, Gabriel, Chorus) 03:09
• 15 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Großes symphonisches Zwischenspiel. Langsam 06:21
• 16 Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra: Sehr ruhig 01:23
• Total Runtime 43:37

Info for Schoenberg: Jacob's Ladder, Oratorio for solo voices, choruses and orchestra

Provocation! Anarchy! Scandal! All too often we encounter Arnold Schoenberg in writings as an enfant terrible, as a radical innovator who sacrificed late Romantic tonality for his highly complex system of “composition with twelve tones related only to each other”. In this edition, the Berliner Philharmoniker and chief conductor Kirill Petrenko demonstrate that in Schoenberg’s music “heart and brain” – as the composer entitled one of his essays – are in fact in balance, and that the twelve-tone technique is also entirely at the service of expression. Released in the aftermath of the 150th anniversary year of the composer’s birth, it presents five central works that illustrate all of Schoenberg’s stylistic periods.

Arnold Schönberg described Jacob’s Ladder as an oratorio. The dramatic qualities of this work for soloists, choirs and orchestra, which was left as a fragment, make the composition suitable for staging – as it is now and again. Schönberg himself took on the role of librettist, using the Bible as a basis (Genesis, Chapter 28, Verses 12–13), but also moving beyond Judaeo-Christian tradition. Schönberg conveys his message in suspense-filled solos, which are frequently employed as ‘sprechgesang’ (speech-song), as well as in stirring passages for choir. His Archangel Gabriel proclaims: ‘Ob rechts, ob links, vorwärts oder rückwärts, bergauf oder bergab – man hat weiterzugehen, ohne zu fragen, was vor oder hinter einem liegt’ (whether to the right, to the left, forwards or backwards, uphill or down – one must keep on going without asking what lies ahead or behind).

Wolfgang Koch, bass-baritone (Gabriel)
Daniel Behle, tenor (The Called One)
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke, tenor (The Rebellious One)
Johannes Martin Kränzle, bass-baritone (The Struggling One)
Gyula Orendt, baritone (The Chosen One)
Stephan Rügamer, tenor (The Monk)
Nicola Beller Carbone, soprano (The Dying One)
Liv Redpath, soprano (The Soul)
Berliner Philharmoniker
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Kirill Petrenko, conductor

Kirill Petrenko
was born in Omsk in 1972 where he studied piano at the College of Music. At the age of eleven he gave his first public performance as a pianist with the Omsk Symphony Orchestra. In 1990 his family (his father a violinist and his mother a musicologist) relocated to Vorarlberg where his father worked as an orchestra musician and music teacher. Petrenko first continued his studies in Feldkirch before moving to Vienna to study conducting at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts.

His first job after graduation took him directly to the Vienna Volksoper where he was hired by Nikolaus Bachler as Kapellmeister. From 1999 until 2002 Kirill Petrenko was General Music Director at the Meininger Theater. It was in 2001 in his role as conductor of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, in the production by Christine Mielitz and with scenery by Alfred Hrdlicka, that he first achieved international acclaim. In 2002 Kirill Petrenko became General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin where, until 2007, he was credited with a series of highly significant productions.

During his time in Meiningen and Berlin his international career also began to flourish. In 2000 Kirill Petrenko made his debut at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, in 2001 at the Vienna Staatsoper and the Dresden Semperoper, in 2003 at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the New York Metropolitan Opera and in 2005 at the Oper Frankfurt. In Lyon, in collaboration with Peter Stein, he conducted all three Pushkin-inspired operas by Tchaikovsky (Mazeppa, Eugene Onegin and Pique Dame) from 2006 until 2008, which were also performed as a cycle in early 2010.

After moving on from the Komische Oper Berlin Kirill Petrenko worked as a freelance conductor. During this period his projects included conducting a new production of Leoš Janáček's Jenůfa (Production: Barbara Frey) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2009. In Frankfurt he conducted Pfitzner's Palestrina (Production: Harry Kupfer) and Puccini's Tosca (Production: Andreas Kriegenburg). In 2011 he worked on two new productions of Tristan and Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon and at the Ruhrtriennale.

To date, the most important orchestras Kirill Petrenko has been invited to conduct include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the BR Symphony Orchestra, the Bayerische Staatsorchester, the WDR Cologne Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Philharmonic and the NDR Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester, the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Kirill Petrenko has also conducted concerts at the Bregenz and Salzburg Festivals. From 2013 to 2015 he swung his baton for the new production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen during the Bayreuth Festival.

Since September 2013 Kirill Petrenko has been General Music Director at the Bayerische Staatsoper. He has held this position until the end of the 2019/20 season. Since 2013, he has taken to the rostrum for premieres of Die Frau ohne Schatten, La clemenza di Tito, Die Soldaten, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lulu, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsenk District and Tannhäuser as well as the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s South Pole and a revival of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen among other works. In June 2015, Kirill Petrenko was named future Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, starting this position in autumn 2019.

In the current season at the Bayerische Staatsoper Kirill Petrenko led an new production of Verdi's Otello and Strauss' Salome. Furthermore, Kirill Petrenko conducts revivals of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fidelio, and Parsifal as well as two Academy Concerts with the Bayerische Staatsorchester.

This album contains no booklet.