For his 72nd birthday in 1946 Arnold Schönberg was given a Webster wire recorder, which he used as a dictating machine. At the suggestion of his wife Gertrud he recorded on it the stories he told his children at table – for as long as they went on eating. The wire spools with “Die Prinzessin” and “Afrika” are kept today at the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna. For this audiobook they were transferred anew using a recorder borrowed from a museum and restored at the Cybele Studios, so that Schönberg’s voice can once again be clearly understood without losing the sound of the old recordings.
“Die Prinzessin” tells of a haughty, impatient girl whose favourite pastime is playing tennis, and of her servant Wolf, who keeps coming back without the hot-water bottle she has asked for. Alongside Schönberg’s original recording there is a new version in which Tara Wiesemann as the princess, Romeo Merz as Wolf and Lorenzo Liebetanz as the red fox and grandmother re-enact the story; “Afrika” can also be heard in both the historical and a new telling.
Nuria Schoenberg Nono, Ronald and Lawrence Schoenberg, recorded in Vienna in May 2007, talk about their childhood with their father: about his stories, the world wars, Schönberg as a self-taught composer and as a teacher, his death and his legacy. Among other things, the three co-founded the Arnold Schönberg Center in Vienna, which looks after his estate. Mirjam Wiesemann links the sections with connecting texts; at the end Tara Wiesemann and Romeo Merz read quotations by and about Schönberg.
The music combines new recordings – “Verklärte Nacht” Op. 4, the Chamber Symphony No. 1 Op. 9 with musicians of the Philharmonisches Orchester der Hansestadt Lübeck under Roman Brogli-Sacher, “Die Eiserne Brigade” for piano quintet, the String Quartet No. 3 Op. 30 and the fragment “Nullele Pullele” of 1934 with the DoelenKwartet – with shellac and LP records from Schönberg’s own collection: the Suite Op. 25, the Suite Op. 29, the String Quartet No. 3 in the Kolisch Quartet’s recording of 1936 and the Trio Op. 45. The audiobook received the ECHO Klassik 2009 in the category Classical Music for Children and the LEOPOLD media prize 2009/2010.
Vera Forester directed the spoken word; the speech recordings were made in August 2007 and April 2008 at the Cybele Studios, “Verklärte Nacht” was recorded live in September 2005 at De Doelen in Rotterdam and the chamber symphony in October 2007 in the Musik- und Kongresshalle in Lübeck. The hybrid SACD runs to 61:58 in stereo and 5.0 surround; the booklet has 28 pages. The audiobook is recommended from about the age of twelve.